ARGOS will close more stores next month after shutting dozens of shops already this year.
The big high-street brand has already pulled down the shutters on 37 stores this year and more are planned over the coming year.
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Two more standalone Argos shops will shut for good in August, the retailer confirmed to The Sun.
It comes after The Sun reported that standalone stores in Grimsby and Scunthorpe will disappear in August as part of plans to close 100 over the next year.
The retailer is moving away from the high street and expanding its presence in supermarkets, with concessions inside Sainsbury’s branches.
Argos stores will be opened inside nearby Sainsbury’s stores in both Lincolnshire towns.
Sainsbury’s, which owns the Argos brand, has now told The Sun that Norwich’s standalone store will also close in mid-August.
The store will be replaced with a new concession within the Sainsbury’s supermarket on Queens Road in the city.
Argos in Parc Plaza, Bridgend is also set to close it’s doors for good at the beginning of the month.
The Argos store in St Stephen’s shopping centre in Hull will also close next month, and it’s understood a new Argos concession will open in the nearby Sainsbury’s.
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Here’s a full list of standalone Argos stores closing in August:
- Hull
- Grantham
- Grimsby
- Norwich
- Scunthorpe
Locations in Newport and Cardiff Bay in Wales will also shut up shop later in the year, but the exact dates have yet to be confirmed.
Argos had already shut 45 branches in the last 12 months up to March this year.
Argos pulled out of the Republic of Ireland when it shut all 34 stores on June 24.
Before this, it closed its Coatbridge branch in Lanarkshire on March 11.
Two standalone Argos branches also closed in January in Coventry and Nottingham.
At the same time, it opened 25 branches inside Sainsbury’s stores.
In the current financial year which runs to March 2024, 30 Argos stores are planned to open inside Sainsbury’s supermarkets.
But with 100 standalone stores closing, that will leave 70 locations without direct replacements.
What other stores are closing?
The high street has been hit hard in recent years due to the growth of online retailing which was accelerated by the Covid-19 pandemic.
Meanwhile, runaway inflation means shoppers are holding back from spending as much.
It comes as research from the British Retail Consortium reveals retailers remain cautious about opening new stores.
It found the overall shop vacancy rate in Britain in the first three months of 2023 was 13.8%, the same as the last three months of 2022.
New Look and Habitat are among some of the retailers that have already closed stores in July.
Co-op, Iceland and Trespass are pulling the shutters down on a number of stores within the coming weeks too.
We have put together a guide to all the stores closing this month so you can check if your favourite store is leaving the high street.
