Popular shop serving customers for 37 years forced to suddenly close down – as owner blames high street ‘chaos'
A POPULAR shop that has served customers for 37 years has been forced to close down with the owner blaming high street "chaos".
Specialist music reproduction store Oxford Audio Consultants has operated in Botley, Oxford, since 1988.
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The independent shop on Park End Street was a frequent haunt for music lovers.
But the music reproduction store has since been forced to shut its doors for the final time.
Jon Harker, who moved to the area in 1977 from New Zealand said that "mayhem" caused by the closure of Botley Road was to blame.
The building has been recently sold to Schroders, which have applied to redevelop it into a new music venue.
Mr Harker's business was given a short-term lease of 11 months, which he described as 'a blessing in disguise'.
Speaking to the Oxford Mail, he said: 'I'm just so glad we've moved out of central Oxford.
'We're down the end of Botley Road, and every time I have to go to the shop with a vehicle, I have to go to the ring road and back down Abingdon Road – until August next year.
'The whole thing is mayhem.'
Mr Harker now runs the high-end audio business from a studio at his home.
He branded the situation 'chaotic' and said trying to get into town with his van had become a nightmare.
Because of the lengthy diversion via the ring road and Abingdon Road, even a simple trip to the shop had turned into a mission.
Three iconic retailers file for bankruptcy in shopping bloodbath – and liquidation sales have already started
Mr Harker also took aim at city leaders, accusing them of being 'anti-car' and more focused on keeping vehicles out than helping businesses survive.
He added: 'They just want to make it so miserable for drivers that they don't come back."
And Mr Harker warned that the changes could mean that Oxford risks losing its appeal for shoppers altogether.
Although he said his shop wasn't totally wrecked by the changes, Mr Harker admitted the policies have almost certainly hit business.
He called the short lease 'a blessing in disguise', saying he was ready to move on.
Now, the audio pro has built a new showroom and listening studio at his home in Botley - just off the ring road - where he'll carry on selling elite hi-fi gear to loyal customers.
He said the shift to home-based retail won't change much, with his niche offering, loyal client base, and top-end products still firmly in demand.
Over the years, Mr Harker has seen economic ups and downs, but reckons it's the personal touch and specialist service that keeps his business booming.
'We've got customers who've been with us since day one – they're more like old mates now,' he said.
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.
Sadly, the Oxford shop's closure seems to be no exception to a growing rule of high-street closures across the UK.
The Centre for Retail Research forecasts that more than 17,000 shops will close this year, resulting in more than 200,000 job losses.
The Centre has found a significant drop in retail spending in recent years, with a sales fall of -4.6% in 2022, -2.8% in 2023 and -0.2% in 2024.
This trend does not look set to improve in the near future, with the Centre forecasting further year-on-year sales cuts by -2.1% this year, and -2.5% in 2026.
The consequences of these findings were evidenced in a House of Lords report, which showed 10,000 UK High Street store closures in 2023.
It concluded that retail's dominance on the high street "is something of the past," instead suggesting that the future belongs to food and leisure establishments.
The report said that councils, communities and local businesses needed to work together to create better footfall on high streets.
For example, by making them accessible with better public transport links and additional parking spaces.
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