HIGH street shoppers have been left at a loss as a major retailer has revealed it will be closing another town branch.
Counting down with weeks to go before the store closes its doors for the final time a dissimilar replacement has already been found.
WHSmith customers may be gutted to hear that their local branch on Sale’s high street in Greater Manchester is set to close on September 14.
The stationary giant opened its first store in 1972 and has been a recognisable feature on many high streets with more than 1,100 stores across the UK.
Staff at the Stanley Square store have already been informed that they will face redundancy.
Shoppers can look forward to a short-lived sale which has been set to run until the store’s closure.
A WHSmith spokesperson said, “We can confirm that the WHSmith store in Sale will be closing on Saturday 14 September owing to the landlord’s redevelopment plans.
“We are disappointed to be losing our presence in Sale and we would like to thank all our customers for their support and for shopping with us.
“We are also extremely grateful for the commitment of our in store colleagues who we will support with this transition and redeploy to nearby stores, where possible.”
Plans for a 153-seat independent cinema run by The Northern Light have been confirmed with film-fanatics likely to be able to attend from early next year.
Many locals were shocked to hear of the closure.
Flocking to Facebook, shoppers were quick to share their thoughts surrounding the store.
One user said: “Such a shame it’s a nice smiths.”
Whilst another put: “Another shop I often use closing. What is happening to the town?”
Someone else replied: “WHSmith was one of the few places that made going into Sale worth the trip.”
A fourth commented: “Will miss the shop. One of the few places to sell the health lottery tickets and a few other things which are exclusive to WHS.”
Whilst another said: “I don’t exactly have fond memories of the place but it’s sad, another end of an era.”
Someone else wrote: “It is sad that’s Manchester, Sale, Stretford and West one gone from our little group.”
Although some made it clear that they have worries about the rate of closures after the Covid-19 Pandemic.
According to PwC UK, store closures occurred at a slower rate last year than the period between 2016 and 2021.
With only a slightly increase from the year before that, WHSmith seems to be one group that has been hit by closures this September.
But the brand has apparently made plans for future stores.
It comes after a WHSmith branch in Somerset revealed its shutters would be pulled down for good next month.
The Bridgwater branch is expected to close on Saturday, September 7.
EMPTY shops have become an eyesore on many British high streets and are often symbolic of a town centre’s decline.
The Sun’s business editor Ashley Armstrong explains why so many retailers are shutting their doors.
In many cases, retailers are shutting stores because they are no longer the money-makers they once were because of the rise of online shopping.
Falling store sales and rising staff costs have made it even more expensive for shops to stay open. In some cases, retailers are shutting a store and reopening a new shop at the other end of a high street to reflect how a town has changed.
The problem is that when a big shop closes, footfall falls across the local high street, which puts more shops at risk of closing.
Retail parks are increasingly popular with shoppers, who want to be able to get easy, free parking at a time when local councils have hiked parking charges in towns.
Many retailers including Next and Marks & Spencer have been shutting stores on the high street and taking bigger stores in better-performing retail parks instead.
Boss Stuart Machin recently said that when it relocated a tired store in Chesterfield to a new big store in a retail park half a mile away, its sales in the area rose by 103 per cent.
In some cases, stores have been shut when a retailer goes bust, as in the case of Wilko, Debenhams Topshop, Dorothy Perkins and Paperchase to name a few.
What’s increasingly common is when a chain goes bust a rival retailer or private equity firm snaps up the intellectual property rights so they can own the brand and sell it online.
They may go on to open a handful of stores if there is customer demand, but there are rarely ever as many stores or in the same places.
