Starbucks closes as two new points are ‘nail within the coffin’ for UK excessive road

Major coffee chain Starbucks has announced the closure of a popular UK branch – with an expert labelling it the “final nail in the coffin” for the high street.

A sign on the door of the branch inside the Woolgate Centre, Witney confirmed that the popular branch of Starbucks inside Sainsbury’s will close on August 16. Signed by “the team at Starbucks Witney”, the note reads: “Thank you to all those who have shared a drink with us.”

Customers took to social media to claim their shock at the “always busy” branch closing, with one claiming they were “surprised by it”.

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A Starbucks spokesperson said: “We regularly review our portfolio to ensure our stores are in places that are relevant for our customers. “We can confirm the Woolgate Centre Starbucks store, Witney, will be closing August 16, and all partners at this store are being relocated to other Starbucks stores nearby.

“We would like to thank our customers for their loyalty over the years.”

However, the closure of the branch – of which there are 1,266 across the UK – comes as Tesco, Marks and Spencer, Ted Baker, Morphe and more all announced mass closures in recent weeks.

The current rate of closures in the UK could outpace the 2023 total, which saw a whopping 14,081 shops welcome customers for the last time – a shocking 39 closures per day.

And speaking exclusively to the Daily Star, Rich Mehta – founder of retail-focussed digital marketing agency Rigorous Digital – said: “The next few years are going to be really pivotal for those bigger retailers, and we’ll start to see less of the ones (like Starbucks) who maybe aren’t finding that market fit.

“Retailers with a large presence on the high street are facing some serious issues right now – rising costs (wages, energy, stock etc) alongside business rates on the high street being pretty high and the general decline of people actually going to the high street (for any reason – not just shopping) means that there’s a general squeeze for them.

“The convenience of online, coupled with the lower costs, adds another element of competition. Inflation and the rising costs of operations is probably the nail in the coffin for most retailers on the high street.

“The winners here are going to be the players who either use their physical presence as a selling point (think of retails offering in store experiences/events, or those who train their staff really well so they’re able to add value for a customer visiting the store) and those who deliver that omni-channel experience across both online and offline really well.”

As well as Starbucks, rivals Costa Coffee recently announced an new branch is up for sale months before it has even opened its doors.

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