A retail giant is set to shut the doors on a store that only opened two years ago. They had hoped to offer shoppers more choice, but a lack of footfall has led to an unexpected closure. 

Next is closing down a store in a North Wales retail park. The Next Outlet in Island Green Retail Park, Wrexham, was the retailer’s second store in the city, with the first store located just a four-minute drive away in the Eagles Meadow shopping centre. Vicky Cossins, store manager, announced the closure on social media. She wrote: “We have built a dedicated core of regular shoppers, but businesses need passing trade and Wrexham lacks that a lot of the time. I am incredibly grateful to all of our shoppers and hope that you will continue to support us in the last few weeks that we remain open. I will announce a closing date once it has been confirmed.”

The store manager urged residents to support other shops, bars and restaurants in Wrexham which rely on their custom.

Island Green Retail Park is home to several other national and local retailers, including Smyths Toys, Poundland and Costa Coffee. There have been changes in occupancy in recent years, reflecting shifts in shopping trends. 

The leasing agent of the park is aware of the closure and is hoping to announce a new tenant for the unit in the near future. 

A spokesperson for Next told North Wales Live: “We can confirm that our NEXT Wrexham Outlet store will cease trade on Saturday 20th December.”

The closure of the store highlights how customers opting for online shopping can lead to a decline in foot traffic for even the most established retailers, such as Next.

However, shoppers will be able to grab some bargains before Christmas in the store’s ‘everything must go’ closing-down sale, rather than the retailer’s annual Boxing Day sale.

A huge presence on Britain’s high streets has been slammed by locals after it decided to close its doors, raising fears that the seaside resort is becoming a “ghost town.” Despite having over 800 branches up and down the country, Superdrug is joining others in shutting up shop on Bournemouth’s High Street.

Residents called the makeup and medicine retailer’s decision “ridiculous,” with just days to go until the town’s WH Smiths also shuts down on January 18. This disaster for the town’s shopping area is part of a wider picture of high street decline, with more than 13,000 stores closing in the first 11 months of 2024—bringing the total number of shops lost in two years to almost 25,000.

Over this same period, around a quarter of a million retail jobs have also been lost, in yet another blow to many towns’ economies. With the loss of another major retailer, people in Bournemouth said it was “shocking” to see yet another store leave, with many wondering “what went wrong?”

While there are three other Superdrugs in Bournemouth, the nearest at least three miles from the town centre, the loss leaves a large 17,736 sq ft hole opposite the shopping arcade on Commercial Road – causing one local to lament “Bournemouth has died.”

While Superdrug has not publicly confirmed the cause for its central Bournemouth closure, the Sun has learned the retailer had to leave due to the landlord wanting to redevelop the site. Instead of the double-length shop front, shoppers will see the store turned into eight smaller units.

The decision has puzzled some who said of the central Superdrug “It’s such a good shop,” adding that the closing WH Smith was “one of the best” places in Bournemouth to get art supplies. This shop’s imminent closure follows others in Bournemouth, also closing the Wincanton branch of WH Smith in February, after already closing one in nearby Boscombe last year.

Though a familiar sight on most British high streets, WH Smith has decided to focus its business on its more lucrative travel and kiosk offerings. By the end of the year, it plans to open 15 more stores in this sector.

Despite being in a relatively better period for consumer spending than in previous years, the British Retail Consortium (BRC) is predicting that this trend of shop closures could actually get worse in 2025. This is because of the Treasury’s decision to hike National Insurance Contributions for employers, slapping an extra £2.3 billion tax bill onto business.

In a survey carried out by the BRC, three-quarters of businesses cited the rising cost of employing workers as their primary financial stress. The Centre for Retail Research has warned that this, as well as other factors, could lead to a whopping 17,350 shop closures this year, with up to 200,000 job losses

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. 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.”