A BELOVED department chain is set to shut the doors on one of its “huge” branches in just a few days time.
The legendary retail giant has operated the popular store for over 25 years in a busy shopping centre but the owners have decided it is time to close it down for good.
House of Fraser is pulling down the shutters on their Bluewater branch on November 27.
The department store has been operated out of large unit which occupies two floors in the Greenhithe shopping centre for years.
Despite shoppers describing the closure as an “end of an era” they have been given a goodbye gift in the form of a 20 per cent discount on in store buys until it officially shuts.
Next is strongly tipped to take over the unit once House of Fraser closes their store for good.
House of Fraser’s has decided to keep its Darlington branch open however amid questions over its future earlier this year.
A spokesperson from the retailer said: “We’re pleased to confirm that House of Fraser Darlington will remain open and is operating business as usual.
“We’re looking forward to continuing to welcome our valued customers to this location.”
It comes after a number of the department store’s shops have dramatically closed down in recent years.
House of Fraser was saved from collapse by billionaire businessman Mike Ashley back in 2018.
But while the deal saved the chain’s 59 stores and 17,000 workers who were facing the axe many more stores have closed in recent years.
Today just 28 department stores remain with the closure of the Bluewater branch dropping this number even further.
Over the past few months, the chain has called time on several of its shops.
One in Cabot Circus shopping centre, Bristol, was gone in August
Birmingham, Cardiff and Guildford all saw closing down signs plastered across the windows.
Shoppers were rushing to the sales as the branches prepared to shut for good.
Last autumn, Frasers Group chief executive, Michael Murray, described House of Fraser as a “broken business” and said it is likely to “diminish”.
Mr Murray added that the group’s strategy was to break away from the traditional operating model of operating department stores.
He told The Telegraph: “We’ve completely changed the operating model.
“It was mostly concession, the stores were way too big, and they were under-invested.
“Our future vision is that House of Fraser will diminish and Frasers will grow.”
It’s not just House of Fraser shops shutting, other Frasers Group chains have been decreasing their store numbers too.
Frasers announced plans to close down a popular fashion chain USC’s branch in Stoke-on-Trent this summer.
The firm also shut a USC branch in Stockton-on-Tees in December last year after launching a closing down sale.
And House of Fraser, also owned by Frasers Group, closed its store in Carlisle in May.
A Flannels site – also under Frasers – in Bolton, closed for the final time in the new year.
And MatchesFashion – an online fashion website – fell into administration in March this year before shutting down forever in June.
But it has opened new stores across the UK as well.
Shoppers have been visiting their “new concept” stores which sell brands from across the group including Sports Direct and Jack Wills.
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.
