A BIG high street fashion chain is closing one of its stores in hours and has launched a sale with “crazy offers”.
Select is closing its Grantham store on Saturday in a move that has devastated locals.
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But before it goes, it’s holding a mega sale – and customers will have to be quick to grab a bargain.
A big yellow sign posted in the shop’s window reads: “Crazy offers. This store is closing down.”
The store first revealed it was closing in a Facebook post earlier this month.
“It is with a heavy heart that we tell all our lovely customers that our store will be closing,” it said.
Read more on store closures
“As far as we are aware our last trading day is May 10.
“I just want to take a minute to say thank you for all your support over the years.”
Locals seemed heartbroken by the closure, with one writing: “Nooo! This is awful news!”
Another said “are you kidding me”, while a third added: “We will soon have no clothing stores left in Grantham.”
Troubles for Select
The closure comes after Select went into liquidation last month.
The chain has faced significant financial problems for years, first falling into administration in 2019.
It was then bought out by Genus UK Limited.
Genus UK also went into administration in 2022, and the chain was subsequently owned by Turkish businessman Cafer Mahiroglu.
Select entered into a Company Voluntary Arrangement (CVA), a process to manage debt repayment, in late 2024.
It then closed 35 of its stores in March this year, leaving staff without wages or redundancy pay.
The remaining 48 stores had been scheduled to close by the end of March, but The Sun revealed Essence Fashion Limited had entered into a licensing agreement with Select Fashion at the end of February.
The arrangement has so far allowed 48 stores to remain open, including the Grantham branch, but now the number of Select branches will drop to 47.
Why are retailers closing shops?
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.
Other major chains that have closed stores recently include WHSmith, The Entertainer, Morrisons and Poundland.
WHSmith shut its Oldham branch in Greater Manchester on May 3.
Two more of its stores, in Stockton and Doncaster, will close later this month.
The Entertainer also shut its Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria, store on May 3.
Morrisons closed 16 of its smaller Daily convenience stores last month and will shut another, in Haxby, on May 14.
Meanwhile Poundland closed its store inside Liverpool’s Belle Vale Shopping Centre on May 6.