A BUDGET supermarket with over 350 branches is set to shut one of its longstanding stores forever.
The shock closure comes after bosses took the decision not to renew their lease at the site, which the shop has occupied for years.
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Starting out as a butcher shop in Aberdeen in the 1950s, FarmFoods then evolved into a huge supermarket chain that has been serving Great Britain ever since.
Along with frozen food, the Scottish family business sells chilled food, groceries, bread, milk, fresh fruit and vegetables, plus household items.
Now, one of its most popular stores in Dundee is shutting its doors for the final time on Sunday, April 6.
This follows FarmFoods announcing the closure of another one of its city centre stores in Cowgate in March 2023.
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It will mean there is just one FarmFoods store left in Dundee, which would be the Lochee branch.
A spokesperson for Farmfoods said: “Our Macalpine Road shop will permanently close on Sunday April 6 after a clearance sale.
“We are grateful to all our customers who have shopped with us at the property during our many years of trade.
“Our existing shop nearby at Lochee is unaffected.”
A mega clearance sale will be held on its final day and customers are being redirected to other FarmFood stores.
Comments from unhappy shoppers have flooded in on social media.
One person wrote on Facebook: “Can’t remember it ever not being there. Really feel for them loosing their jobs. Probably sit empty for years now if it’s due to rent costs.”
Another said: “Aww that’s so sad the poor shop workers and its been open there as long as I can remember. “
While a third wrote: “End of an era been there for along as I remember.”
In addition to the Dundee branch, FarmFoods have been closing other branches across the country, including in Banbury and in Southend.
Retailers close branches here and there for a number or reasons, like a lease for the location may come to an end.
Other examples of one-off rather than widespread closures is if there are changes in the area, like a shopping centre closing, and in some cases a shop will close to relocate to another area.
Some chains have faced tougher conditions though, forcing them to shut dozens of stores, or all of them in the worst case.
FarmFoods sales surpassed £1billion for the first time in 2023, the most recent accounts available for the supermarket show.
According to the annual figures published in July last year, sales jumped 8% to £1.09billion in the 12 months to December 2023, from £940million on the 12 months before that.
Profits before tax increased to £23million, up from £22.2million the year before.
At the same time it said that it had made significant investment in opening new retail stores, adding 24 locations in 2023, and the number of staff increased to 4,971 from 4,767.
Why are retailers closing stores?
RETAILERS have been feeling the squeeze since the pandemic, while shoppers are cutting back on spending due to the soaring cost of living crisis.
High energy costs and a move to shopping online after the pandemic are also taking a toll, and many high street shops have struggled to keep going.
However, additional costs have added further pain to an already struggling sector.
The British Retail Consortium has predicted that the Treasury’s hike to employer NICs from April 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.
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.”
It comes after almost 170,000 retail workers lost their jobs in 2024.
End-of-year figures compiled by the Centre for Retail Research showed the number of job losses spiked amid the collapse of major chains such as Homebase and Ted Baker.
It said its latest analysis showed that a total of 169,395 retail jobs were lost in the 2024 calendar year to date.
This was up 49,990 – an increase of 41.9% – compared with 2023.
It is the highest annual reading since more than 200,000 jobs were lost in 2020 in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, which forced retailers to shut their stores during lockdowns.
The centre said 38 major retailers went into administration in 2024, including household names such as Lloyds Pharmacy, Homebase, The Body Shop, Carpetright and Ted Baker.
Around a third of all retail job losses in 2024, 33% or 55,914 in total, resulted from administrations.
Experts have said small high street shops could face a particularly challenging 2025 because of Budget tax and wage changes.
Professor Bamfield has 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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