A HIGH-STREET favourite is being forced to shut for good after 50 years, leaving customers feeling concerned for their town centre.
Steffans Jewellers, Northampton, has been forced to close after being a ‘class’ town centre jewellers for 48 years.
The store on Abington Square will be saying its final goodbyes on November 9, with owner Steffan Suter gutted to see it go.
He said: “I was hoping to make it 50 years in Northampton but the town’s retail environment isn’t as good as it used to be.”
Steffan founded the jewellers in 1974 at 24-years-old was able to expand into the shop next door after 18 months.
When Steffan’s son, Wes Suter, was just nine he also began working in his fathers shop and is also sad to see it go.
The family said they tried their best to support Northampton but their ideas were turned down when suggesting ways to make the town centre more appealing to visitors.
Loyal customers of the jewellers have flocked to Facebook to voice their concerns over another high-street store being forced to close.
One wrote: “Another good retail outlet leaves our town. Revamping the market square will never attract shoppers to the centre, the Council needs to find a way to attract retailers back into Northampton.”
Another added: “Sad another class shop closings for good. Yet another bit of old Northampton is going.”
A third user said: “I went into Northampton last week for the first time in years. It’s awful – people sleeping in doorways, all banks and building societies in Abington St apart from Bonmarche.
“And the ‘new’ market square is in my opinion a total waste of the millions it cost! The money would have been better spent on accommodation for those sleeping in doorways!”
Northampton town centre Business Improvement District Mark Mullen backed the town centre revamp.
He said: “There is huge positivity around the new Market Square and with work due to complete soon on Abington Street and Fish Street, plus the arrival of Stack, the beginnings of a bright new era for Northampton town centre are starting to emerge”.
Unfortunately, Steffans Jewellers isn’t the first retailers to close in Northampton, with many other shops struggling with the reduction in footfall in town centres.
Fashion giant Next is closing after arriving in 2015, as well as a huge branch of the DIY retailer Homebase.
TGI Friday’s declared it would be shutting in Northampton and filed bankruptcy earlier this month.
It’s now closing 35 location in the UK with more than 1,000 staff losing their jobs.
Another well loved chain that has closed its doors for the last time is The Body Shop.
The Northampton branch started out in Peacock Way in 1981 and has been a key part of the high-street’s history.
A spokesperson from West Northamptonshire Council said they are saddened to hear about the closure of Steffans and acknowledge the significant role it has played in Northampton’s history.
They added: “As a council, we are committed to creating a vibrant environment where businesses can grow and succeed.
“Supporting our small business community is a key priority for the council.”
Thankfully, The Suter family has decided to set up shop 20 miles down the road in Market Harborough.
They are planning on opening this store as father and son after Steffans Jewellers closes.
The Sun has reached out for Northampton Council for a comment.
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.
