‘It’s a real shame’, sigh customers of huge coffee shop chain as it closes shopping centre branch
A MAJOR coffee chain with over 2,000 branches in the UK is set to close one of its high street stores in just days.
Coffee giant Costa is closing yet another branch at Bayview Shopping Centre in Colwyn Bay this Sunday (June 16).
Coffee drinkers have been left sobbing after the chain announced the abrupt closure.
Locals say they fear the city will soon become a ghost town after a chain of closures took place.
One customer said it is a “real shame” that the coffee shop has to shut down.
Another added: “I am not surprised. There have been several closures in the city.”
It is not clear as to why Costa is closing its branch at the shopping centre.
It is important to note that just because a chain is closing a shop, it doesn’t necessarily mean it’s struggling.
Most stores close because companies try to reorganise and cut costs rather than the business failing.
In some instances, a company may have to close a store because they can’t agree to terms with the landlord.
It comes after Costa Coffee brought the shutters down on its Rhyl branch in northeast Wales with immediate effect, citing “trade” as the reason for its closure.
The high street giant said all of its staff have been relocated to another store elsewhere in the town, however, which is located just under a mile away.
A notice on the shop door was put up to inform passers-by that they could still pick up a drink at a drive-thru site at the Marina Quay Retail Park.
A Costa Coffee spokesperson said: “We can confirm that our Rhyl High Street Costa Coffee store has closed its doors for trade.
“Customers can still enjoy their favourite Costa coffee at our nearby Drive Thru store at the Marina in Rhyl.
Costa has also announced it is pulling the shutters down on another one of its cafes, which fans branded a “delightful haven”.
Costa has already shut the doors to dozens of its sites in recent months.
Another will be heading the same way in July, however, when its Inverness branch in Scotland ceases trading.
The store is on Inglis Street, right in the city centre of the Highlands city and fans have been left distraught by the loss of the shop.
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. 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.
Boss Stuart Machin recently said that when it relocated a tired store in Chesterfield to a new big store in a retail park half a mile away, its sales in the area rose by 103 per cent.
In some cases, stores have been shut when a retailer goes bust, as in the case of Wilko, Debenhams Topshop, Dorothy Perkins and Paperchase 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.