‘We’re turning into a ghost town’ sob shoppers as major retailer with over 1,200 branches shuts high street store
A MAJOR retailer with 1,200 branches has shut a store leaving shoppers devastated.
The high street retailer has already closed 42 UK shops, including all 34 of its branches in the Republic of Ireland last June.
The closures are part of the retailer’s plan to move away from the high street and focus on expanding its presence in supermarkets.
Sainsbury’s bought the brand in 2016.
The Argos store on East Street in Taunton town centre is now set to close and relocate to Sainsbury’s Taunton Superstore on Billet Street.
The new Argos is set to open on June 19. The Hankridge way store will stay open as normal
A Sainsbury’s spokesperson said, “To make shopping convenient for customers and to enable us to invest where it matters most to customers we are relocating many of our Argos standalone stores to Sainsbury’s.
“This includes our Argos Taunton store and in June, a brand new Argos store will open inside Sainsbury’s Taunton.
“By bringing together the much-loved brands of Sainsbury’s and Argos under the one roof, our customers will be able to enjoy greater convenience with the option to choose from thousands of Argos products while picking up their groceries.
“We understand this will be an unsettling time for those affected and colleagues will be offered the opportunity to redeploy to other roles within Sainsbury’s and Argos.”
Locals expressed frustration on social media. One said: “What is going on the the high street. Unbelievable.”
Another said: “It just gets worse and worse. The Argos was really handy.”
And: “Another empty shop looming Taunton getting a ghost town.”
By March 2024, Sainsbury’s expects to have 160 standalone stores and between 430 and 460 Argos counters inside Sainsbury’s supermarkets.
Argos has already closed 42 UK shops, including all 34 of its branches in the Republic of Ireland last June.
We have the full list of Argos stores that have closed down since last year, including the new concessions that have opened up in Sainsbury’s supermarkets.
Why are the retailers closing stores
RETAILERS have been feeling the squeeze since the pandemic, while shoppers are cutting back on spending due to the soaring cost of living crisis.
High energy costs and a move to shopping online after the pandemic are also taking a toll, and many high street shops have struggled to keep going.
The high street has seen a whole raft of closures over the past year, and more are coming.
The number of jobs lost in British retail dropped last year, but 120,000 people still lost their employment, figures have suggested.
Figures from the Centre for Retail Research revealed that 10,494 shops closed for the last time during 2023, and 119,405 jobs were lost in the sector.
It was fewer shops than had been lost for several years, and a reduction from 151,641 jobs lost in 2022.
The centre’s director, Professor Joshua Bamfield, said the improvement is “less bad” than good.
Although there were some big-name losses from the high street, including Wilko, many large companies had already gone bust before 2022, the centre said, such as Topshop owner Arcadia, Jessops and Debenhams.
“The cost-of-living crisis, inflation and increases in interest rates have led many consumers to tighten their belts, reducing retail spend,” Prof Bamfield said.
“Retailers themselves have suffered increasing energy and occupancy costs, staff shortages and falling demand that have made rebuilding profits after extensive store closures during the pandemic exceptionally difficult.”
Alongside Wilko, which employed around 12,000 people when it collapsed, 2023’s biggest failures included UK Flooring Direct, Planet Organic and Tile Giant.
The Centre for Retail Research said most stores were closed because companies were trying to reorganise and cut costs rather than the business failing.
However, experts have warned there will likely be more failures this year as consumers keep their belts tight and borrowing costs soar for businesses.
Last year, around 14% of insolvencies were in retail businesses, according to official figures.
What other retailers have been shutting up shop?
The changes for Argos come as other big retailers such as Marks and Spencer and Boots shake up their portfolio of high street stores due to the rising cost of living and a change in shopper habits.
In 2022, M&S announced that it would be shutting 67 “lower productivity” stores as part of the 110 stores it had already earmarked for closure.
However, it was not all bad news for M&S shoppers as where some stores closed, others opened up in new locations.
In November last year, nine new openings happened, which included six new stores plus three store renewals.
The retailer also revealed plans to open over 100 bigger Foodhall sites by 2028.
We have the full list of Marks and Spencer locations that have closed down and the new locations that have opened up so far.
Boots has also been re-shuffling its portfolio of stores after announcing last year it would be closing 300 shops.
The health and beauty chain said that where stores would be closing down, there would be an alternative shop less than three miles away.
Boots closed more than 200 stores over 18 months in 2019 which saw roughly 8% of Boots high street branches close.
Many of the stores shut because they were loss-making and two-thirds of them were within walking distance of each other.
In 2020, Boots announced 48 opticians were closing with the loss of 4,000 jobs.
They said the decision to close stores was not taken lightly.
Other popular retailers have disappeared altogether from our high streets, with the most recent shock being The Body Shop.
The cosmetics and skin care chain fell into administration last month and immediately started closing branches.
We have all the latest on the stores that are closing and those that are remaining open.
To find out more about which high street stores are set to close we have a full list of places that will be shutting down in March.
Iceland Boots and Costa are among the retailers shutting sites in the coming weeks – so check if your local high street is among those affected.