A HIGH street retailer with 500 branches is to close a popular bargain store in a blow to shoppers.
Locals said “that’s such a shame” after hearing news that the fashion and homeware retailer is to close.
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Next will shut its outlet store in Darlington Retail Park in May.
The budget store had operated from the retail park since 2021.
Responding to news of the closure on social media one shopper said: “Aw noooo I love getting the girls clothes from here.”
A second added: “Such a shame.”
But, others suggested the store had been difficult to navigate.
One said: “Sometimes I could go in and see loads, other times it was rubbish, very hit and miss.”
Another added: “I find it quite like a jumble sale unfortunately.”
An employee at the outlet store confirmed it is due to close in May and The Sun has contacted Next for further comment.
Next also has a standard format store in Darlington at the Cornmill centre, which remains open.
The brand had warned of potential store closures last year after losing a landmark legal case over equal pay.
Then in January the retailer told shoppers it may have to increase prices following the chancellor’s hike to employer National Insurance Contributions, which it estimated would add £67million to its cost base.
Darlington Retail Park has already seen the closure of Home Bargains in recent months, with the site remaining empty.
The town has also seen furniture shop Studio Eleven and a cheese and wine retailer close in recent months.
The news follows a dire start to 2025 for the high street with many established retailers announcing closures.
WHSmith is to vanish entirely from town centres following the sale of its high street branches while fashion retailer New Look has announced plans to shutter nearly 100 locations.
Select Fashion and charity shop operator Scope have also closed multiple sites.
Retailers that had once seemed resilient now appear to be buckling under recent pressures.
They have had to deal with rising inflation and costs, a move to online shopping, and customers having less money to spend amid the cost of living crisis.
Another struggling chain is Poundland, whose owner Pepco hired advisory firm Teneo to oversee the sale of the business.
It came after Pepco said it was looking at “all strategic options” to separate Poundland from its brand.
RETAIL PAIN IN 2025
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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