List of stores closing this weekend, including 124-year-old iconic brand
Higher employer National Insurance payments and rising wage costs since April have added more pressure.
On top of rising business rates, energy bills, and rent, some shops have had to raise prices or even shut down.
Of course, it's important to remember that shops close for many reasons, not just because the economy is struggling.
Sometimes, a chain will shut a branch that isn't doing well and open another one in a different area where they expect more customers. Many retailers are also leaving city centers and moving to out-of-town shopping areas.
Either way, five stores will close this weekend, including a department store that's been around for over 120 years.
Here's a full list of the shops we know are shutting down for good.
Ginger, based in Norwich, will close for the last time on Saturday. The store was started by David and Rodger Kingsley in 1978, after their earlier business, Jonathan Trumbull, launched in 1971.
But store manager Beckie Kingsley said the closure is due to the economy and the impact of Covid-19. She said: "It's with truly heavy hearts that, after 46 unforgettable years, we have made the incredibly difficult decision to close the doors at our beautiful, beloved and historic Timber Hill home.
"We've weathered many storms over the decades, but there's been ongoing challenges of today's financial climate - coupled with the lasting impact and huge shifts within the retail landscape since Covid.
"This led us to ask - does it still work for us? After deep reflection, the answer, sadly, is no."
Historic department store Daniel of Ealing in London will close for good on Sunday, after being open for 124 years.
Prices have been cut on homeware, clothes, toys, sports gear, and shoes, with discounts of up to 50%.
People finding out the popular store is closing have shared their sadness online.
One person wrote: "Loved this shop and it's top floor restaurant."
Another said: "Ealing has lost its heart, soul and uniqueness!"
Stationery shop The Works is closing its Margate location on Sunday. Shoppers will have to travel to Westwood Cross Shopping Centre or Ramsgate Garden Centre for the nearest stores.
A spokesperson for the company said closing the branch is "as part of ongoing plans to optimise our store portfolio".
Shoppers have reacted with disappointment. One person said online: "No I love The Works."
Another added: "Be nothing left in the town soon."
Independent bar and shop Emporium Worthing is also closing to the public on Sunday, saying it's doing so "with a heavy heart".
The owners shared a long message on Facebook to announce the decision.
They wrote: "We share the challenging decision to close Emporium Worthing after five memorable years of serving you.
"This has been a tough choice for us, but after careful reflection, we believe it is the best path forward and the right choice for us at this time."
A large closing down sale is underway to clear out everything, even shelves and furniture.
But it's not all bad—Emporium will continue online, selling hardwares.
New Look is shutting its store in Birmingham's Northfield Shopping Centre on June 8.
A photo posted on Facebook showed the store window with signs about the closure and directed shoppers to their website.
People are upset to hear the news.
One Facebook user wrote: "Will soon be a ghost town, absolutely nothing left."
Another said: "Online (retail) is killing shops." A New Look spokesperson said: "We would like to thank all of our colleagues and the local community for their support over the years.
"We hope customers continue to shop with us online at newlook.com, where our full product ranges can be found."
