These British High Street Favourites Are SHUTTING Shop Doors This Year

The British high street has faced a challenging year in 2023, with many big brands announcing store closures and the loss of thousands of retail jobs. This trend is expected to continue into 2024, as more companies struggle to stay afloat. The decline of the high street has been attributed to various factors, including the rise of online shopping, high rents, and economic uncertainty. However, there are still glimmers of hope for the future of our high streets, with some businesses finding innovative ways to adapt and survive, consumer expert Russel Quirk analyses if this year really could be the death of the British high street.
One of the major brands closing stores in 2024 is Boots, the high street pharmacy and beauty chain. Poor sales have led to the closure of hundreds of stores across the UK, reducing their total number from 2,200 to 1,900. Another beloved establishment, Wetherspoons, will also be shutting down several pubs, leaving fans of cheap pints disappointed. Even coffee shops like Costa are not immune to the economic downturn, as they announce closures of some of their stores in the coming year.
Clinton Cards, a well-known greeting card retailer, is also at risk, with 38 branches potentially facing closure. And lastly, Argos, a popular catalogue retailer, plans to close 300 stores in 2023 and 2024. However, there is a glimmer of hope for Argos, as they explore the possibility of moving their presence into supermarket sites following their acquisition by Sainsbury's.
While the closures of these big-name brands may seem like a sign of the high street's demise, there are still reasons for optimism. Many of the vacant premises are being snapped up by other businesses, leading to consolidation and the potential for new opportunities. For example, post offices that have closed down have found new homes within WH Smith stores. Similarly, banks that are closing in large numbers may find concessions within other businesses, ensuring that local banking services are not completely lost.
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[@sigmaslaughter1441]

Why should we consumers care about saving the high street? The private or council car park rips us off for just entering the car park, not using it, the retailers rip us off with their prices which they don't have to spend on paying their self-service checkouts, the landlords and international property investors that own the buildings rip off the businesses with extortionate rent which affects our pocket, and the government have done nothing to curtail any of this, nevermind trying to find a middle ground where perhaps, high street stores can work in harmony with the online stores for mutual benefit... The council, high street, landlords, corporations and government don't have some wider moral compass they live by... they just want to get as big a hand they can in the next man's pocket... leaving not much for us...

[@GoogleBot-lf7xv]

Well said!

[@johnomalley7335]

The foreign barber shops are doing really well . All the barbers can just sit around on their phones because our government gives them grants to open , then pays them dole money too when its a bit slack in the shop

[@adelia988]

I did wonder why so many barbers are opening and seem empty, that explains why ty

[@eliakimjosephsophia4542]

And tattoo shops.

[@thedroneflyingviking1284]

Dont forget all the pop up phone case shops

[@eliakimjosephsophia4542]

Yea, let's not forget those! Our town centres have become eyesores. I don't go there unless I have to go to the bank or specsavers. @@thedroneflyingviking1284

[@greentroll9326]

@@adelia988 money laundering

[@cx60hybrid92]

Local councils are to blame for penalising the motorists and unreasonable rates. Hold the councils to blame. Households next to

[@idonthavealoginname]

You are forgetting the greedy landlords.Retail rent in the UK is extortionate ,I don't see high streets in Europe boarded up or empty shops like I do here.Greed is killing this country.

[@ektrolleyboy]

Nah. It’s trend… Everyone is internet lead these days. Why go to a store that inevitably won’t have the size or colour you want? Why walk around the shops for hours looking for that ‘top’ for your night out? When you can get on-line and lay in-bed shopping. Why walk-in to ARGOS to look through a book and cock-about? When you can look through their catalogue on-line and get it delivered to your door. Parking etc. Will have an effect for sure. But mostly it’s just the trend of the internet. Bars and clubs are closing too. I think it’s partially fashion, but I also think the younger generation had become adverse to leaving the house and some of that will have come from the internet. And not being dragged around the shops as a kid by their parents.

