12-08-2025
High street chain launches 50% off ‘closing down' sale ahead of shutting popular town centre store forever
A MAJOR shoe retailer with more than 60 stores across the UK is set to shut a popular location for good.
Shoppers will be able to snap up some bargains as the branch has launched a closing down sale.
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Footasylum will close a store in Swindon.
The streetwear and shoe chain is set to shutter its spot at The Parade in the town centre.
The sale includes massive savings of up to 50%.
Imminent closure
Signs have been placed in the entrance informing customers of the imminent closure, reports Swindon Advertiser.
Footasylum operated out of around 60 stores at the start of 2025, but have already shut several locations across the country since the start of the year.
In March, the streetwear and shoe chain shuttered a spot at The Core Shopping Centre in Lands Lane, Leeds.
This branch opened in April 2022 but was closed following the chain's restructuring.
Footasylum's departure is the latest blow for high street shopping in Swindon.
It follows a series of high-profile closures in The Parade, with stationery retailer Smiggle shutting their town centre store on July 24, and opening their new Swindon location in the Designer Outlet one week later.
Charity shop Swindon Sisters Alliance, footwear retailer Schuh and Second Cup Coffee Company have also vacated the street in recent times.
The Parade's flagship building, which was formerly the home of Debenhams, has also stood empty for five years, despite developers' continued attempts to turn the prominent unit into a self-storage hub.
The Sun has approached Footasylum for comment on the closure and whether a date has been set for the store to shut.
Tough trading
Footasylum has not been the only brand to lose out on stores recently.
Select Fashion revealed it was ready to wipe dozens of stores from the high street.
It comes after documents, shared with The Sun, detailed how a total of 35 stores would shutter across February and March.
It is understood that closures will complete by March 15, giving shoppers in impacted areas just shy of two weeks to say their goodbyes.
Homebase was once a giant of British retail but has since nearly disappeared from the map.
The DIY chain entered administration in November last year but was partially rescued by billionaire Chris Dawson, owner of CDS Superstores, the parent company of The Range and Wilko.
Dawson's vision for the company is to preserve as many as 70 stores, protecting 1,600 jobs.
Despite this, three locations closed in March, including branches in Bury St Edmunds, Dunfermline and Leeds.
'Bleak outlook' – more stores set to close in 2025
The British Retail Consortium has predicted that the Treasury's hike to employer NICs will cost the retail sector £2.3billion.
Research by the British Chambers of Commerce showed that more than half of companies planned to raise prices by early April.
A survey of more than 4,800 firms found that 55% expected prices to increase in the three months up to July, up from 39% in a similar poll conducted in the latter half of 2024.
Three-quarters of companies cited the cost of employing people as their primary financial pressure.
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."
Professor Bamfield has also 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."