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Hindustan Times
2 days ago
- Hindustan Times
List of stores closing this weekend, including 124-year-old iconic brand
Higher employer National Insurance payments and rising wage costs since April have added more pressure. On top of rising business rates, energy bills, and rent, some shops have had to raise prices or even shut down. Of course, it's important to remember that shops close for many reasons, not just because the economy is struggling. Sometimes, a chain will shut a branch that isn't doing well and open another one in a different area where they expect more customers. Many retailers are also leaving city centers and moving to out-of-town shopping areas. Either way, five stores will close this weekend, including a department store that's been around for over 120 years. Here's a full list of the shops we know are shutting down for good. Ginger, based in Norwich, will close for the last time on Saturday. The store was started by David and Rodger Kingsley in 1978, after their earlier business, Jonathan Trumbull, launched in 1971. But store manager Beckie Kingsley said the closure is due to the economy and the impact of Covid-19. She said: "It's with truly heavy hearts that, after 46 unforgettable years, we have made the incredibly difficult decision to close the doors at our beautiful, beloved and historic Timber Hill home. "We've weathered many storms over the decades, but there's been ongoing challenges of today's financial climate - coupled with the lasting impact and huge shifts within the retail landscape since Covid. "This led us to ask - does it still work for us? After deep reflection, the answer, sadly, is no." Historic department store Daniel of Ealing in London will close for good on Sunday, after being open for 124 years. Prices have been cut on homeware, clothes, toys, sports gear, and shoes, with discounts of up to 50%. People finding out the popular store is closing have shared their sadness online. One person wrote: "Loved this shop and it's top floor restaurant." Another said: "Ealing has lost its heart, soul and uniqueness!" Stationery shop The Works is closing its Margate location on Sunday. Shoppers will have to travel to Westwood Cross Shopping Centre or Ramsgate Garden Centre for the nearest stores. A spokesperson for the company said closing the branch is "as part of ongoing plans to optimise our store portfolio". Shoppers have reacted with disappointment. One person said online: "No I love The Works." Another added: "Be nothing left in the town soon." Independent bar and shop Emporium Worthing is also closing to the public on Sunday, saying it's doing so "with a heavy heart". The owners shared a long message on Facebook to announce the decision. They wrote: "We share the challenging decision to close Emporium Worthing after five memorable years of serving you. "This has been a tough choice for us, but after careful reflection, we believe it is the best path forward and the right choice for us at this time." A large closing down sale is underway to clear out everything, even shelves and furniture. But it's not all bad—Emporium will continue online, selling hardwares. New Look is shutting its store in Birmingham's Northfield Shopping Centre on June 8. A photo posted on Facebook showed the store window with signs about the closure and directed shoppers to their website. People are upset to hear the news. One Facebook user wrote: "Will soon be a ghost town, absolutely nothing left." Another said: "Online (retail) is killing shops." A New Look spokesperson said: "We would like to thank all of our colleagues and the local community for their support over the years. "We hope customers continue to shop with us online at where our full product ranges can be found."
Mint
2 days ago
- Mint
Failed Muni Bond Draws FBI and Sparks `Ponzi-Like Fraud' Claims
(Bloomberg) -- Before the lawsuits started piling up in courtrooms across Connecticut, before his employer accused him of running a 'massive Ponzi-like fraud,' and before the FBI showed up, Robert Cappelletti looked well on his way to pulling off one of the greatest muni-bond coups of all time. The plan Cappelletti had put together was so audacious it bordered on the fantastical. The housing agency he ran in Groton, a sleepy town of some 40,000 people along Connecticut's Thames River, would sell $750 million of bonds to jumpstart a $4 billion project to transform a bunch of run-down shopping plazas into a sprawling, up-scale development. There'd be a new train station, a hospital, almost 2,000 apartments and dozens of shops and restaurants. It would have been the biggest local bond issue in the state's history and expanded the tiny Groton agency far beyond its role managing two apartment complexes. And yet Cappelletti — a part-time employee with a mixed record running other housing agencies in the state — breezed through a series of crucial steps needed to complete the sale. He got approval from the five-person board that runs the agency; crafted a brief financial projections statement; scored an investment-grade bond rating; and started the process of lining up buyers