Big bargain high street shop closing down stores within weeks – is one near you shutting for good?
A BIG bargain high street shop is closing down stores within weeks.
Poundstretcher is shutting more locations after pulling the shutters down on several others already this year.
The bargain brand has started advertising a closing down sale with 20% of all stock in its London Road store in Grantham.
Posters promoting the closing down sale were spotted by customers entering the store,
The location, which includes its bargain pet brand The Pet Hut, also no longer appears listed in the Poundstretcher website's list of stores.
Another Poundstretcher in White River Place, St Austell, will also close its doors.
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A message to customers outside the branch also promises shoppers 20% off absolutely everything in stores, , including on any items which already have 50% off.
The area is being developed and work could start as soon as September 2023, meaning the store would close before then.
Poundstretcher has not given exact dates foe the last day of trading of either branch, and declined to comment on the closures.
It follows a handful of other locations shutting up shop in recent weeks.
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The Hawley Retail Park store in Hinckley shut last week, on Saturday, July 8.
Poundstretcher also closed its Penzance shop in Cornwall on Wednesday, July 5.
Its Churchill Way Retail Park store in Leyland also shut for good on Friday, June 23.
But Poundstretcher is in the middle of expanding its presence on the high street.
In February it revealed plans to open 50 new stores by the of the year.
The discount chain opened 30 locations in 2022 and has 350 shops nationwide.
In November 2022, Poundstretcher emerged from a two-year CVA (Compulsory Voluntary Arrangement)
A CVA is a way for a business to restructure and continue trading, but typically it closes some stores and negotiates rent costs down.
The chain brought in the legal arrangement back in July 2020 when it had close to 500 branches, to find a way of offloading high-rent stores and has now paid off around £13 million of what it owed.
What other stores are closing?
The high street has been hit hard in recent years due to the growth of online retailing which was accelerated by the Covid-19 pandemic.
Meanwhile, runaway inflation means shoppers are holding back from spending as much.
It comes as research from the British Retail Consortium reveals retailers remain cautious about opening new stores.
It found the overall shop vacancy rate in Britain in the first three months of 2023 was 13.8%, the same as the last three months of 2022.
New Look and Habitat are among some of the retailers that have already closed stores in July.
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Co-op, Iceland and Trespass are pulling the shutters down on a number of stores within the coming weeks too.
We have put together a guide to all the stores closing this month so you can check if your favourite store is leaving the high street.