The Final Days of Debenhams (CLOSED 15/05/2021) : Empty Department Store

With a history spanning almost 250 years, and close to 200 locations at its peak, Debenhams was once a storied retail brand in the UK…and also, weirdly, had 7 stores in Denmark.
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As of May 2021, all of its locations are permanently closed and the brand exists as an online only subsidiary of Boohoo.
Join me as we explore this (now dead) mall anchor in some of its final hours, literally witnessing the store being dismantled around us.
Plus, we’ll take a look at what went wrong for Debenhams. Spoiler alert: it’s a familiar story if you know anything about shuttered department stores.
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[@zoeyelh]

rearranging the deck chairs on the titanic. exactly.

[@DeadMallWalking]

Depressing, but true!

[@peeyaboobiya9157]

Thank you for being a UK dead mall enthusiast. I love the American malls but when it's a UK store or shop that I personally know, it's even better. Thank you for your fantastic content. Debenhams' demise is a sad reminder that even the mightiest retailers can fail and fall. There are now so many empty anchor stores peppered throughout the land. In my town, there was a big Debenhams, (big for the town anyhow) which I also worked at for a year in my late teens. It looks haunting and desolate now to peek in and see darkness amidst the still present fixtures and fittings. A sad end.

[@DeadMallWalking]

Thanks! I always wonder how that contrast works. I know as a Brit I enjoy watching US dead malls, but I also spend a bit of time over there so have some familiarity with them. Glad to know there's a UK dead mall scene as well, haha. Yup, the retail landscape is going to be very different post-lockdowns I think.

[@drowningcows7631]

Yeah, exactly this. I love the US one, but yours is something special because I relate to the social history of it more. so sad to see Debenhams go, wonder who is next?

[@dxmedia9258]

Makes me sad. Ever since Woolworths went in 2008 the uk high street has really gone down hill

[@DeadMallWalking]

Interesting! I wonder if them closing (or Blockbuster? Can't recall the year they closed...) represens a turning point for the high street. Then again, I guess brands have been going under for years so maybe there isn't such a precise moment as I'm suggesting.

[@rayray117]

i use to work in debenhams 10 years ago, great memories with the staff there.

[@DeadMallWalking]

Oh cool! Yeah, seemed like the staff really seemed to get on well in some of the videos I saw around closing time.

[@yesthen2704]

My mum loved Debenhams, she would shop there for ages and I would just go for a walk around the city while she was in there

[@adamh2900]

Looks just like the Debenhams in Aberdeen Trinity Centre which I visited for the last time in December 2020, the jeans I'm wearing right now came from there! Incredible to think it's all gone now

[@DeadMallWalking]

Yup, one thing about Debenhams is that they ALL look(ed) almost exactly the same. Almost unnerving, haha. Enjoy your jeans, because you won't be getting any more from there :(

[@bricks4beck748]

Its a sad sight, my local was one of 7 to close in December 2020, but surprisingly its already got a new tenant, a gourmet food hall which opens later this year. Great video, hope all staff get jobs soon and most of the stores get occupied sooner than later. But seen as a Woolworths near me is still with the Woolies branding and had no tenant since it closed in 2009, I sadly doubt it.

[@DeadMallWalking]

Damn, Woolworths still hurts. Spent a lot of time in there as a kid, used to feel they like sold everything you could ever want. I know a few ex-Debenhams have new stuff lined up already, but even then it doesn't seem like any of them take advantage of the entire space. That's a pretty big ask, after all.

[@budgetglados8761]

There was a debenhams in the city I live in, only been in there a few times but there was quite a lot on offer. Some big spaces to fill.

[@DeadMallWalking]

Absolutely. I wouldn’t be surprised to see them broken down into multiple smaller units...or the space sold off to be turned into apartments!

[@martinlanigan803]

Good quality mens wear opening op all these crappy shops thats whats destroying nice shops

[@ERA_Productions]

Awesome job

[@DeadMallWalking]

Thanks dude!

[@97channel]

The closure of Debenhams' stores has had a massive impact upon Leicester's Highcross Centre. You'd hardly describe the Highcross as a dead mall, but there are parts which are no longer healthy due to Debenhams and House Of Fraser departing within a couple of years of each other. These were the two original anchor stores when the place opened in 1991 as The Shires. And they were by far the largest stores in the centre, the rest all being small units. The centre was significantly expanded in 2008, adding a standalone John Lewis as a huge third anchor. But with House Of Fraser and Debenhams occupying the older part of the mall, their loss has seen a knock-on effect with units becoming vacant around them, and they aren't being taken on too keenly. The centre just immediately waved the white flag on the Debenhams store, the huge building, only thirty years old, will soon be bulldozed and replaced with apartments. This is a huge loss of retail space, the damage to the Highcross's strength in the older mall area will be permanent. And with the House Of Fraser store now converted into smaller units which nobody is rushing to occupy, it should be a worry that only John Lewis remains as an anchor department store. Because if John Lewis ever departs from that space, it'll leave the centre with no notably sized, prominently positioned anchor store. And whilst most people would currently see the Highcross as very much thriving, the potential loss of all its big floorspace stores would most certainly see the place decline heavily. A mall the size of Highcross, which includes substantial outdoor retail space, cannot survive on only small unit tenants.

