SHOPPERS are gutted to say goodbye to a decades-old M&S store in the centre of town today.
The longstanding M&S branch is shutting down for good leaving customers devastated for their high street.
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The Crawley branch has sold its last Colin the Caterpillar cake to Queensway residents today as the iconic store finally shuts up shop.
Graham Bennett, M&S regional manager, said: “After consulting with our colleagues following our proposals earlier this year, our Queensway store will close on Saturday, November 16.
“Individual conversations are continuing with our colleagues and wherever possible, we will be offering them alternative roles with M&S.
“Thank you to all our customers who have shopped at the store – we will continue to work hard serving you at our nearby Acorn Park M&S Food.”
Luckily for Crawley shoppers the next nearest M&S store isn’t too far away at Acorn Park which is a retail park that also sports Aldi and an Ocado.
The closure is due to “changing shopping patterns” according to the retail giant, but doesn’t mean Crawley will have one less M&S forever.
Mr Bennet said they are hoping to invest in a new, accessible M&S store in the future, but for now the branch will be closed indefinitely.
Fans of the reliable brand have been quick to take to social media to express their dissapointment.
One fuming shopper wrote on Facebook: “Very angry and upset about this.”
Another user added: “I feel sorry for [shoppers] as they love shopping in there … such sad times.”
A third customer shared: “This is not going to be good for our town. [It was] the only decent shop we had.”
While a fourth shopper raged: “Awful decision to close M&S.”
Even Crawley Borough’s Council leader Michael Jones described the closure as “a real blow for the town centre,” according to Sussex world.
Unfortunately this isn’t the only of the British retailer to close down, with other stores M&S stores to follow suit.
OTHER M&S CLOSURES
M&S confirmed its Murraygate Dundee will shut for good on July 6, with workers moving to a new superstore at Gallagher Retail Park on July 16.
Earlier this month, the M&S store in the Belfry Shopping Centre in Redhill, Surrey stated is would close on August 17.
The popular chain runs 405 stores across the country, and shut down branches in Manchester, Swindon and Birmingham between August and November last year.
M&S also revealed the closure of its Walworth store in South London, and its home store in Kingditch Trading Estate in Tewkesbury, Cheltenham.
The site at The Broadway Shopping Centre closed its doors for the last time on May 18.
If you want to know if your local might be next, we have the full list of M&S stores that are marked for closure in 2024.
Why are M&S stores closing?
The high street chain said that it had marked 110 low-performing stores in November 2016, which would be targeted as part of a big 10-year restructuring plan.
Shop closures began in April 2017 when the first six stores were announced would shut.
Two years later, M&S then announced that it was speeding up its plans with over 110 clothes stores due to close by 2022.
By May 2019, M&S changed its plans to 120 clothing store closures by April 2024.
It also added another 25 food stores to the firing line, saying they face closure or being relocated.
In 2021 the 30 store closures came after a year of M&S branches battling to survive as a result of the Covid crisis.
As non-essential retailers were forced to close during several national lockdowns in 2020 and 2021, many retailers’ sales, including M&S, took a big blow.
In 2022, the changes come as it faces a tough changing consumer patterns, rising inflation and a £100million hit from soaring energy costs.
Read more on the Scottish Sun
The chain has said that it is accelerating its store overhaul to save around £309million in rent costs.
M&S has previously announced that it was focused on moving out of stores on high streets with low footfall in favour of relocating to busy retail parks, which continue to prove popular with shoppers.
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Why are retailers closing shops?
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
