All the stores closing down in December – from New Look to WHSmith

Fashion retailers, homeware brands and budget stores like Poundland will close more stores in December.

It follows months of major high street names pulling the plug on brick-and-mortar sites to cut costs and keep up with changing shopping habits.

The weeks leading up to Christmas will see shops including Poundland, New Look and Homebase pull down the shutter on locations for the final time.

While it will mark the end of a year filled with closures for some household names, 2024 could see further action taken by retailers.

According to the latest figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS), an estimated 17,145 retail stores in the UK closed throughout 2022 – a dramatic increase from 2021, during which 11,459 stores closed.

Stores closing in December

Some retailers will close sites completely without relocating while others will replace smaller stores with larger ones nearby. 

New Look

The popular fashion retailer will shut shop in Shirley, Southampton on Sunday, December 3. It follows the loss of more than 10 stores across the UK since the start of the year.

Six New Look shops closed down in January and February, three in September, and later in October, the brand closed its branch in Stratford-upon-Avon.

There is a glimmer of hope for fans of the shop, with new sites now open in Grimsby and Leicester.

Homebase

Homebase fans in Banbury, Oxford will lose their local store in a matter of days. The Southam Road store is expected to close its doors one last time on Sunday, December 3.

A second site will be axed from the retailer’s portfolio later on December 10, at the O2 Centre on Finchley Road in London.

It comes after the closure of its Plymouth branches earlier in November which were part of a string of 93 sites that were shut down following Hilco Capital’s takeover of the brand in 2018.

Poundland

There’s a few weeks to go until Poundland will close more stores, with one in the Chineham Shopping Centre near Basingstoke expected to go on December 31.

It’s not all bad news though, with more than 800 locations expected to remain across the UK and more cropping up in ex-Wilko sites.

WHSmith

WHSmith customers who frequent the Market Street store in Manchester will bid farewell to it on Saturday, December 2.

The retailer previously axed two branches earlier in the year, when its Newcastle-under-Lyme branch shut permanently in Marc followed by the Bicester store which was shut on August 30.

Closures will continue into 2024 too, with the WHSmith in Ramsgate, Kent expected to go early in the new year. An estimated 1,400 branches will remain across the UK however, so it’s by no means a sign of the end of the stationery giant which is famed for its airport and railway branches.