Major coffee shop chain with over 1,000 venues across the UK suddenly closes branch with hastily-stuck sign on its door

The Sun

24-05-2025

A HUGE coffee chain with more than 1,300 UK branches has shuttered one of its high street shops.
Starbucks abruptly pulled the plug on its coffee house in Headington, Oxford.
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The location on the town's London Road notified punters that the "shop is now closed" on a store window sign.
The coffee giant first waved in customers in October 2007.
It is unknown why Starbucks decided to close down the location.
Starbucks now has two remaining locations in Oxford, according to its website, which are located on Cornmarket Street and Westgate Shopping Centre.
The Sun Online has reached out to Starbucks for comment.
In April last year, Starbucks announced the closure of one of its Reading cafes, leaving some shoppers "shocked".
And in March 2024, locals were saddened to hear their Dalton Park store, in Murton, Country Durham, would be closing down in hours.
RETAIL APOCALYPSE
Both independent and industry giants have been struggling with rising costs and reduced footfall over the past few years.
Dozens of shops are set to close across the country before the end of the month in the latest blow to UK high streets.
Just a few months into 2025 and it's already proving to be another tough year for many major brands.
Rising living costs - which mean shoppers have less cash to burn - and an increase in online shopping has battered retail in recent years.
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In some cases, landlords are either unwilling or unable to invest in keeping shops open, further speeding up the closures.
Smiggle isn't the only stationary shop shutting its doors, more WHSmiths stores are set to close in the next few months.
The huge sports retailer, Sports Direct is axed its Newmarket Road store in Cambridge on April 18.
Whilst, Red Menswear in Chatham in Medway, Kent, shut for the final time on Saturday, March 29, after selling men's clothing since 1999.
A couple months ago, Essential Vintage told followers on social that it would be closing down after they had been "priced out" because of bigger players in the market such as Vinted.
Jewellery brand Beaverbrooks is also shutting three shops early this month.
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.
It's understood the latest drive to accelerate closures is driven by the upcoming increase in National Insurance contributions for employers.
The move, announced by Chancellor Rachel Reeves in October, is hitting retailers hard - and the British Retail Consortium has predicted these changes will create a £2.3billion bill for the sector.
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."