Major shoe chain with 320 stores to close another site – and shoppers cry ‘It’s so hard to shop shoes online’
A MAJOR shoe chain with hundreds of UK stores is set to close another site.
Shoezone is set to shut its store in Hanley, Stoke-on-Trent.
It comes as “closing down” posters have gone up in the windows and on shelves in the Lamb Street site.
Shopper Tracey Bradbury, aged 52, of Hanley, told StokeonTrentLive: “I am shocked that it is closing. It is another one going. It is going to be a ghost town up here before you know it.
“I have shopped at Shoezone. It sells good shoes.
“It is hard to find shoes you want online. You have to go into a shop to try them on.”
Another shopper reacted to the news and said: “The whole city is lost to businesses because councils allowed out of town shopping centre’s to be built.”
“It’s all over,” said a third shopper.
We’ve contacted Shoezone to find out the exact date for the closure.
The next closest Shoezone North Staffordshire stores are located in Longton, Tunstall and Newcastle-under-Lyme.
Shoezone’s Aberdeenshire branch will also close for good in June, although an exact date has not yet been confirmed.
The shoe shop has already closed a string of stores across the UK as it shuffles its portfolio.
The retailer shut 13 stores in 2023, in locations including Portsmouth, Leicestershire, Bristol and Suffolk.
It has plans to close a branch in Inverness, Scotland, over the coming months too, although it’s not clear exactly when.
But, as is common practice for plenty of retailers, Shoezone has also been opening stores across the UK.
Last year, the brand confirmed to The Sun it had opened eight stores over 12 months.
The retailer pulled up the shutters on branches in Maidstone, Bristol, South Shields, Gravesend and Colchester.
Clarks has also not been immune to the tough economic backdrop either, shuttering a string of branches in recent months.
The chain closed its store in East Grinstead, West Sussex, on March 24, and has plans to shut its Maidenhead store in June.
Why are 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 Paperchase, Cath Kidston, 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.
The Body Shop and Ted Baker are the biggest names to have already collapsed into administration this year.
OTHER HIGH STREET NEWS
Several major retailers are also expanding their presence on UK high streets.
Aldi has announced that it will open 35 new UK stores.
The openings form part of Aldi‘s long-term target of 1,500 stores in the UK.
The supermarket is set to invest £550million in expanding its UK footprint this year alone.
Aldi said that each new store opening will create around 40 new jobs on average.
Asda has been opening hundreds of convenience stores in recent months as it looks to rival major players Tesco and Sainsbury’s.
B&M plans to open “not less than” 45 brand new stores across the UK in each of the next two consecutive years.
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.
It has yet to give the exact locations where it will open the 100 stores or when they will open.
One of the UK’s favourite bakery chain, Greggs, has exclusively revealed to The Sun plans to open more outlet branches by the end of 2025.
Home Bargains, which was running just under 600 branches as of last June, has said it wants to “eventually have between 800 and 1,000 retail outlets open”.
The major discounter has stopped short of saying when it wants to reach the 1,000 store target however.
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.
The brand opened two new stores in March, and a further three new shops will open this month.
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.
Lidl is also looking to open 12 new stores across the UK as it bids to raise £91million in funding from investors.