CLOSING TIME
Major bargain chain with 850 branches to shut ‘absolutely fantastic’ store in HOURS as shoppers grumble ‘not another’
The massive company is closing a store despite many others popping up elsewhere
A MAJOR retailer is shutting one of its 850 branches within the next few hours in yet another high street closure.
The infamous budget store Poundland has told customers that its branch at The Shires Shopping Centre in Trowbridge will close today - July 20.
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Signs have sadly been put up on the shopfront, warning locals about the imminent closure.
They read: “Sorry. We’re closing July 20. Visit our website for other nearby stores.”
For residents of Trowbridge, the closest nearby locations are in Warminster, Devizes, Chippenham, Swindon, and Salisbury.
It comes after terms on the shop's lease could not be agreed between the retailer and shopping centre's management.
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The closure means shoppers have been left fearing a "ghost town", as there are so many empty retail units in the area.
A staff member at Poundland confirmed the branch is closing down on July 20.
The Sun also contacted a spokesperson for the retailer, who added: "We've also now confirmed that Hitchin is staying open, and not closing after we've arranged a new lease."
Last month the retail giant announced it would close the Hitchin branch on July 16.
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But in what locals described as "brilliant" news just days before it was due to shut, the location will now stay open.
The Trowbridge closure is not the only to be announced by Poundland in recent months.
The discounter pulled down the shutters on a store in Altrincham, Greater Manchester, just last month, after taking it on from failed chain Wilko last year.
Poundland bought 71 ex-Wilko stores when the retailer fell into administration last year.
Huge budget retailer to shutter ANOTHER former Wilko store just months after opening
The discounter re-branded the locations and opened many up before Christmas.
But since then, several have closed down, including in Ellesmere Port, Galashiels, Scotland, and the Sailmakers Shopping Centre in Ipswich.
In total, Poundland has shut down nine former Wilko locations just months after bringing them back to life.
However, despite the nine closures, it still means Poundland has massively grown its presence on the high street in recent months.
It is also normal for retailers to open and close branches in different areas depending on customer demand.
Retailers opening stores
IT'S not all bad news on the high street as several retailers are bucking the trend and opening shops.
- German discounter Aldi has announced it will open 35 new UK stores this year. The openings form part of Aldi's long-term target of operating 1,500 stores in the UK.
- Asda has been opening hundreds of convenience stores as it looks to rival major players Tesco and Sainsbury's.
- Purepay Retail Limited , the parent company of Bonmarché, Edinburgh Woollen Mill (EWM) and Peacocks, Purepay Retail Limited, has said it wants to open 100 new high street stores over the next 18 months.
- Home Bargains has said it wants to "eventually have between 800 and 1,000 retail outlets open".
- Primark is also opening new branches and investing and renovating more than a dozen of its existing shops.
- Screwfix is set to open 40 new stores nationwide as its owner, Kingfisher, seeks to expand the DIY brand's national presence.
- Tesco has revealed plans to open 70 more stores across the UK over the next year as part of major expansion plans.
- WHSmith has turned its focus to the travel side of its business, with plans to open new sites in airports, railway stations and hospitals.
It is also normal for retailers to open and close branches in different areas depending on customer demand.
Poundland is also undertaking a huge new makeover project that the chain is calling "Project Evo" and some renovations have already been completed.
This includes sites in Urmston, Greater Manchester, Wolverhampton, West Midlands and Leeds Crown Point.
In total, 150 stores will receive makeovers between now and August 2024.
After the alterations, all the stores will offer more baby and kids clothing for parents on a budget.
The introduction of chilled food will give shoppers the chance to pick up items from Poundland's popular frozen food ranges.
Shoppers will also be able to pick up Poundlands £3 meal deal in each location.
Some retailers have closed a few branches here and there for various reasons, like when a store lease has come to an end.
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Other examples of one-off rather than widespread closures is if there are changes in the area, like a shopping centre closing, and in some cases a shop will close to relocate to another area.
Some chains have faced tougher conditions though, forcing them to shut dozens of stores, or all of them in the worst case.
Why are retailers closing shops?
EMPTY shops have become an eyesore on many British high streets and are often symbolic of a town centre’s decline.
The Sun's business editor Ashley Armstrong explains why so many retailers are shutting their doors.
In many cases, retailers are shutting stores because they are no longer the money-makers they once were because of the rise of online shopping.
Falling store sales and rising staff costs have made it even more expensive for shops to stay open. In some cases, retailers are shutting a store and reopening a new shop at the other end of a high street to reflect how a town has changed.
The problem is that when a big shop closes, footfall falls across the local high street, which puts more shops at risk of closing.
Retail parks are increasingly popular with shoppers, who want to be able to get easy, free parking at a time when local councils have hiked parking charges in towns.
Many retailers including Next and Marks & Spencer have been shutting stores on the high street and taking bigger stores in better-performing retail parks instead.
Boss Stuart Machin recently said that when it relocated a tired store in Chesterfield to a new big store in a retail park half a mile away, its sales in the area rose by 103 per cent.
In some cases, stores have been shut when a retailer goes bust, as in the case of Wilko, Debenhams Topshop, Dorothy Perkins and Paperchase to name a few.
What’s increasingly common is when a chain goes bust a rival retailer or private equity firm snaps up the intellectual property rights so they can own the brand and sell it online.
They may go on to open a handful of stores if there is customer demand, but there are rarely ever as many stores or in the same places.
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