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Beloved toy chain to shut its LAST store after a century and a half as owner laments ‘it’s a sign of the times’
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A BELOVED toy and bike store has announced it is closing its final store, after 160 years in business.
Family business, B.D Price has been operating in Dudley since 1865, but will now close for good, as owner Dan Price plans to retire, and doesn't think he will be able to sell the business on.
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The 84-year-old revealed that the cost of living crisis has led to a reduction in sales and to the cost of running the business skyrocketing.
“It’s unfortunately a sign of the times," he told .
“We’re closing due to a combination of age and a lack of trade, as footfall has decreased, and overheads have increased.
“People are just hard-up at the moment.”
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Dan's great-grandfather, D J Price, started the business back in 1865, opening a cycle shop from the front of his terraced house in High Holbon, Sedgley.
In the 1960s, the business expanded into children's toy sales, and at its height, also had stores in nearby Wolverhampton, Great Bridge and Kingswinford.
"It's sad, but I'm quite relieved to finally be retiring," he told .
Dan revealed that he doesn't think he would be able to sell the business on, due to the lack of sales.
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He added that the only reason the business has been able to carry on for this long, is because his family owns the building so he doesn't have to worry about rent.
Online sales have also helped to keep the business afloat, but Dan believes that ultimately, children do not want the kind of toys he is selling any more.
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"The young lads don't buy Airfix kits, its all click click, click on their electronic devices," he said.
"We don't sell board games any more, either, people don't play them, it is all click, click on the computer games."
He added that most of his customers nowadays are older people, who like to collect the toys they had as children.
The business first expanded back in 1885, when it acquired a former nail factory, and began making bikes, under the Sedgely Beacon name.
Why are retailers closing stores?
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.
However, additional costs have added further pain to an already struggling sector.
The British Retail Consortium has predicted that the Treasury's hike to employer NICs from April 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.
The Centre for Retail Research (CRR) has also warned that around 17,350 retail sites are expected to shut down this year.
It comes on the back of a tough 2024 when 13,000 shops closed their doors for good, already a 28% increase on the previous year.
Professor Joshua Bamfield, director of the CRR said: "The results for 2024 show that although the outcomes for store closures overall were not as poor as in either 2020 or 2022, they are still disconcerting, with worse set to come in 2025."
It comes after almost 170,000 retail workers lost their jobs in 2024.
End-of-year figures compiled by the Centre for Retail Research showed the number of job losses spiked amid the collapse of major chains such as Homebase and Ted Baker.
It said its latest analysis showed that a total of 169,395 retail jobs were lost in the 2024 calendar year to date.
This was up 49,990 – an increase of 41.9% – compared with 2023.
It is the highest annual reading since more than 200,000 jobs were lost in 2020 in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, which forced retailers to shut their stores during lockdowns.
The centre said 38 major retailers went into administration in 2024, including household names such as Lloyds Pharmacy, Homebase, The Body Shop, Carpetright and Ted Baker.
Around a third of all retail job losses in 2024, 33% or 55,914 in total, resulted from administrations.
Experts have said small high street shops could face a particularly challenging 2025 because of Budget tax and wage changes.
Professor Bamfield has warned of a bleak outlook for 2025, predicting that as many as 202,000 jobs could be lost in the sector.
"By increasing both the costs of running stores and the costs on each consumer's household it is highly likely that we will see retail job losses eclipse the height of the pandemic in 2020."
In the 1930s, Dan's father Bernard took the business over, and renamed it B D Price.
An extension was built, helping to double the size of production, however, during World War II, the factory was taken over for special war production, making beds for troop ships and hospitals.
Dan was born in the cellar of the shop in 1940, and helped out with the family business from an early age.
Initially, he trained as an accountant, but after his father died in the 60s, he returned to help his mother with the business, and they began focusing more on toy sales.
"We were one of the first stockists of Playmobil," he said.
The closing-down sale has now begun at the store, but there isn't yet a closing date.
"The way things are going, it will take us four or five years to sell the stock," he said.
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"Then we will put the premises on the market."
Dan plans to use his retirement to spend more time with his grandchildren.
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