A BIG supermarket chain with 300 stores to close another site in days.
Farmfoods is closing down its branch in Dundee, on April 6, giving shoppers little time to bid their farewells.
Framfoods is closing down its branch in Dundee[/caption]
The move has come as a blow to locals, who have described it as the “end of an era”.
Another devastated shopper said: “Sad a shop I have used for years. I hope the staff will be looked after as they will help anyone who needs it good crowd.”
While a third said: “Who can tell me what’s going on at Dundee most of the shops are gone?.”
And a fourth added: “Really going to miss Farmfoods.. why?.”
The group has launched a major closing down sale to help shift stock ahead of its departure in just four days time.
This follows FarmFoods announcing the closure of another one of its city centre stores in Cowgate in March 2023.
It will mean there is just one FarmFoods store left in Dundee, which would be the Lochee branch.
A spokesperson for Farmfoods previously told The Sun: “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.”
It’s not the first time in recent weeks that Farmfoods has decided to close of its branches.
The brand called time on its site in the Calthorpe Center in Banbury on February 2.
This came days before it closed its branch in Greyhound Retail Park, in Greyhound Way, Southend.
The Farmfoods in Kghtswood, Glasgow also shut for good on Sunday March 9.
The chain closed its Sutton branch in South London on October 5.
SUPERMARKET CLOSURES
Farmfoods is not the only supermarket trimming back its estate.
Morrisons said it would close 17 convenience stores as part of a big shake up of its estate.
Last month, the grocer said would be shutting 52 in-store cafes, 35 fish counters, 35 meat counters, 13 florists, 17 convenience stores and all of its 18 Market Kitchens, which sell hot food including pizzas and rotisserie chicken in-store.
Elsewhere, Swynford Stores in Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire, permanently closed on March 28.
The shop, opposite the RAF Alconbury base, will sadly shut its doors due to the “opening of the Co-Op,” and “prices of stock skyrocketing”.
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.”
