Supermarket giant with 2,000 stores shuts shop as regulars sob ‘we’ll miss you’
ONE of Britain’s biggest supermarkets has closed down a beloved store in the latest blow for a high street in Cambridgeshire.
Regulars of the popular shop have been left upset over the closure with many sobbing “we’ll miss you” and one even labelling it the “end of an era”.
Tesco confirmed that their Express store in March shut its doors for the final time at 5pm on Friday, September 6.
They have decided to sell the shop on Broad Street to new buyers who are set to open up a Budgens store in its place later this year.
It is set to be closed for the next few weeks as work takes place renovating it into a Budgens store.
The date for the reopening is yet to be confirmed, a Tesco spokesperson said.
The existing Post Office in the Express is also shut as of today but is expected to remain in the new store.
Tesco also confirmed that all staff from the March shop have been given the choice on if they wish to be transferred to the new Budgens store.
No compulsory redundancies are expected as a result of the sale.
Staff at the Express store store to social media today to say their goodbyes to the friendly shoppers.
Several touching posts were made with hundreds of customers flocking to the comment section of posts to show their gratitude.
One saddened shopper said: “Thankyou for serving the community. Sorry to see you close.”
Another wrote: “Bit of a shocker that. Can’t believe it’s closing.”
As one simply said: “End of an era.”
A fourth said: “Such a shame Tesco is closing. We’ll miss you.
It’s important to bear in mind that chains shut sites for many different reasons.
This might be that the lease is expiring, rents have increased, low footfall or that the area is being redeveloped. It doesn’t mean that the company is in trouble.
The exact reason for the closure isn’t clear yet but Tesco aren’t the first national chain to leave the March high street this year.
Beloved shoe shop Clarks announced the closure of its store in March back in August with the final day of trading being on September 4.
The site, labelled “excellent” by shoppers, thanked local shoppers for their support over the years.
The shock closure has left several local customers devastated, although the trader maintains over 300 branches nationwide.
Elsewhere on Broad Street M&Co, Halfords, Boots and Carpetright have all also shut their doors in recent years.
In total, up to 27 shops are set to shut their doors in September across the UK’s high streets.
Troubles on the high street have been apparent for several years.
The cost-of-living crisis has meant households have less money in their pockets, cutting back on their spending.
As a result high street shops have seen lower footfall and less money landing in the tills.
That, coupled with ongoing restructuring plans and high rents, has forced many chains to close.
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.