[@eliakimjosephsophia4542]

Business rates have always been too high, rents are also OTT outside of London. Shopping isn't interesting when all the shops are the same wherever you go. The shops aren't attractive to the customer when there isn't something different on offer. Shops and pubs are turning into homes where I am. We only have one butcher left now and he's out of town. Out of town shopping killed the high street due to the ease and free car parking. Some businesses haven't recovered from the lockdowns. I used to go into town to have a lunch at a specific wine bar, they don't open for lunch or do food anymore. They don't even open until 4pm each day now. That's a business that has been going for 30 years. We don't have greengrocers anymore, all we have is some market stalls a couple of days a week and farm shops. They're trying to stop people driving into town and the councils are increasing all costs. The infrastructure of our local communities weren't build for mass migration. We're even running out of landfill.

[@leegould5306]

They will soon be full of charity shops…

[@Futura2500]

The plan is to build flats in high streets, council makes money in council tax, it will also house the shear numbers of immigrants in this country. The high street with shops is dead

[@karonmcgregor4753]

Nope, I've even seen charity shops closing due to high rents/rates etc., too.. They are having to increase their prices to cover these increases, but people can't even afford current charity shop prices sometimes, so fewer sales, so closure of shop! I've seen some charity shops try to charge more for an item than the actual original retail price - British Heart Foundation comes to mind.

[@traciebushnell1425]

Boots charge £6 for a face wash go in poundland and buy a clearasil or L'Oréal one for £2

[@eliakimjosephsophia4542]

Boots was bought by an American company, I think they're selling it now.

[@davidsworld5837]

you can get a foam face wash for 85p why would you pay almost 7 times more. they lack lower priced items and have too many big expensive ranges. that people don't buy as often

[@eliakimjosephsophia4542]

There are plenty of cheap stores that like to buy cheap. Boots have always targeted a quality market. From their research facilities, to manufacturing. I think the stores ownership is probably different to research and manufacturing these days, although I'd have to check. HQ was in Nottingham. @@davidsworld5837

[@angelajane1038]

I never go into Boots now. I refuse to use the self serve checkouts with a camera showing my face

[@eliakimjosephsophia4542]

We still have cashiers working in our stores in our locality. @@angelajane1038

[@Mark1405Leeds]

Leeds has loads of empty shops but ridiculous rents! Some of us would love to shop on the high street but there is zero choice! Shops all sell the same generic products!

[@robdubz1510]

Its done on purpose to make people shop online, i live 2 min walk from a mall and apart from primark+greggs the other shops must struggle to stay afloat.

[@jonhigginson4096]

Warrington has big wide streets with room for on street parking, there used to be loads of short stay spaces and now they’ve all gone and had planters put in their place. It’s killing the town centre removing vehicles.

[@GordonVansey]

A lot of people just wont go into a town centre because of the clientele that frequents the streets also the parking problems and not everyone needs a non turkish turkish barber or a pawnbrokers

[@j.4332]

Councils have forced drivers from city centres by closing roads or car parks where to park for a two hour shopping trip costs you around £5-6.Buses are fine but you cant go buy a large item like a ladder and take it on the bus.

[@greentroll9326]

plenty of turkish barbers money laundering

[@f-empire-8]

What we really should be worried about is who and what is going to replace all of these places when the dust settles, it's a scary prospect. People have been supporting global brands way too much and not supporting BRITISH owned businesses that will provide JOBS to BRITISH people, we'd rather convenience over community, as we've sold our country now anyway. It's difficult for anything to thrive when a lot of people are going into debt just to pay their mortgages and bills. With so many companies going bust and a massive transfer of wealth into the medical sector, you have to wonder, is this all part of a larger plan? We're going to be seeing the councils investing in their friends to open shops etc, which will strengthen their control of the pricing and wealth structure.

