A HIGH street card retailer with 163 branches is set to close another two stores – with huge closing down sales launched at both locations.
Clintons stores in Halifax, west Yorkshire, and Andover, Hampshire, are both due to shut for good this April.
Two Clintons branches are due to close in April[/caption]
Fans first learnt of the Halifax closure after signs went up in the store window.
These declared that “everything must go”, according to The Courier.
Meanwhile, staff members at the Andover site were told they would be losing their jobs before Christmas.
A spokesperson told Andover Advertiser: “We were told the shop will close in April, there are about eight people working here at the moment, including temporary staff.”
Last month, the store launched a sale with 20 per cent off all items.
Clintons was first launched back in 1968 – and quickly became a go-to for Brits looking for greetings cards.
At one point, the chain boasted more than 1,000 branches across the country.
However, the rise of online shopping drove a decline in sales for the business – and it was forced to heavily cut down on locations.
The company was then taken over by Cardzone in March last year.
However, the new ownership has not seemingly been able to stem the flow of closures.
Last month, it was reported that a Clintons Cards in Southend had closed its doors for the final time after trading for two decades.
The Sun has reached out to Clintons for comment.
RETAIL SECTOR STRUGGLES
The retail sector has been hit hard in recent years as the trend towards online shopping intensifies.
The most recent data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) shows online retail sales increased from 5% of all retail sales in 2008 to 27% in 2022.
Shoppers have also been feeling the pinch in recent years following sky-high inflation which has dented their wallets and purses.
It has led to a number of major retailers having to close stores to shore up their finances.
Boots announced in 2023 it would shut 300 of its branches in a bid to slim down its high street presence while WHSmith is in talks to sell off 500 of its stores.
Jewellery chains have been forced into closing branches as well.
Claire’s has closed a number of stores in recent years, including in Gillingham, Nuneaton and Newton Abbott.
T H Baker also shuttered a branch in Cambridge in May last year.
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.
The British Retail Consortium has predicted that the Treasury’s hike to employer NICs from April 2025, will cost the retail sector £2.3billion.
At the same time, the minimum wage will rise to £12.21 an hour from April, and the minimum wage for people aged 18-20 will rise to £10 an hour, an increase of £1.40.
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.
In some cases, stores have been shut when a retailer goes bust, as in the case of Carpetright, Debenhams, Dorothy Perkins, Paperchase, Ted Baker, The Body Shop, Topshop and Wilko 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.
The Centre for Retail Research (CRR) has warned that around 17,350 retail sites are expected to shut down this year.
The retail sector has been hit hard in recent years[/caption]
