CLOSING DOWN
High street electrical chain with over 300 stores to close city centre branch TOMORROW
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A HIGH street electrical chain with over 300 branches will close a city centre branch tomorrow.
Currys, which sells everything from phones to washing machines, will shutter its branch in Nottingham city centre on February 1.
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It has two other stores in the East Midlands area, which will remain open and trade as usual, according to a report in Nottingham World.
A spokesperson for the retailer, told the outlet: “We can confirm the store is closing.
"We are working hard to ensure that all colleagues impacted have the option to be redeployed to our local stores at Castle Marina and Madford Retail Parks."
The Sun has approached Currys for comment.
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It will be another blow for locals who have had to wave goodbye to a number of popular retailers in recent months.
High street favourite Bonmarché closed its branch in Arnold, Nottingham, on September 22.
At the time, MP Michael Payne wrote a letter to the company's retail director, outlining the importance of the store and the impact its closure would have on the community.
He wrote: "Bonmarché has been part of our community for many years, offering an essential service to numerous residents, including those with limited mobility who find it difficult to shop elsewhere or prefer not to shop online."
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But unfortunately that was to no avail as it shut anyway.
More recently, the local Co-op store in the Meadows, Nottingham, closed its doors in November after being a mainstay in the Bridgeway Shopping Centre for over 50 years.
RETAIL MISERY
Co-op hasn't given a reason for the closure but said it was a "difficult decision".
The nearest Co-op stores for shoppers in the area are on Station Street and Trent Bridge in Nottingham, or Trent Boulevard in West Bridgford.
At the time, Meadows resident Aparna Valsala, 33, said: "You see so many people come here in the morning - it's a loss to the community."
Plenty of other retailers are closing stores across the high street as households lean more towards online shopping and amid high business rates.
Soaring inflation in recent years has also dented shoppers' pockets.
The Centre for Retail Research's latest analysis suggests that 13,479 stores, the equivalent of 37 each day, shut for good in 2024.
TROUBLE ON THE HIGH STREET
Just this month, bosses at a number of prominent retailers have revealed plans to cut stores from their estates.
Garden centre giant Dobbies closed 12 of its stores before Christmas to help shore up extra costs following a restructuring plan.
Meanwhile, Homebase has confirmed that six of its sites will close before the end of the year.
These include sites in Sutton Coldfield, Bromsgrove, Cromer, Fareham, Newark and Rugby.
Three more Homebase sites in Derry, Inverurie, and Omagh are also set to close in the coming months, along with a branch in Glenrothes near Fife.
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The garden and homeware retailer crashed into administration last month, but around 70 stores were rescued by CDS Superstores, the owner of The Range and Wilko.
At the time it entered administration, Homebase operated 141 stores.
RETAIL PAIN IN 2025
The British Retail Consortium has predicted that the Treasury's hike to employer NICs will cost the retail sector £2.3billion.
Research by the British Chambers of Commerce shows that more than half of companies plan to raise prices by early April.
A survey of more than 4,800 firms found that 55% expect prices to increase in the next three months, up from 39% in a similar poll conducted in the latter half of 2024.
Three-quarters of companies cited the cost of employing people as their primary financial pressure.
The Centre for Retail Research (CRR) has also warned that around 17,350 retail sites are expected to shut down this year.
It comes on the back of a tough 2024 when 13,000 shops closed their doors for good, already a 28% increase on the previous year.
Professor Joshua Bamfield, director of the CRR said: "The results for 2024 show that although the outcomes for store closures overall were not as poor as in either 2020 or 2022, they are still disconcerting, with worse set to come in 2025."
Professor Bamfield has also warned of a bleak outlook for 2025, predicting that as many as 202,000 jobs could be lost in the sector.
"By increasing both the costs of running stores and the costs on each consumer's household it is highly likely that we will see retail job losses eclipse the height of the pandemic in 2020."
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