CLOSING TIME
Major high street retailer with 1,400 stores to shut ‘lovely’ site after launching closing down sale
The store, situated in The Malls shopping centre, has been a fixture in the town for more than 56 years
A MAJOR high street retailer with 1,400 stores in the UK is to shut a “lovely” site after it launched a closing down sale.
The long-standing Basingstoke, Hampshire, branch of WHSmith has been earmarked for closure next year.
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The store, situated in The Malls shopping centre, has been a fixture in the town for more than 56 years.
It is now due to close down for good on February 1, 2025.
WHSmith announced earlier this year it had plans to close a number of sites in the UK, although the Basingstoke branch was not originally included.
While it will be closing a number of outlets, it has also been expanding its presence in airports and train stations and new branches are planned at key travel sites.
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Signs have already gone up in the Basingstoke branch advertising discounts on a wide range of items, as it begins to wind down operations ahead of its closure.
It's currently offering 30% off on books and stationery.
The decision to close the branch has been put down to WHSmith’s upcoming lease expiry and changing trading conditions.
A WHSmith spokesperson said: “We can confirm that the WHSmith store in Basingstoke will be closing on Saturday February 1, 2025.
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“It is no longer sustainable to continue to trade from this location and the decision has been taken to close the store as a result of the forthcoming lease expiry.
“We are disappointed to be losing our presence in Basingstoke and we would like to thank all our customers for their support and for shopping with us.
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“We are also extremely grateful for the commitment of our in store colleagues who we will support with this transition and redeploy to nearby stores, where possible.”
As there has been a branch in Basingstoke for so long, locals are likely to miss the store, with one customer calling it “lovely”.
They said online: “Lovely shop to visit if you’re looking for an obscure magazine title, look here first as they have a very large range which is quite impressive.
“Also available, I found was books, cards and stationary for yourself or the odd bits for kids for school.
“Very polite and friendly staff. Nice, busy at times store.”
Many other locals feared the impact of the closure could affect the town’s Post Office which moved into the WH Smith branch in 2019.
The Post Office has confirmed that they are in the process of finding a new operator to take over the branch.
One person said in a Facebook post: “Turning it into a proper Post Office would be an asset.”
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.
Another wrote: “Hopefully the Post Office will decide to take the whole downstairs unit and open a larger service up again like Basingstoke used too at top of town.”
While a third added: “We need a decent sized Post Office like the top of town was .
“So handy for parking, everyone could access the Post Office.
“Real shame WH Smith is closing but hope the Post Office will take the whole unit.”
WHSmith is closing a number of branches across the UK as it looks to extend its arm into the travel sector.
The retail giant, which runs some 1,400 stores, has shuttered eight stores since March 2023, including in Manchester and Bicester, England.
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Meanwhile, the stationer has waved goodbye to branches in Oban, Scotland, and Ramsgate, Kent.
But it also comes amid a time of expansion for the chain, which is opening 15 branches at airports and train stations in 2024 in a boost for shoppers.
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