A BARGAIN supermarket chain with 300 stores has suddenly shut a lifeline branch.
The branch’s closure has left shoppers gutted, with one writing: “Our town won’t be the same again.”
Farmfoods has been in Bletchley’s Brunel Centre for many years, selling frozen products and groceries often at discounted prices.
Last month, a local announced to Facebook word of the closure.
Many shoppers took to the comment section to share how much they’ll miss it.
One person, who claimed she works for the branch, confirmed: “I work there and yes it is closing on 23rd February.”
This leaves one other Farmfoods store in Milton Keynes.
But it’s based at the opposite end of the city, in Wolverton.
Meanwhile, the nearby Select clothing store is set to close in Bletchley, leaving the once-thriving Brunel Centre desolate.
This fits in with the City Council’s plan to demolish the building and build high density new housing on the site, which includes the former Sainsbury’s store and car park.
Both the Brunel Centre and the old Wilko site are owned by the MK City Council’s “business arm”, Milton Keynes Development Partnership (MKDP).
While the former Sainsbury’s store and car park belongs to the council itself.
[bc_video account_id=”5067014667001″ application_id=”” aspect_ratio=”16:9″ autoplay=”” caption=”Farewell to a Landmark: 50 Years of Farmfoods History” embed=”in-page” experience_id=”” height=”100%” language_detection=”” max_height=”360px” max_width=”640px” min_width=”0px” mute=”” padding_top=”56%” picture_in_picture=”” player_id=”default” playlist_id=”” playsinline=”” sizing=”responsive” video_id=”6368553612112″ video_ids=”” width=”640px”]The “modern mixed use” redevelopment project will form part of the Bletchley and Fenny Stratford Town Deal, which will see major improvements to Bletchley and Fenny Stratford.
It’s partly paid for by £23m in government funding the city council has already secured.
One shopper expressed their dismay at the closure: “I actually love it in there!
“It’s pretty much the one shop I go into when selling the poppies.
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And then a second person said: “Damm, there isn’t much left for Bletchly no more, it’s soon going to be a ghost town.”
Followed by a third person: “Oh no, that’s one of the main places for shopping, hope they will open a new in or close to Bletchley.”
A fourth said: “This is genuinely the saddest thing I’ve ever heard in my life.”
[boxout headline=”Why are retailers closing shops?” intro=”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.