Huge high street chain with 1,100 locations confirms it’s closing ‘favourite’ store as shoppers mourn loss
SHOPPERS are mourning the loss of their “favourite” store after the major high street chain, with 1,100 branches across the UK, confirmed its closure.
The huge stationary retailer announced it would shut its Bolton store for good early next year.
WHSmith revealed that despite the closure they were “disappointed” to be pulling out of the town centre.
The popular store is set to shut due to redevelopment plans, according to bosses.
A spokesperson for the bookstore chain added: “We are disappointed to be losing our presence in Bolton and we would like to thank all our customers for their support and for shopping with us.
“We are also extremely grateful for the commitment of our in-store colleagues who we will support with this transition and redeploy to nearby stores, where possible.”
The exact closure date is set for either February 14 or 15, a staff member told The Bolton News.
Bolton Residents were left gutted at the news and took to Facebook to vent their frustrations.
One user wrote: “Without doubt the has been my favourite shop in Bolton.”
“Bolton’s finest will have nowhere to shop,” another added.
While a third commented: “Sadly, another example of what this town has become.”
Bolton Council leader, Cllr Nick Peel, announced that the council is working with WHSmith to secure a new location for a store.
He said: “We want the new Crompton Place to have a mixed-use – residential, eating, leisure and retail… more open spaces so that the current footprint will look completely different in the next few years.”
The retail brand, which runs over 1,100 stores, has closed down eight shops since March 2023, including in Manchester and Bicester.
The stationery retailer has also bid farewell to branches in Oban, Scotland, and Ramsgate, Kent.
It comes as the chain is set to expand in travel hotspots, with 15 new branches opening at airports and train stations in 2024.
OTHER STORE CLOSURES
It’s not just WHSmith closing stores across the UK.
Figures from the Centre for Retail Research revealed 10,500 shops closed for good in 2023, with 119,000 jobs lost over the same period.
WHSmith has closed eight branches since March 2023, including in Manchester and Bicester, as it looks to expand into the travel sector.
The stationer said in January it wants to open 15 new locations at airports and train stations before the end of the year.
Plenty of other chains are shuttering stores this month too.
Decathlon closed its branch in Forge Retail Park, Telford, Shropshire, on November 3 while Co-op is shutting its store in Meadows, Nottingham in just days.
Posh retailer M&S is shutting a store in Queensway, Crawley, on November 16 while House of Fraser is pulling down the shutters on a store in Bluewater, Kent, on November 27.
Like with Central Co-op, it’s not all bad news though and a number of retailers are bucking the trend and opening stores.
Iconic 90s toy retailer Toys R Us is opening 23 new shops before Christmas while Mountain Warehouse is pulling up the shutters on new stores.
Lidl and Aldi have both said they want to open more branches across the UK before the end of the year too.
What about openings?
In January, WHSmith said that the new stores opening up would be found in airports and train stations.
It followed the high street favourite revealing that revenue across the business had risen by 8% over the 20 weeks to January 20, in comparison to the same period the previous year.
Yet its UK travel sales grew by 15% over the same time frame. That’s compared to a 3% fall in revenue for its high-street portfolio.
When updating investors in late January, the retailer said it was due to open 15 stores in 2024, with an additional 15 after that “each year over the medium term.”
The retailer hasn’t revealed the locations where it is opening branches or when customers will be able to shop in the new stores.
It’s part of the company’s broader plans to open 110 new shops across the world.
Why are retailers closing shops?
EMPTY shops have become an eyesore on many British high streets and are often symbolic of a town centre’s decline.
The Sun’s business editor Ashley Armstrong explains why so many retailers are shutting their doors.
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. In some cases, retailers are shutting a store and reopening a new shop at the other end of a high street to reflect how a town has changed.
The problem is that when a big shop closes, footfall falls across the local high street, which puts more shops at risk of closing.
Retail parks are increasingly popular with shoppers, who want to be able to get easy, free parking at a time when local councils have hiked parking charges in towns.
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.
Boss Stuart Machin recently said that when it relocated a tired store in Chesterfield to a new big store in a retail park half a mile away, its sales in the area rose by 103 per cent.
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.