SHUTTING UP SHOP
Major supermarket chain with 900 sites to close two major stores
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A MAJOR supermarket chain with 900 sites will close two major stores, leaving locals devastated.
Iceland has confirmed plans to close two sites across Margate and Inverness over the coming weeks.
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Its branch in the Kent seaside town will close on June 21, while the Scottish store is set to shut on July 12.
In a statement the major supermarket said staff at both sites have entered in to a "consultation process and will be offered opportunities at surrounding stores where possible".
But locals have not taken the news well, with one shopper at the Margate store describing the move as "another nail" in the town's "shopping coffin".
And a second chimed in: "Omg there’s nothing left!! Everything in Margate is closing".
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Over in Inverness, shoppers have also voiced their concerns, with one stating it was "very sad."
It comes as customers in the area have complained about the parking operator on the grounds of which the store is situated, with many receiving fines and charges.
One shopper said: "Too stressful to park here so not choosing to shop there."
While another added: "Killed by the parking issues, about time it was sorted before all the stores close."
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It's impending closure means that there will no longer be an Iceland in the northeast Scottish City.
The nearest shop is now in Aberdeen, while it has a warehouse store in in the city's Telford Street.
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It's not the first store closure made by Iceland in the past few months.
Iceland pulled down the shutters permanently on its site in Welling at the start of the year.
A site in Borehamwood and another in Exeter permanently shut around the same time.
The latest closures means Iceland has shut more than 20 stores since the start of 2023.
OTHER RETAIL CLOSURES
Beales, one of Britain's oldest department stores, has launched a closing down sale before it shuts its last remaining shop after more than 140 years.
The company will shut its branch in Poole's Dolphin Centre on May 31.
The sale includes fashion, furniture, gifts and cosmetics, being sold for up to 70% off.
Elsewhere, high street fashion chain New Look has begun to close stores as it scales back its UK footprint.
It is understood to be shutting nearly 100 stores - equivalent to around a quarter of its 364 shops.
Stores in Gateshead, Tyne and Wear, St Austell, Cornwall and Porth, Rhondda Cynon Taf have launched closing down sales.
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Reports suggest that the company has been forced to accelerate the pace of store closures due to tax changes in the Autumn Budget.
Age UK will close its Silsden store in West Yorkshire at the end of the week, bringing an end to 32 years of trading in the town.
RETAIL PAIN IN 2025
The British Retail Consortium has predicted that the Treasury's hike to employer NICs will cost the retail sector £2.3billion.
Research by the British Chambers of Commerce shows that more than half of companies plan to raise prices by early April.
A survey of more than 4,800 firms found that 55% expect prices to increase in the next three months, up from 39% in a similar poll conducted in the latter half of 2024.
Three-quarters of companies cited the cost of employing people as their primary financial pressure.
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."
Professor Bamfield has also 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."
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