for the debt. It was only when the bond sale collapsed this winter and Cappelletti was removed from office that the complex financial web that he had spun across Connecticut for years came to light. Cappelletti engaged in double-dealing, created shell companies and failed to disclose loans he took out, leaving, in the process, a trail of financial wreckage across the state, lawyers for the Groton agency alleged in the most high-profile case against him. In February, they sued Cappelletti for fraud, claiming he borrowed at least $3 million without the commission's knowledge through subsidiaries he controlled. In subsequent court documents, the authority alleged Cappelletti also took 'millions of dollars' from non-commercial lenders and other 'questionable entities' that were then transferred to others, including businesses owned by his brother, David, that received about $1 million. The housing authority's attorneys are working with the FBI, which is investigating, according to people familiar with the matter who asked not to be identified discussing internal matters. 'Everybody is disgusted,' said Ric Silver, who lives in an apartment in Pequot Village, a 104-unit complex managed by the authority. Cappelletti declined to comment through his attorney, Joseph Martini, who also declined to comment. Cappelletti's brother, David, who was named as a co-defendant in the suit last month, also declined to comment. On June 2, in court papers filed in connection with the Groton case, Ivan Ladd-Smith, another lawyer for Cappelletti, said he intends to deny the allegations. A press official for the FBI declined to comment. Robert Frink, the chair of the Groton Housing Authority, said the board has opened an investigation but is 'unable to go into greater detail at this time.' That Cappelletti drew so little scrutiny as he pushed ahead with the deal is a testament to the vulnerabilities in the vast network of government agencies struggling to provide affordable housing to low-income families across America. To finance new projects and try to address the housing crisis, the local agencies routinely sell municipal bonds, a loosely regulated corner of the securities market where deals are often just rubber-stamped. Many of the agencies have been plagued by mismanagement, poor oversight and corruption. Since 2023, prosecutors have brought bribery and fraud charges against housing authority officials in Ohio, North Carolina, Georgia, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Montana and New York, where 70 former and current New York City Housing Authority officials were ensnared in a historic case. In Connecticut, the events in Groton are drawing fresh scrutiny to the more than 100 independent housing agencies across the state, which only has enough affordable rental homes to meet the needs of about one-third of the lowest-income households. 'Until we fix the regulatory disconnect,' said Robert Boris, chair of Groton's economic development commission, 'bad actors will continue to exploit it and working families will continue to the pay the price.' Cappelletti, 58, has worked in public housing for two decades. A graduate of Assumption University, a Catholic school in Worcester, Massachusetts, he joined the housing authority in Stamford, Connecticut, in 2002 to run the city's Section 8 voucher program, according to his LinkedIn profile. In 2009, he became the executive director for the Meriden Housing Authority and five years later tacked on a similar part-time job for the Waterbury Housing Authority. Just before starting at Groton in 2016, he left the post in Waterbury. There, an investigation found he had used $56,653 of public funds to buy a Chevrolet Silverado for business and personal use even though he wasn't entitled to a vehicle, had slid someone onto the payroll without the agency's approval and allowed a contractor to live rent-free in an apartment managed by the agency in exchange for painting work. Cappelletti and Waterbury reached a separation agreement that included no admission of wrongdoing. The Groton job was a relatively modest one — mostly the oversight of 174 rental units — that Cappelletti could do while still running the agency in Meriden some 50 miles away. Cappelletti, though, envisioned much bigger things for Groton. A manufacturing hub just off the Long Island Sound, best known for its naval base, General Dynamics Corp.'s submarine factory and the sprawling research facility for the drugmaker Pfizer Inc., the town had a relatively strong economy. But that had left it with a shortage of affordable housing, and its main commercial corridor was lined with aging, strip-style retail. Cappelletti called his development project Groton 2030. It'd reserve 20% of the 1,925 apartments for lower-income residents, a key selling point to the authority's board, which approved the project in June 2023. Per the plan, Cappelletti would oversee the project himself through a development arm of the housing authority instead of hiring an experienced developer or soliciting bids. One of the housing agency commissioners who signed off on the plan, Joe Greene, soon had regrets. In an interview, Greene said he had reluctantly approved the bond during a last-minute video call but had doubts after asking for details. Cappelletti never presented a real business plan, Greene said, and the town had not received formal notice that one of its agencies was planning a massive bond sale. At odds with the rest of the board, Greene resigned that September. Two years later, he remains mystified by it all. 