[@Futura2500]

The hight street will be packed in with flats its already happening where i live - used to be a beautiful market town - its now packed in with flats where shops used to be

[@deja-view1017]

@@Futura2500 Same where I am - except they are almost all student flats

[@tonyleedham5462]

Rent, rates, parking and general lawlessness are major factors.

[@davejones538]

To many shoplifters now whats the point

[@jackiemadden4024]

If the council’s stopped making it so difficult to park even for disabled drivers then maybe more people would shop locally

[@helencopping-hh7yc]

Businesses should take responsibility for stimulating local economies by providing gainful employment and investing in high streets in the same way as private business owners were proud to do up to the end of the 1900s, before they were undercut and forced out of business by unfair competition and controlled market spending. To ask that the already poverty stricken public increase the amount spent to facilitate the existence of companies that have already made substantial profits before liquidating, and setting up in another form is beyond the realms of sanity. It's time that share holders and directors look inward to realise that they and their insatiable need for status measured in zeros is the problem

[@jp80a68]

I live in Derbyn and here the people at fault, are the planning department of the council . We were historially a market town, with our shopping area surrounding the old market place. In the 1970's the council moved the market twice, once to a nearby open site, then to an indoor space adjacent to a small shopping centre, in addition we have a beautiful victorian market hall. The council then decide in 2007 to expand this shopping centre and all the stores like M&S and Debenhams that were previously near the market, had to move to the centre and are now were a fair walk away, this was decades after other councils, and when thinking people were starting to see the folly of this type of development. The centre of gavity of the town moved and all the business's in the historical centre started to die, as footfall decreased enormously all these business's were still paying the same business rates. In this process, they destroyed the vitorian market hall, whose stall holders were used as a cash cow, and which has now been closed for at least 5 years and been under repair for at least 8, we are told that if it ever opens again it will be a hub of the night time economy, in other words a place where the students at our third rate university can get drunk. In addition to this, as a disabled person I cannot access town, as cars are only allowed in a very few places, and even with a blue badge I cannot access any of the stores outside of the shopping centre. The roads and the pavement space are constanly being worked on, the whole of the centre of town has been repaved twice at great expense, beacuse the matierials used in the first attempt were wrong and started to fall to peices months after completion, they are currently working on many roads in town to pedestrianise them , with no provision being made for the disabled. They tore down out art Deco bus station and replaced it with so much smaller that now many buses have stops situated on the outskirts of the Town centre, a great encouragement to be green, having to wait in the open in wind and rain. All this is why the city looks like a ghost town in the wild west, with a Greggs wrapper floating down the main street, like trumblweed

[@kellykreqeli8924]

The problem is people shop online and don’t use the high street All they are doing now is building houses on the high streets which they have started doing in the last few years on our high streets You will still have big shopping centres But sadly we won’t have high street shops left except nail bars barbers takeaway and foreign convenience stores bookies and vape shops

[@mistermood4164]

Bookies will die out too, you can do it all on apps

[@stanbewick2685]

I would go into my high street shop(s) for something only to be told that they didn't have it in stock and that I'd get it on-line, cheaper. It's not just the landlords to blame. Retail shops can sell cheaper, quicker and economically on the internet. No rent, less staff costs and less running costs...gas, electricity, heating and welfare etc. Welcome to the new age.

[@michaelwilloughby406]

We recently went in to our local town to spend some money but we could not park because we do not have a smartphone so we went home.

[@christinaedwards5084]

If you want a barber or a takeaway kebab no problem, if you want anything else you’re screwed. There’s nothing to buy. I only buy clothes in shops as online is a lucky dip on sizing, and even then I recently bought some blue work trousers for the not so low cost of £50.

[@stanbewick2685]

...and we all know who will be living in these shop-converted dwellings...yes, the brethren from across the channel.

[@petermach8635]

Dear Lord ...... the idea of local councils "picking winners" for renting subsidised properties to fills me with dread ...... the State is big enough as it is and we don't need its dead hand encroaching further into our lives, or our purses.

