SHOPPERS have been left heartbroken after a major UK supermarket announced that one of its stores will be closing its doors for good this weekend.
In a blow to the high street, M&S, which boasts 1492 stores globally revealed that a popular store in Leeds will cease operations from Saturday, March 22.
Shoppers have been left distraught by the closure of a popular high street store[/caption]
The Wellington Street Foodhall store is located just minutes from Leeds train station and is well loved by locals in the community.
This closure is particularly sad given that Marks and Spencer was founded in the city of Leeds by Michael Marks and Thomas Spencer back in 1884.
Signs outside the branch advertise the supermarket’s closure, with shoppers now having the trek to the M&S on Ludgate Hill (a 10 minute walk away) to get their hands on the retailer’s upmarket cuisine.
Locals have shared their disappointment at the closure, with an Instagram post from The Hoot causing one user to cry: “This is an odd move to make. I use that store a lot.
“We have a massive residential population now in the West End, including myself, and we’ll be left with just two supermarkets to serve the whole district: Tesco and Sainsbury’s.”
Another shared: “I love this store! I use it all the time.
“Also get my clothes collections from there – I hate going to the big one in town and the station one is not great.
“I will really miss it @marksandspencerfood please rethink!”
The Leeds store closures follows a number of popular M&S stores closing their doors permanently.
The retailer closed its longstanding Crawley branch in November, with bosses blaming the closure on “changing shopping patterns”.
It also shuttered its Murrygate Dundee branch last July, with staff moved to a new superstore at Gallagher Retail Park in the city.
A further store shut at the Belfry Shopping Centre in Redhill a month later.
The retailer also shut down locations in Manchester, Swindon and Birmingham between August and November last year.
The Sun has contacted M&S for comment and will update this story when we have heard back.
Why are retailers closing stores?
RETAILERS have been feeling the squeeze since the pandemic, while shoppers are cutting back on spending due to the soaring cost of living crisis.
High energy costs and a move to shopping online after the pandemic are also taking a toll, and many high street shops have struggled to keep going.
However, additional costs have added further pain to an already struggling sector.
The British Retail Consortium has predicted that the Treasury’s hike to employer NICs from April 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.
The Centre for Retail Research (CRR) has also warned that around 17,350 retail sites are expected to shut down this year.
It comes on the back of a tough 2024 when 13,000 shops closed their doors for good, already a 28% increase on the previous year.
Professor Joshua Bamfield, director of the CRR said: “The results for 2024 show that although the outcomes for store closures overall were not as poor as in either 2020 or 2022, they are still disconcerting, with worse set to come in 2025.”
It comes after almost 170,000 retail workers lost their jobs in 2024.
End-of-year figures compiled by the Centre for Retail Research showed the number of job losses spiked amid the collapse of major chains such as Homebase and Ted Baker.
It said its latest analysis showed that a total of 169,395 retail jobs were lost in the 2024 calendar year to date.
This was up 49,990 – an increase of 41.9% – compared with 2023.
It is the highest annual reading since more than 200,000 jobs were lost in 2020 in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, which forced retailers to shut their stores during lockdowns.
The centre said 38 major retailers went into administration in 2024, including household names such as Lloyds Pharmacy, Homebase, The Body Shop, Carpetright and Ted Baker.
Around a third of all retail job losses in 2024, 33% or 55,914 in total, resulted from administrations.
Experts have said small high street shops could face a particularly challenging 2025 because of Budget tax and wage changes.
Professor Bamfield has warned of a bleak outlook for 2025, predicting that as many as 202,000 jobs could be lost in the sector.
“By increasing both the costs of running stores and the costs on each consumer’s household it is highly likely that we will see retail job losses eclipse the height of the pandemic in 2020.”
Why is M&S closing stores?
M&S first announced plans to shut down a number of stores in 2016, explaining that it aimed to shut 100 low performing stores as part of a 10-year restructuring plan.
Store closures began in April 2017 when it was announced the first six stores would shut.
In May 2018, the retailer then announced it was accelerating its plans with over 100 clothes stores due to close by 2022.
It later revised these plans and said it would close 120 clothing stores by April 2024.
In October 2022, amid rising inflation and a £100million hit from soaring energy costs, it confirmed it would carry out a further store overhaul to save around £309million in rent costs.