'I still don't know how you're going to pay off a $750 million bond in a five-year timespan when you don't own the property and when there was no business plan,' he said. 'People were amazed at the amount of money.' With the approval in hand, Cappelletti put the deal in motion. He had the Groton authority pay $25,000 to a New Jersey-based investment banker, according to a check register obtained under a freedom of information request. The authority also hired Connecticut law firm Pullman & Comley as bond counsel and obtained an 'A' rating from Egan-Jones based on a few financial projections it turned & Comley declined to comment. Eric Mandelbaum, general counsel for Egan-Jones, said the firm can't comment on particular transactions but 'stands behind its work and record, which are based on methodologies that are publicly available.' Related Story: A New Ratings Game: 3,000 Deals, 20 Analysts, Lots of Questions The sale bogged down after that. Month after month, its completion kept getting delayed. Then, in May 2024, it all started to unravel on Cappelletti when the Groton commissioners received subpoenas ordering them to travel across the state to provide sworn testimony. Months earlier, a lawsuit had been filed against Cappelletti's Meriden Housing Authority and a subsidiary, Maynard Road Corp., that had defaulted on a $16 million loan. The lender, Titan Capital, subpoenaed the Groton commissioners because Cappelletti had made $629,000 of loan repayments with funds pulled from their agency, not Meriden's. The Meriden agency is now on the hook for about $30 million — to repay the Titan loan with interest as well as $12.5 million owed to Citizens Bank for a project in Bristol, Connecticut. Back in a September 2023 board meeting, the Groton commissioners had asked Capelletti about the cash used to pay off Titan, which was recorded as an expense for the Groton 2030 project. They were assured they'd be reimbursed when the bond deal closed, minutes of the meeting show. But the Meriden lawsuit raised new questions, and when Groton commissioners started digging, they found that companies controlled by Cappelletti had bought properties in Winchester, Connecticut, and Fitchburg, Massachusetts to redevelop. Cappelletti also allegedly forged a resolution to approve $2.7 million of lease agreements for the authority, according to the February lawsuit filed by the Groton agency. 'This case involves the discovery of a massive Ponzi-like fraud,' lawyers for the agency said in a court filing. 'Over the course of at least seven years, Cappelletti accepted millions of dollars in funds from non-commercial lenders or other questionable entities.' In January, the agency suspended Cappelletti and canceled his contract. The FBI probe continues and the lawsuits are wending their way through Connecticut courts. 'Our focus now,' said Frink, the chair of the Groton Housing Authority, 'is to ensure a complete and fulsome investigation.' More stories like this are available on
Time of India
30-05-2025
- Time of India
Why India Doesn't Need A War To Counter Pakistan
Why India Doesn't Need A War To Counter Pakistan Somnath Mukherjee May 30, 2025, 20:49 IST IST New Delhi has hit upon the best strategy vis-à-vis Islamabad: short, sharp military ops that buy long periods free of dramatic terror strikes & don't disrupt the world's fastest growing economy David vs Goliath is a favoured metaphor for depicting rivalries. In the Indo-Pak scenario too, the metaphor fits perfectly – one of the Indian David facing off against the Pakistani Goliath. Counterintuitive framing? Not really. The basic datum is as follows. India has a lot more to lose – pace of growth, migration of nearly 1bn Indians to upper middle-income status, more opportunities in exciting areas of AI, semiconductors, as well as old economy areas like manufacturing. In comparison, Pakistan is an economic basket case. Opportunity costs for India are far higher. Ergo, the room for manoeuvre and amount of capability brought to bear are a lot less for India than for Pakistan in a conflict scenario. In short, when it comes to a hot conflict, it's the Indian David facing off against the Pakistani Goliath. In effect, this praxis of David and Goliath informs India's Pak policy more than anything else. As the David, India's not trying big, heroic outcomes. On the contrary, the overarching aim is modest – create a security umbrella under which India's progress can continue uninterrupted. In that pursuit, the Indian state's responses, including the more overt versions in the last decade, have been game theoretic. Change the decision calculus to force Pakistan to recalibrate its own boards. Process of recalibration hopefully buys India longer periods free of dramatic, large terror attacks.
