A MAJOR supermarket chain with 900 stores is set to shutter one location on Saturday leaving locals furious.
Iceland will permanently close the doors to its Welling branch in London.
The news was confirmed earlier this month with a spokesperson announcing that doors would close on February 1.
They noted: “Our store colleagues have entered into a consultation process and have been offered opportunities at surrounding stores where possible.”
No reason has been given for the closure though some locals have suggested that it could be down to shoplifting.
They have been left reeling by the news as they suffer yet another loss on the high street.
Posting on a local Facebook group, one said: “Another good store gone from our high street.”
Many immediately jumped on the post to share their concerns about local access to affordable food.
One commented: “Will affect families that don’t have much money to buy food.”
“Oh my goodness how the hell can the generation who can’t do online with no family cope. It’s so sad,” a second wrote.
“That’s bad news. Reasonably priced too. We lost ours at Sidcup it’s awful,” a third added.
Meanwhile others said that they were “very upset” and “wish we could stop it.”
[bc_video account_id=”5067014667001″ application_id=”” aspect_ratio=”16:9″ autoplay=”” caption=”Major high street retailer with 17 Scots stores to close ‘a THIRD’ of UK shops” 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=”6367391803112″ video_ids=”” width=”640px”]One went even further by officially declaring the demise of the town.
They wrote: “Welling is finished… Unless you’re a takeaway, nail bar or charity shop!”
A slew of Iceland stores have shuttered since the New Year including a location in Borehamwood and another in Exeter which shut earlier this month.
But, the chain plans to open 20 Iceland and Food Warehouse stores before the end of April, the spokesperson said.
[authenticated-scripts src=”%3Cscript%20class%3D%22palin-poll%22%20src%3D%22https%3A%2F%2Fwww.thesun.co.uk%2Fpollingwidgets%2Fv3%2Fwidget.js%3Fquestion_id%3D105076%26game%3Dpolling%22%3E%3C%2Fscript%3E” type=”embedded” width=”100″ /]Meanwhile, another major retailer is set to close another location after already shutting a raft of locations just before Christmas.
Dobbies Garden Centre has called time on its branch at Hare Hatch, Berkshire.
It comes after Dobbie’s closed 12 branches before Christmas after approval from the courts.
Co-op Central is also set to shutter a slew of locations across middle England over the next few days.
The chain, which is separate from the Co-operative Group, will close four stores after announcing plans to shut 19.
A store in Sprowston is permanently closing on February 1 while three others in Narborough, Barnby Dun and Eastwood will shut by the end of March.
The four sites are part of a list of 19 “financially unsustainable” branches that Co-op Central said would close at the end of last year.
[boxout headline=”RETAIL PAIN IN 2025″ intro=”The British Retail Consortium has predicted that the Treasury’s hike to employer NICs will cost the retail sector £2.3billion.”]Research by the British Chambers of Commerce shows that more than half of companies plan to raise prices by early April.
A survey of more than 4,800 firms found that 55% expect prices to increase in the next three months, up from 39% in a similar poll conducted in the latter half of 2024.
Three-quarters of companies cited the cost of employing people as their primary financial pressure.
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.”
Professor Bamfield has also 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.”
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