SHOPPERS have been left crying the “high street is dying” as a coffee chain gears up to close a branch inside an iconic department store.
Cavendish House, which opened over 200 years ago, is set to welcome in customers for the final time in mid-April.
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It will see the House of Fraser department store and Clarins Spa inside it close down permanently.
News the House of Fraser branch is shutting has already been met with devastation from local shoppers.
One branded the closure a “great shame” while another said it signified the “high street is dying”.
But Cavendish House shuttering its doors also means the Caffè Nero, inside the House of Fraser department store, will also close for good.
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A spokesperson for Caffè Nero said: “Caffè Nero is closing because the House Of Fraser is closing. It’s the knock on effect.”
However, it’s not all bad news for the chain as staff from the site have been offered jobs at other branches in Cheltenham.
The spokesperson added: “We very much enjoy being part of the community in the town and we look forward to continuing to serve all our customers in one of our other beer by stores.”
It comes after Caffè Nero, which launched in the UK in 1997, pulled down the shutters on half a dozen sites in 2023 in a blow for caffeine lovers.
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However, one of the six sites was shut for temporary renovation while another was a relocation.
Four coffee houses did close their stores for good though, including its Ellesmere Port, Cheshire, branch which shut on June 3.
Its site in Witney closed two days later, then the branch in Wigan’s town centre on June 25.
Other coffee companies have been feeling the pinch too.
Costa Coffee is closing a store in Chiswick, London, today, meaning customers’ next nearest branch will be in Hammersmith.
Meanwhile, its store at Edinburgh’s Bruntsfield Place will serve its last latte on February 14.
It comes after it already shut the doors to dozens of its sites in recent months.
It’s not just coffee chains shuttering sites across the UK – a number of retailers have been hit hard in recent months and years.
Recent figures from the Centre for Retail Research reveal almost 10,500 shops closed for the last time during 2023 while over 119,000 jobs were lost across the sector.
That was down from a staggering 151,000 jobs lost in 2022.
Shoppers are increasingly turning to online retail which has seen the high street languish.
High inflation, which has seen households’ pockets squeezed, has also piled pressure on businesses who have been forced to close shops.
Some have gone bust completely as well, including retail behemoths Wilko and Paperchase.
In June last year, Boots said it would be massively consolidating its portfolio from 2,200 branches to 1,900.
But it’s not all bad news for retailers, with Wilko since relaunching sites across the UK and Paperchase opening concession shops in Tesco superstores.
Meanwhile, Caffè Nero is also set to open its first ever 24-hour drive-thru at Stanstead Airport in the spring.
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The new store will be found just 500 yards from the main terminal building on the main road into and out of the airport.
Plus, Costa Coffee could be opening a branch in Ludlow, Shropshire, after closing a site in May last year.
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