2024 hasn’t been a good year for the High Street.
In recent weeks, we’ve been dealt the shocking blow that Tesco, Marks and Spencer, Boots and Carpetright are among the big names shutting up some shops across the country.
Costa Coffee, Poundland, Robert Dyas, the Card Factory, Peacocks and Savers have already pulled the shutters for good in some parts. It’s left many people wondering how long it will be before their High Streets turn into ghost towns.
READ MORE: Tesco, Boots and M&S deal High Street ‘killer blow’ with hundreds of stores to close – full list
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Retail expert Dr Amna Khan, a senior lecturer in consumer behaviour and retail at Manchester Metropolitan University said stores need to start thinking differently in order to survive.
(Image: Getty Images)
Speaking exclusively to the Daily Star, she said: “The High Street is evolving as the consumer changes their shopping behaviours as a result of technology and lifestyle changes.
“Consumers engage with brands that offer engaging immersive experiences and High Street stores that can offer that will keep the consumer. For example, Gymshark with their community events.
“Brands that also offer seamless instore experiences through technology will benefit too as consumers want quick simple easy activities.
“The brands that are not doing this will struggle.”
(Image: AFP via Getty Images)
Citing various reasons from sky-high rents and ongoing restructuring plans, the summer will be a horrendous one for retail in the UK. Britain’s high streets are already littered with empty shops after a staggering 10,500 stores permanently closed their doors in 2023, according to data from the Centre for Retail Research.
The research centre estimated that a whopping 119,000 jobs were lost across the retail sector last year, a figure now exacerbated by an additional 1,846 store closures and 23,982 retail job losses in the first half of 2024 alone.
July was one of the busiest months for closures this year, but August and September are hot on its heels with a raft of stores set to disappear from the high street, reports the Express.
Dr Khan added: “Many stores are changing locations and or offering a new store experience hence old stores are closing and moving to different locations.
(Image: AFP via Getty Images)
“Brands are focussing on stores that are more profitable and therefore closing stores as consumers have changed their shopping behaviour to click and collect or online.”
The list of stores closing some branches this month and beyond include WHSmith, Wickes and Clinton Cards.
And it’s not just shops with Wetherspoons planning to cull some of its boozers and Cineworld and Odeon calling the final curtain on some of their venues.
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