[@paulthomas3841]

Police are always, given Parked Tickets, Council are Put in Parking meters in the Towns, Rent on the shops and council Taxes on the shop, Land Lord's, want More Money

[@phyllischamberlain7467]

Lots of people can’t do it online. Don’t know how to do it. Don’t want to do it scared of doing it scared of getting scammed but don’t want this young ones so what to do if we don’t go to lie on them all the time and I don’t like it, I can’t do it. I don’t want to do it and I don’t want the banks are shut in a pensioner and be done with it at this rate. Keep the shutting everything was left open what is left open for to go to the shops and buy anything though shouldn’t of done places you’ve lost a lot of money by people who can’t do it online. Therefore we can’t buy anything online because they have to do it so therefore they’ve lost out and we’ve lost out and then we’re gonna lose out even more now to shut the bloody shops people I got the bloody money so I can go and buy some at night at the Michael and they just go in and out the British self and pinch it all for nothing

[@thebrunetteinroom7]

Plus sometimes it gets delivered to the wrong friggin address

[@adelia988]

It seems the days of enjoying a day out shopping is on its way out, I use a wheelchair so can’t get in all shops as they have steps etc but I love to go around the shops I can. I have noticed that the shop staff have become even less friendly and helpful, lights are dimmed in the shop too. They need to find a new angle which online can’t offer ie care for customer.

[@robduncan599]

Never mind Brexit is going swimmingly, right ?

[@adambartlett6277]

What has Brexit got to do with this?

[@simisola4280]

between increaase in parking charges, high rates which mean th eunusual shops and even the old favourites cant compete...I dont go to town becasue i kbow there is nothing to buy...why waste parking charges and end up not getting what i want? Hate , equally, online shipping becasue i cant judge the quslity of what i buy....there needs to be concerted effort to bring in new shops at competitive rates...we have a 5000 new housing estate (not counting the others built in the recent past) and NO new parking...in fact we lost a multistorey to subsidence..... its a joke.....plenty of delivery eateroes tho :-(

[@CFCDanielS20]

A lot to blame is them greedy landlords we now getting an entertainer closing tomoz on 13/1/24 and the building next door the landlord already got scraping machines in ready no doubt to turn them all into flats/apartments as the top floor above them is now flats/apartments. So obviously upped the rent to get them out basically we need to stop getting these greedy landlords being forced not to up rents.

[@karter5351]

Availability of what you want on the high street is in decline, has been for ages. I wanted some brown glazing putty, pooped down town, tried five stores, got nowhere, wasted an hour, came home, put the kettle on and ordered online in two minutes.

[@888bangthory]

Boots have spread themselves to thin anyway with multiple stores within a 10 minute walk of each other

[@abandonedrailwaya2470]

High street shops are going exactly the same way as the old railway branch lines did. USE IT, OR LOSE IT!!

[@markgreet3543]

Your right the public need to shop on high street, the future is retail parks on the outskirts of town.but three shops have gone today.

[@phyllischamberlain7467]

People could take a trolley and get on a bus and go shopping without the car people so phone idled jump in the car. Do a bit of shopping. I walk with a trolley I go on the bus we haven’t got a car so we’ve got no choice, but it’s quicker and easier And cheaper for them because sometimes you can import your car so but won’t do it you say bone idle old Vauxhall, the old people get on the bus but with the trolleys and we’ll will the shopping around and being at home. Why can’t the people do all these cars there’s too many cars on the road. Anyway it’s far too many of them are foreigners as well

[@dalebenton3354]

I heard that most towns/Citys be a thing of the past,Its all going to change to online shopping,Any thing left open in the near future,Wont be much left,Part from a few Pubs,Few corner shops,Not a lot else really,The Internet is taking over the world now days,Got some more empty shops in my local town as well

[@KevinSmith-ki7yl]

You will never have a thriving town centre as long as people are struggling under the financial situation that this government has put us in so don’t hold your breath.

