ONE famous football club has shut the doors of its high street shop after a closing down sale.
The ex-Premier League club announced it was shutting the store last year, with doors closing for a final time on March 6.
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Stoke City’s shop inside the Potteries Centre, Hanley, has now gone after the club confirmed last year it would cease trading for “commercial reasons”.
A number of items had been reduced to less than £5 as part of a clearance sale.
It is the latest store to leave the shopping centre along with Poundland, Superdry and Debenhams in recent years.
The store had been open since 2006.
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Locals decried the sad state of the shopping centre.
One said: “I grew up around Hanley. It was the Go To place. Best for shopping. Good pubs and nightlife. Great nightclubs like The Place, Valentino’s, Branningans and Chicago Rock. All gone.
Another said: “People openly smoking weed, more homeless people in door ways than shoppers… I’m ashamed to call this “the city centre”.”
A third posted: “What ever has killed Hanley has not affected other places ,Telford centre has grown ,extended lovely shops cheap parking ,shopping centre all under one roof.”
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Stoke City’s chief operating officer, Simon King, previously said: “The vast majority of our retail trade already takes place at the bet365 Stadium and online.
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“It makes commercial sense to put our complete focus on those outlets moving forward, albeit with flexibility for temporary pop-up ventures where there is a coherent case to do so in future.
“We apologise for any inconvenience caused to those who prefer to shop for their Stoke City merchandise within the city centre store, and hope that the combination of the stadium store and retail website will ensure that nobody needs to be excluded.”
Another Stoke City merchandise branch, at Stoke’s bet365 stadium, remains open.
Britain’s retail apocalypse
It comes as the cost of living crisis, high inflation and rising energy costs are forcing retailers to close down their outlets.
Figures from the British Retail Consortium (BRC) found the UK had lost 6,000 stores over five years.
Numerous high street brands have collapsed into administration in the last 12 months, including major discounter Wilko.
But it has since returned to the high street under The Range’s ownership, and Wilko-branded items are being stocked in The Range stores.
Both M&Co and Joules are among the well-known brands which went bust in 2022.
Paperchase then collapsed into administration at the end of January last year and all 106 stores later closed for good.
Stores including Next, Boots, The Entertainer, Iceland, Clarks and WHSmith have also suffered.
And Argos, Next, Jack Wills and Poundland have announced they will all shut selected branches forever this year.
In the latest blow, famous cosmetic group The Body Shop has admitted it is on the brink of closing some 200 stores across the UK as the retailer entered administration.
We have created a list of all the Body Shop stores that are at risk of shutting down.
British retailers saw the amount of goods they sold drop last month at its fastest rate in three years as under-pressure families shifted part of their Christmas shop to earlier in the year.
Sales volumes dipped by 3.2% in December, data from the Office for National Statistics suggests, down from a rise of 1.4% a month before.
Several big-name chains are pulling down the shutters for the final time this month.
The trade association’s chief executive Helen Dickinson OBE blamed the closures on “crippling” business rates and the impact of coronavirus lockdowns.
The good news
Thankfully some shops are bucking the trend and opening new locations.
Primark said it will open five new branches, and one is coming in just weeks.
B&M is opening six new locations at the start of 2024, including in former Wilko stores it has taken over.
Beauty retailer Sephora is opening its third location in Manchester this year.
Another skincare and make up icon, Avon, plans to open shops in the UK for the first time in its over 100-year history.
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Costco is looking to open 14 new locations in the UK over the next two years, while Greggs will add up to 160 branches this year.
See the full list of shops opening on the high street in our round up.
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This post first appeared on thesun.co.uk
