Legendary high street retailer with 120 UK stores confirms its shutting popular shop after string of closures
The chain announced it will shut one of its branches on August 10 after its landlord decided not to renew its lease.
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HMV in St Nicholas Arcades in Lancaster is closing its doors for the final time as store bosses scramble to relocate.
The shop is housed in the town shopping centre, which is undergoing a major revamp.
After 25 years on the site, HMV said it had hoped plans would allow it to continue trading at the centre.
In a statement, bosses said said they had "no intention to stop serving our loyal customers".
They added: "HMV first traded in Lancaster over 25 years ago, and whilst we hoped that the landlord's redevelopment plans would have allowed us to keep trading, this was unfortunately not possible.
"As we have no intention to stop serving our loyal customers in Lancaster, we are actively looking for a new unit to restart trading as soon as possible and would encourage landlords and agents in Lancaster to get in touch with new potential sites.
"The current last day of trade will be Sunday August 10. Nearby HMV stores in Blackpool and Preston will remain open."
This comes just weeks after the retailer shuttered its store on Cornmaker Street in Oxford.
The shop was housed in the Clarendon Centre, which was due to undergo a major revamp that isn't due to finish until 2029.
After three decades trading in Oxford, HMV said it had hoped the plans would still enable it to continue trading at the centre.
Major card chain with 163 shops launches closing down sales ahead of shutting its doors for good
In a statement, bosses said they had "no intention to stop serving our loyal customers in Oxford".
They added: "We are actively looking for a new unit to restart trading as soon as possible and would encourage landlords and agents in Oxford to get in touch with new potential sites."
It's the latest blow to Britain's struggling high street.
Beales, one of the UK's oldest department stores, shut its shop in Poole after more than 140 years.
Meanwhile, New Look is in the process of shutting around 100 shops across the UK, blaming rising costs and changing shopping habits.
Why are retailers closing stores?
RETAILERS have been feeling the squeeze since the pandemic, while shoppers are cutting back on spending due to the soaring cost of living crisis.
High energy costs and a move to shopping online after the pandemic are also taking a toll, and many high street shops have struggled to keep going.
However, additional costs have added further pain to an already struggling sector.
The British Retail Consortium has predicted that the Treasury's hike to employer NICs from April 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.
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."
It comes after almost 170,000 retail workers lost their jobs in 2024.
End-of-year figures compiled by the Centre for Retail Research showed the number of job losses spiked amid the collapse of major chains such as Homebase and Ted Baker.
It said its latest analysis showed that a total of 169,395 retail jobs were lost in the 2024 calendar year to date.
This was up 49,990 – an increase of 41.9% – compared with 2023.
It is the highest annual reading since more than 200,000 jobs were lost in 2020 in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, which forced retailers to shut their stores during lockdowns.
The centre said 38 major retailers went into administration in 2024, including household names such as Lloyds Pharmacy, Homebase, The Body Shop, Carpetright and Ted Baker.
Around a third of all retail job losses in 2024, 33% or 55,914 in total, resulted from administrations.
Experts have said small high street shops could face a particularly challenging 2025 because of Budget tax and wage changes.
Professor Bamfield has 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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