[@bluenose-xn5ls]

rubbish Labour London ulez in fact Labour council war on moterists bankrupt labour councils

[@stumac869]

Local authorities have made driving to the high street a miserable and expensive experience, so why would you.

[@gazevans1038]

Such a shame that more M&S stores are to close this year, not. Serves them right for blow torching xmas cards. Bye bye. 👋

[@adelia988]

I for one will be sad to loose Marks and Sparks

[@davejones538]

Boots are overpriced always have been they should shut

[@paulthomas3841]

and W, H, Smith are to Dear, "Now"

[@eliakimjosephsophia4542]

Boots are our local pharmacy after Lloyds pulled out of Sainsbury's. They used to have a drive-in, its been closed for months, they say that they can't get the staff.

[@turboslag]

The high street is a zombie for reasons already given here, but I'll repeat for effect😊 stupidly high rents, and council business rates, ludicrous parking prices with aggressive councils fines for over staying, and, LEZ and congestion charging. When Birmingham instatated it's LEZ charging I stopped going, combined with the excessive parking charges it was the straw that broke the camels back. Before this I used to eat out 3 or 4 times a month there, and also do some physical shopping for clothes and various items as a result of browsing. So Birmingham has lost my custom and I know from discussions with others I'm not alone. And of course, Birmingham council still went bust due to being a monster that couldn't be fed enough money because of excessive overheads, and basically that is a microcosm of the government. The state needs to shed fat and stop interfering in our lives, then maybe we would have enough disposable income to shop in the high street.

[@colleenpitkin2366]

Such a shame, it has changed the whole dynamics of everyday iife What transpires is an old western windy city. Destruction of a way of life. You hit the nail on the head about car parking rates. Greedy people who own the car parks do nothing to maintain them yet expect people to pay over the odds to park. The big giants have swallowed up the little shops,. I feel overwhelmed going into a super store looking for some little thing I require. It's too late, our lovely little High Street in Leighton Buzzard has been slowly choked by charging high rents. Now its awful going there..

[@eliakimjosephsophia4542]

It's the same everywhere.

[@keithhooper6123]

Nothing in the High Streets near me that I want.Supermaket,discount stores,etc,on retail park.I but anything out of the ordinary on EBay.

[@dalebenton3354]

crime will rise,How many homeless people are out their now days,Some of them end up breaking in to empty shop's,Dont really blame them really,Their way of getting a roof over their head,Some where to sleep,Seen enough homeless people camping outside empty shops in my local town a lot lately

[@francishandscomb8108]

I’m surprised Iceland is closing thought it would thrive

[@johntruman4397]

I now do most of my shopping online, if I go downtown its full of drug addicts and shoplifters so I CAN DO WITHOUT IT?

[@raljix1566]

people are not going to return to the high street, these outlets should be turned into housing and hmo

[@paulbroderick8438]

Don't need it, don't want it, don't require it! Shopping used to be affordable and pleasant for so many back in the day now, it seems that all purchase require mental and wallet gymnastics before reaching into your pocket!

[@danielschauffer8216]

We could turn this into a positive story by allowing automatic change of use to these store fronts and converting them into beautiful victorian style houses or the like. Housing shortage in centres may be helped by this?

[@Futura2500]

Nah they building cheap flats stacked on top of each other - pack them in - get that council tax money

[@kushsakhu]

Waiting for the comments section to say the magic word. Immigrants. 🤣

[@TheGARCK]

Workers and consumers are not to blame. Western economies are being strangled by oligopolies. Wages have been declining for decades now. Also, most of these chains that are shutting are US-owned anyway. Boots is a US company. The top corporate tiers of the world are sucking all the money out of the economy, and capitulating governments are exacerbating this. The politicians are the CEO's and the CEO's are the politicians.

[@iBOXRIVER]

If iceland and poundland close, im leaving the country

[@johngreen6191]

Shop ebay. Cheaper prices, delivered to door, no hassle, no parking, etc,etc. Free time to do other things.

