Huge high street retailer launches 50% off closing down sale ahead of shutting store for good
A HUGE high street retailer has launched a huge 50% off closing down sale ahead of shutting store for good.
Game will close its store in Bridgewater next month, which is a blow to local shoppers.
The store, which is owned by Frasers Group and sells a range of video games and merchandise, has launched a major 50% off sale to shift stock before it closes for good.
According to the local news outlet, the Bridgewater Mercury, the popular shop will close for the last time on April 6.
That gives fans a few weeks to say their goodbyes.
It will be a blow to shoppers who in the past described the store as “one of the best in the area” with “friendly” staff.
While another said: “Very helpful and polite.”
It is the second store that Game has shut down in the area, with the company closing a branch in the town back in 2018.
It is not the first time in recent weeks that Games has announced a closure.
Shoppers in Aberdeen will soon need to find an alternative retailer as Game is set to shut its store in The Bon Accord shopping centre complex.
Since October 2023, nearly a dozen GAME stores have closed their doors in England and Wales.
In November 2023, the Nuneaton branch in Warwickshire ceased trading, followed by the Witney store in Oxfordshire, which closed in January 2024, and the Plymouth branch in Devon, which shut the following month.
Most recently, the chain’s store in The Broadway shopping centre in Bradford closed in November 2024.
Frasers Group – then known as Sports Direct -acquired Game Digital back in 2019 for £52million.
Game has around 200 stores across the UK, including stores in London and Brighton.
The Sun has contacted Frasers for comment.
TROUBLE ON THE HIGH STREET
Plenty of other retailers are closing stores across the high street as households lean more towards online shopping and amid high business rates.
Soaring inflation in recent years has also dented shoppers’ pockets.
The Centre for Retail Research’s latest analysis suggests 13,479 stores, the equivalent of 37 each day, shut for good in 2024.
Of those, 11,341 were independent shops while 2,138 were shut by larger retailers.
The data also showed over half the stores that closed last year were shut due to the store or retailer going through insolvency proceedings.
This is when formal measures are taken to deal with tackling a business‘s debt.
Retailers are also shutting stores in 2025.
New Look is ramping up a store closure programme ahead of April’s National Insurance hike.
Approximately a quarter of the retailer’s 364 stores are at risk when their leases expire.
This equates to about 91 stores, with a significant impact on its 8,000-strong workforce.
The company has restructured its store estate twice in the past six years, reducing its portfolio from around 600 UK stores in 2018.
It also closed all of its 26 stores across Ireland, marking the end of a two decade tenure in the country.
RETAIL PAIN IN 2025
The British Retail Consortium has predicted that the Treasury's hike to employer NICs will cost the retail sector £2.3billion.
Research by the British Chambers of Commerce shows that more than half of companies plan to raise prices by early April.
A survey of more than 4,800 firms found that 55% expect prices to increase in the next three months, up from 39% in a similar poll conducted in the latter half of 2024.
Three-quarters of companies cited the cost of employing people as their primary financial pressure.
The Centre for Retail Research (CRR) has also warned that around 17,350 retail sites are expected to shut down this year.
It comes on the back of a tough 2024 when 13,000 shops closed their doors for good, already a 28% increase on the previous year.
Professor Joshua Bamfield, director of the CRR said: “The results for 2024 show that although the outcomes for store closures overall were not as poor as in either 2020 or 2022, they are still disconcerting, with worse set to come in 2025.”
Professor Bamfield has also warned of a bleak outlook for 2025, predicting that as many as 202,000 jobs could be lost in the sector.
“By increasing both the costs of running stores and the costs on each consumer’s household it is highly likely that we will see retail job losses eclipse the height of the pandemic in 2020.”