‘Another treasure lost’ say shoppers as independent toy store to close after 40 years
SHOPPERS have been left devastated after a “great” independent toy store announced it would close after more than 40-years on a town’s high street.
The closure of Nappy Pin and Toymaster in Cuoar, Fife, has been blamed on “lack of footfall”.
The shop, which sells baby equipment, clothing, gifts and clothes, as well as a wide range of children’s toys, has been placed on the market ahead of the closure.
Paul Stewart, who runs the shop with wife Anita, told The Courier: “It is due to a lack of footfall, a lack of trade, and it has come to a point where it is costing us more money every day to keep it open.
“It has been a family-run shop for over 40 years.
“We will miss it, the staff will miss it, but I don’t think the people of Cupar have supported the business enough for it to be sustainable.”
An exact date for the store’s closure has not yet been confirmed but locals have said they will be “sad” to see it go.
One wrote: “Sad to see it go thought it was a great shop… I don’t understand why people want to pay a deliver charge instead of given it to a shop on their doorstop [sic].”
Another added: “So sad….. Loved this shop when my boys were wee . We got the first pram here and many other things.”
A third said: “Memories of picking Christmas presents in here when I was [a] child.”
Another added: “Sad day for me that you are closing.”
The Stewarts also run the Nappy Pin and Toymaster shop in Broughty Freey, which will remain open.
It’s not the first retail closure to hit Cuoar in recent months.
The Press café and bistro shut its doors in July, with the owners describing its last years of business as “hard”.
This year has also seen closures in nearby towns and cities including the Body Shop in Perth, Trend XY trainer shop in Dundee and Shoezone in Glenrothes.
Empty shops have become an eyesore on many British high streets and are often symbolic of the decline of the traditional town high street.
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.
The problem is that when a big shop closes, footfall falls across the local high street, which puts more shops at risk of closing.
The increasing popularity of retail parks where shoppers can get free parking is also taking a toll.
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.
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.
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.
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