Popular high street shop serving customers for 68 years suddenly closes down as store launches stock sale

The Sun

26-04-2025

A MUCH-LOVED high street shop is set to close its doors permanently following the launch of a "stock sale".
Electrical retailer, Wains, located on Biddulph High Street in Stoke-on-Trent, has announced its decision to shut up shop after 68 years.
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In a Facebook post to customers, the shop's owners said: "After a wonderful 68 years we have decided it is time to retire.
"We opened on Thursday 24 April for the start of our stock sale."
In 2003, the business played a large role in the fight to stop parking charges being imposed in Biddulph - a fight that proved unsuccessful in spite of a petition with 6,000 signatures.
It comes as a car dealership, which has been in business for 94 years, announced it will close one of it's branches, with the site set to be demolished.
TC Harrison, a family run business, which has been operating since 1931, will close its dealership in St Neots, Cambridgeshire in just weeks, to make way for a retirement village.
Jeweller and watch expert Goldsmiths shut up shop at its store inside the shopping centre, The Broadway Bradford.
Rising costs, a shift to online shopping and a dip in consumer confidence have all impacted retailers, with even established names shuttering sites.
Well-known brands like Wilko and Paperchase have collapsed, while many others scale back operations in a bid to reduce costs.
Homebase, sold out of administration, has seen many of its stores close.
Boots is set to shut ten stores in the coming weeks as part of wider plans to reduce its UK portfolio by 300 sites.
Meanwhile, JD Sports has confirmed it will shut down 50 stores next year.
The retailer, which has 4,850 stores across 36 countries, has not yet confirmed how many of the closures will be in the UK.
Similarly, last month, Essential Vintage announced on social media that it would be closing down after they had been "priced out" because of bigger players in the market including Vinted.
Red Menswear in Chatham in Medway, Kent, shut for the final time on Saturday, March 29, after selling men's clothing since 1999.
Shoezone, located on Devonshire Road, has confirmed it's final day of trading will be May 13.
New Look bosses made the decision to axe nearly 100 branches as they battle challenges linked to Autumn Budget tax changes.
Approximately a quarter of the retailer's 364 stores are at risk when their leases expire.
This equates to about 91 stores, with a significant impact on New Look's 8,000-strong workforce.
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.
The British Retail Consortium has predicted that the Treasury's hike to employer NICs from April 2025, 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.
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.
In some cases, stores have been shut when a retailer goes bust, as in the case of Carpetright, Debenhams, Dorothy Perkins, Paperchase, Ted Baker, The Body Shop, Topshop and Wilko 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.
The Centre for Retail Research (CRR) has warned that around 17,350 retail sites are expected to shut down this year.