High road blow as main chains axe websites in wave of UK retailer closures – full particulars
Rising costs have triggered a wave of UK high street closures this autumn, with brands like TG Jones, B&M and Lloyds axing dozens of branches
High street shoppers are facing another bitter blow as household favourites pull down the shutters(Image: Mike Kemp, In Pictures via Getty Images)
High street shoppers are facing another bitter blow as household favourites pull down the shutters across Britain. Mounting cost pressures and drastic shifts in footfall are forcing beloved firms to axe branches throughout October and into early November.
Stationery favourite TG Jones has been among the hardest-hit casualties on the high street, shuttering 22 branches from York to Stratford-upon-Avon last month alone. The cull comes as part of a sweeping 150-store restructuring scheme that is stripping vital in-store Post Office counters straight out of town centres.
Meanwhile, bargain hunters in Merseyside are set to be left out in the cold as discount titan B&M prepares to pull the plug on a sprawling 20,000-square-foot mega-store in Liverpool.
Stationery favourite TG Jones has been among the hardest-hit casualties on the high street(Image: Geoffrey Swaine/Shutterstock)
The site on County Road in Walton is shutting down for good on Friday, November 6, as part of local estate consolidation, reports the Express.
However, in a rare glimmer of good news, bosses confirmed no jobs are expected to be lost, with staff set to be relocated to nearby sites.
Elsewhere, quirks-and-gifts stationery specialist Typo also bid a sad farewell to its store in Eldon Square, Newcastle, on October 9.
Discount titan B&M is preparing to pull the plug on a sprawling mega-store in Liverpool(Image: Getty)
The exit follows parent firm Cotton On Group’s announcement that it will completely pull out of the UK by early 2027.
Shoppers still have time to grab their novelty bits and bobs at Typo branches in Westfield Stratford, Bluewater, Cambridge, Meadowhall, Canterbury and the Gateshead Metrocentre, which will stay open through the autumn and festive shopping rush before closing ahead of the 2027 deadline.
It was not just shops taking a hit in October either, with 23 standalone Lloyds Bank branches also axed across England and Wales.
The wave of bank closures rolled out right through the month, kicking off in Rochdale on October 1 and wrapping up in Braintree on October 29.
Fashion and homeware favourite TK Maxx is also on the move, waving goodbye to its long-standing home in Worthing’s Montague Centre on Sunday, November 8.
But it’s not all doom and gloom for Sussex bargain hunters – the retailer will reopen just four days later on November 12, taking over a vacant former Poundland unit on Montague Street.
Lifting the lid on the brutal wave of closures, Professor Joshua Bamfield, director of the Centre for Retail Research, said: “The problems of changed customer shopping habits, inflation, rising energy costs, rents and business rates have continued and forced many retailers to cut back even more strongly.”