[@Claxiux]

why does it feel like attending a funeral ?

[@DeadMallWalking]

It really does. That's a great way to put it!

[@RAPIDNISMO]

I can remember walking around this shop many a time, park in the carpark connected with realky weird layout, really not ideal for parking... its such a shame all of these shops have closed, although I wanst very interested in them, its still a sad sight to see them go

[@MrsZeeDee05]

Debenhams was a brilliant place sadly the pandemic killed it off 😢 but good news is they are reopening beuty stores across the country slowly

[@gabriellaj.o.6180]

Debenhams were a successful national department store but MBO ruined Debenhams when it was delisted and there were 171 stores as recent as 2017. Canterbury and Folkestone had been here years but shut because they sold the freehold of the stores and leased them back at a rent they could not afford just as online was increasing. I had not shopped at Debenhams for years. The Canterbury store was much like it was in the late 90's and that was 20 odd years. It's sad 12k people lost all of these jobs and Arcadia staff too.

[@steves_retail]

Same fate as Lord & Taylor here in the US.. just online now... RIP Debenhams

[@Nitrooooooogen]

I went to a debenhams 3 weeks before closing forever

[@michaelfay8397]

I came across this video on reddit. I'm in Illinois and other than the green UK exit signs this looks like it could have been filmed at any closing dept store in America, like a Sears, which stands out to me for some reason. I can't say how I'd be expecting UK stores to look different especially since I've visited there, but for all the reasons in the US that big box and retail in general doesn't 'feel' right, I'm surprised they can copy & paste it to the UK and it works there too. Maybe it's that I figured retail in the US was the unique solution of how to meet American shopping, desires, and trends as cheaply as possible, and finding out that actually the same stuff works in the UK even though you have smaller, older, walkable towns and didn't go car, sprawl, and shopping crazy. The UK still has main streets and shops in most towns for example and that's all but gone in the US. Writing this out I also realized that I'm mid-30s now and I've never had the thought: "I want to go to the local department store!" or "I'll check the department store for it!" which is probably a big part of how they're not doing well and closing. What I think of a department store being for is nice clothing for special events or the place to buy nice gifts, like for weddings, but we have specialist stores like how as a man I'd go to the suit chain store for nice clothing.

[@DeadMallWalking]

Thanks for the thoughtful response, Michael! Aside from UK department stores having slightly higher ceilings (or maybe that's just my imagination...) I agree that they look very similar to the likes of Macy's, Belk etc. The shift from main streets to the enclosed mall/downtown - often kinda dead - divide in the US is one that interests me, and I have to admit I'm not really sure what led to it. Maybe the changeable weather makes the predictability of an indoor mall more appealing? But then again, the same could be said about frequent rain in the UK. I'm in the same age group as you and, other than being a curiosity when I'm in the US, I'd never go out of my way to visit a department store either.

[@kevinlongman007]

The companys first shop was on Wigmore Road not Bond Street. It was the Board of Directors who failed Debenhams. They never got how important it was to have a strong online platform and that was their biggest mistake.

[@DeadMallWalking]

Hmm, can't remember the context in which I mentioned that! I can only imagine that I say Bond Street to give US viewers at least a vague idea of the location :) Totally agree with you re: Debenhams failing to capture any sales online!

[@CliveEvans-oj2nn]

My mum loved Debenhams

[@CliveEvans-oj2nn]

Online shopping. Killing the high street

[@louiswilkko]

By any chance did you visit Debenhams in nearby Middlesbrough before closure?

[@DeadMallWalking]

Sadly, I did not! I wanted to do sort of a tour of them all but I was busy with work at the time, so only managed a couple.

[@louiswilkko]

No worries :) just took my chance, given there was only a pitiful 3 stores left in the north east before closure. I’m surprised how long Stockton and South Shields stores in particular lasted as long as they did (both closed 2020)

[@chuckbradley1]

Evolve or become extinct. Dino-stores.

[@DeadMallWalking]

Honestly, I'm not exactly sure how stores like this can evolve though. Beyond pop-ups, fortifying their online presence and trying to stock brands people actually want to buy, obviously. I don't envy those trying to keep them afloat.

[@ThatAlfStarDude39175]

What The Hell Happened To All These Stores? BHS, Woolworths, Debenhams And House Of Fraser Are All Closed I’m Starting To Think That John Lewis Is The Chosen One (Because It’s The Only Surviving Department Store Still Left In The UK, But I Expect It’s Next On The Chopping Block) (F*** You Boohoo)(Lots Of Malls Are Going To Get Less Customers)

[@oliverstemp9132]

Interesting now that Boohoo is a struggling at the moment too. I think they really don’t understand customers other than selling cheap products

[@DeadMallWalking]

The problem I find with brands like Boohoo, Pretty Little Thing etc. is that they just have no differentiators that set them apart from each other. Just churn stuff out based on what they think the latest trends are…

[@cliveevans9795]

They could of saved Debenhams

[@oliverstemp9132]

Yep, but money is more important