[@user-yq3nu5hd6n]

It not rocket science Shop lifting Normal Police don't want to know Also Parking massive charging Massive business tax and rates Better off on benifits

[@davidsworld5837]

woolworth left decades ago boots there prices are expensive. there is no low priced items like some cheaper make up shops. Wetherspoons are only likely to close poor pubs in places were there are too few customers. most of the high street do not sell what people want. look how many shops even sell a toast or a kettle for a good price. and why would coffee shops shut, simple why spend over £3 for something you can pay just making it at home for pennies. what stops people going in to a town 1 - toilets. free and 2 - poor expensive parking. just to have to go to places and not find what you want to buy. but wilko are not totally closed they have started to reopen under new management and plan to come back. Argos have gone down since they stopped having there book, which is faster and easier to people with not internet having the argos book at home.

[@leehenry5764]

Tories inflation is partly down to this

[@adambartlett6277]

Why is it "tories inflation"? You understand it was the war the Ukraine that caused sky high inflation right?

[@PlanetQuizz1]

The person doing the commentary thinks Argos going into Sainsburys stores is a good thing. Seriously? Sainsburys are closing Argos stores and putting a monitor and cardboard surround in the back corner of Sainsburys, hardly a huge boost to the high street to go into a Sainsburys and find one Sainsburys employee handing you a plastic bag when all the Argos staff have been made redundant. Sainburys have killed Argos and they will eventually get rid of the name.

[@petermizon4344]

THIS IS WHAT LOW TAXES AND SMALL GOVERMENT LOOKS LIKE FOR REAL

[@Noname-oo9gn]

All going to plan, agenda 21/30.

[@francishandscomb8108]

It’s all to do with control

[@justjacqueline2004]

Yet Primark thrives.

[@Clint-kr8zm]

Soon to be replaced with companies with product that don't poison. Fingers crossed

[@rickyraw5457]

Online shoppers have created our ghost towns .....empty boarded up shops ...

[@eliakimjosephsophia4542]

Don't count on it, our local shops are now becoming an axe throwing venue and amusement arcade with go-kart racing.

[@Clint-kr8zm]

@@eliakimjosephsophia4542 but is there poison

[@salthemanadam]

Should call it "All Talk TV". Do nothing but moan about issues. Don't even support the shops but complain when they close. Hold onto a past you did nothing to build

[@davidpnewton]

He does mention some of the fault being with councils. However he dodges the issue too much. A msssive amount of the decrease in footfall is down to council policies. LTN schemes. Emissions charging for town and city centres. The biggest elephant in the room (which he does briefly mention): excessive parking charges. All three are fully within the control of local councils. All three independently can cripple footfall. In concert they are absolutely lethal for it. Councils are certainly not to blame for all of this. However their greed, incompetence and eco-fanaticism have a lot more blame than he suggests for the problem.

[@alanseymour7415]

The upcoming apocalypse is coming 😢😢😮😮😮

[@manpreetbrar838]

People shop more online, Britain needs to move out of the 19th century.

[@ianhousden3548]

Trouble is with online shopping you can’t view the item properly it only shows a couple of pictures, I rather go in a store view before I buy. The only time I shop online if the item is not available in stores.

[@madmountainman5197]

So, all these people in retail have lost, and will lose, their jobs; the Red Sea issue's causing commodity prices to escalate once again - which will likely cause inflation to rise, there's an election coming, we're heading downhill rapidly to war and conscription, the housing market is sliding its way into freefall and all I can see are further price hikes on everything. Yet, not a mention of all these factors and how they are likely to lead to a massive economic downturn late into 24 and into 25, leading this country into recession and even more announcements of store/shop closures. This country's broken and the woke, socialist arseholes that are mostly running the show can't even see it.

[@roseogrady8785]

You never miss the Water until the Well runs dry.... Use or loose.