‘Yet another empty building’ as major supermarket with 2,800 stores to shut shop for good in HOURS
A MAJOR supermarket is pulling down the shutters on one of its shops in a matter of hours.
Tesco is closing the doors for the final time at its site in Carlisle city centre at the end of the day.
Devastated shoppers have taken to social media in the recent days after the closure of the Metro store was announced.
Many are concerned that the shop shutting will leave locals without a convenient supermarket close by.
One fuming customer posted on Facebook said: “Tesco, Wilko, the Howard, Debenhams – Carlisle is in a rapid decline.”
Another wrote: “This towns gonna be a GHOST TOWN.”
A third commented: “Another loss, to add to our ghost town image… is there a council in this town, to look after its residents..????”
And a fourth said: “A so called city with no supermarket in it!”
While another posted: “Massive loss especially for more elderly people who find it difficult to access the larger supermarkets out of the town centre.”
One woman wrote: “Yet another empty building on our high street.”
Tesco said it is “actively” looking for other sites to open a new Express store to replace the Metro shop.
A spokesperson said: “In June last year, we reached the difficult decision to close our Carlisle Viaduct store.
“While we had planned to keep the store open until we found an alternative site, issues with the building mean that this is sadly no longer possible.”
They added that the shop will close today and its priority now is to support its colleagues affected by this decision.
In recent months Tesco has also closed other sites, both of which were former Jack’s stores.
Its superstore branch in Wakefield closed for the final time on September 15.
The store in Kilner Way Retail Park in Sheffield will also shut on the 15th.
Both of the shops were previously converted from the chain’s discount brand Jack’s to a Tesco in 2022.
Tesco closed its Jack’s supermarkets last year, converting six of the 13 branches into new Tesco superstores, while the others permanently shut.
The decision to shut the sites was made due to a lack of customer demand.
All staff currently working at the store will have the option to be redeployed to another store in the area.
Tesco isn’t the only supermarket which has closed branches in recent months.
Morrisons shut its Faversham store on September 17.
Iceland and Central Co-op also closed some of their stores in September too.
Lidl has also put its outlet at West Point Shopping Centre in Chilwell, Nottinghamshire up for sale.
Sainsbury’s is closing its Whitgift Centre store in Croydon after 54 years of operation this weekend.
Farmfoods is closing its supermarket in Tranent, East Lothian for good at the end of this month.
Iceland is closing another one of its shops on October 28.
Meanwhile, here is the full list of retailers closing stores in October including Boots and Wetherspoons.
Plus, here are all 49 bank branches closing within days – including Barclays and Virgin Money
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