AN ICONIC British shoe shop chain is closing down today with just hours left to nab massive clearance bargains on the last of the stock.
The store announced its closure last week and a huge clearance sale was launched to get rid of the last of the site’s stock.
The Schuh branch inside the Eden Shopping Centre in Buckinghamshire will officially close with today marking its final day of trading.
A notice was put up in the shop window last weekend warning shoppers of the impending closure.
Customers were offered the chance to nab massive bargains on top brands as the retailer dumped stock at exceptional prices.
A clearance sale was launched in the wake of the closure which ends in just a few hours.
The store boasted a 4.2 out of 5 rating on Google from 76 reviews, has been praised by customers for its friendly and helpful staff.
Other Schuh shops will remain open nearby with the Reading, Watford, and Oxford sites still open for business.
At the time of the Buckinghamshire store’s closure one customer wrote: “Just to say how the staff in the High Wycombe store are fantastic.
“I would just like to say an extra thank you to Maddie for handling my broken pair of Birkenstocks with five-star customer service.
“I had a new pair within a couple of days, even buying a new pair as well.
“What an asset to the company Maddie is.”
Today marks the stores final day of trading with customers given just a few hours to grab a bargain in the clearance sale.
In recent months, several other stores have also announced closures, highlighting mounting pressures on the high street.
Jewellery chain Beaverbrooks confirmed that its High Wycombe site will close permanently, after 17 years in the town.
The move is reportedly part of a wider review in which the company plans to shutter up to seven sites.
Some local businesses have also closed down in High Wycombe as high street stores across the country begin to struggle with mounting economic pressure.
The closures reflect wider struggles facing bricks-and-mortar retailers, especially in smaller towns.
Rising rent, energy costs, and competition from online shopping are squeezing margins.
In some cases retailers have had to pull down the shutters after landlords refused to renew site leases.
RETAIL PAIN 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 shows that more than half of companies plan to raise prices by early April.
A survey of more than 4,800 firms found that 55% expect prices to increase in the next three months, 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.”
