Major bargain retailer with 750 branches to close store in weeks in blow to shoppers
A MAJOR bargain retailer with 750 branches is set to close one of its stores in weeks.
B&M is pulling down the shutters on a London location on March 29 in a blow for the high street.
The Home Store with Garden Centre in Willesden will permanently close at the end of the month, according to The Kilburn Times.
A closure notice has reportedly been put up in the store window thanking shoppers for their custom over the years.
Customers have been left devastated after finding out the branch will close its doors for good in just weeks.
One said: "All our neighbours are absolutely gutted; you can get everything there from Christmas decorations to food, toiletries, paint and garden plants.
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"It's a bit no-frills but it has some absolute bargains in there."
Another dejectedly added on Facebook: "I love that shop, lots of nice things."
The Willesden closure comes as another B&M branch in Ladybarn, Manchester, is set to shut to make way for new homes.
Residents had previously expressed concern over the loss of the store which is located in an "under-served" area.
However, a planning application for the 115 new properties was approved amid pressure for affordable housing.
B&M also relocated a branch in Warrington last September, closing one in Cockhedge Shopping Centre and opening another in the Golden Square Shopping Centre.
Of course, it's common practice for retailers to open and close branches based on customer demand.
The closures come after B&M's boss quit last month as the retailer issued a profit warning.
Alex Russo joined B&M in 2020, replacing Simon Arora, but stepped down after just two and a half years at the helm.
A profit warning is a public announcement made by a company to investors that its profits are expected to be lower than anticipated.
DISCOUNTERS CLOSING BRANCHES
The retail sector has been hit hard in recent years as the trend towards online shopping intensifies.
The most recent data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) shows online retail sales increased from 5% of all retail sales in 2008 to 27% in 2022.
Shoppers have also been feeling the pinch in recent years following sky-high inflation which has dented their wallets and purses.
It has led to a number of major retailers having to close stores to shore up their finances, with discounters not immune.
Poundland rival MaxiDeals announced last month it had ceased trading with its boss blaming a "really tough trading environment".
Paul Mathers said in a statement online: "MaxiDeals was a new startup discount retail business backed by investors, where I was given the responsibility of opening its retail locations across various parts of the UK.
"We opened these stores during very challenging times with the Covid outbreak just starting, however we did manage to get to 24 stores."
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In January, owners of Poundland, Pepco, revealed it had shut over a dozen sites in the UK.
It came as the bargain retail group announced its trading results for the three months leading to December 31, with revenue sliding by 9.3%.
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.
The British Retail Consortium has predicted that the Treasury's hike to employer NICs from April 2025, will cost the retail sector £2.3billion.
At the same time, the minimum wage will rise to £12.21 an hour from April, and the minimum wage for people aged 18-20 will rise to £10 an hour, an increase of £1.40.
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.
In some cases, stores have been shut when a retailer goes bust, as in the case of Carpetright, Debenhams, Dorothy Perkins, Paperchase, Ted Baker, The Body Shop, Topshop and Wilko 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.
The Centre for Retail Research (CRR) has warned that around 17,350 retail sites are expected to shut down this year.