CLOSING TIME
Bargain supermarket with 300 locations to close popular shop in weeks
It comes as other chains announce high-street closures
A POPULAR supermarket has announced the closure of one of its locations as staff face redundancies.
In just a matter of weeks, Farmfoods will be closing one of its Oxfordshire locations.
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The store at The Calthorpe Center in Banbury will be shutting its doors for good on February 2.
News of the closure comes after social media users speculated about its demise in the new year.
It appears that staff were informed of redundancies around that time and the news was shared online.
One user said: "Farmfoods will close on Sunday, February 2, with all staff being made redundant with a new store opening in July near Iceland Food Warehouse."
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Despite hopes for the Scottish frozen food and grocery store to open a new location as a replacement, this has not been confirmed.
Farmfoods released a statement addressing the Calthorpe Center location this week.
A spokesperson said: "I confirm our shop at the Calthorpe Centre, Banbury will permanently close on February 2 following a 50 per cent sale.
"We're grateful to all customers who have shopped with us during our time trading from the property and hope to open a new shop elsewhere in the town in future."
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But the company added that no details regarding this have been confirmed.
According to the Oxford Mail, Farmfoods refused to comment on how many staff will be let go as a result of the closure.
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It comes just a few months after another Farmfoods store closed its doors for good leaving loyal shoppers devastated.
The chain closed its Sutton branch in South London on October 5.
While no reason has been given for the latest closure, the Sutton branch shuttered due to the landlord deciding to redevelop the land, My London reported at the time.
Disappointed shoppers fled to a local Facebook page to mourn the high street loss.
"That's really sad, I love Farmfoods, soon there shall be no shops left in Sutton," one wrote.
"Sutton could end up a dormitory town as Crawley was, no services, or many shops in town, but plenty of places to live and good transport to get to and from it," another added.
It pulled down the shutters on its store in Ashton Square, Dunstable store last May as it was relocating to a retail park in the area.
It was also forced to close its store Moorland Road in Burslem, Staffordshire, after it was targeted by arsonists on May 23.
But the chain has over 300 locations across the UK and remains a favourite among bargain hunters as it often has cheap offers on popular products like makeup and air fryers.
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.
Some retailers like Farmfoods have closed a few branches here and there for various reasons, like when a store lease has come to an end.
Other examples of one-off rather than widespread closures is if there are changes in the area, like a shopping centre closing, and in some cases a shop will close to relocate to another area where there are more shoppers.
Some chains have faced tougher conditions though, forcing them to shut dozens of stores, or all of them in the worst case.
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.
Meanwhile, a beloved shoe shop chain has announced it will be shutting one of its locations after four decades.
Blunts Shoes, a chain loved by singer James Blunt will close its location on Granby Street in Leicester City by the end of March.
Lovers of The Body Shop have also received bad news this week as the chain announced closing down dales at five stores.
READ MORE SUN STORIES
The stores in Exeter, Plymouth, Horsham, Norwich, and Sheffield will all be shutting their doors on January 15.
So far, the high street chain has already closed three branches in Hove, Cambridge Hills Road, and Cambridge Petty Cury.
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