SHOPPERS have shared their devastation after a beloved department store shared it would close for good.
Morleys, which sells a range of homeware and fashion, told customers it would close down is store in Tooting, London after nearly 70 years of trade.
Locals were quick to chime in and share their devastation following the news.
One person said:”Unfortunately these types of shops are dying out, think older people who are not into online shopping will be especially sad to see it go, it’s a loss for Tooting.”
While another said: “Extremely sad to hear this news. Only decent store left in Tooting now closing.”
While a third said: “Yet another department store closes it’s doors, just another sign of the changing shopping habits of people.”
And a fourth person wrote: “Very sad Morley is closing such good store with lovely people that served for so many year’s always polite and ready to help good old fashion service.”
To help shift stock before it goes, the store has launched a closing down sale of up to 70% off.
Owners plan to shut the shop on April 30, giving customers a few weeks to say their goodbyes.
Morleys has another store in Brixton, which will remain open.
It has been widely reported the building has been sold to developers who will transform the building into 24 private residential units.
There will also be space for commercial units on the ground floor.
Its not the first time that locals have had to wave goodbye to a business.
Back in October, Harringtons Eel and Pie House on Tooting’s Selkirk Road confirmed on social media it will close after over a century of serving traditional food.
As for Morleys, its not the only department store to shut up shop.
House of Fraser will shut its store on Lincoln High Street store in a matter of weeks.
The retailer, owned by Frasers, also shut in Bluewater shopping centre in December.
The department store had been operated out of a large unit which occupies two floors in the Greenhithe shopping centre for years.
TROUBLE ON THE HIGH STREET
Plenty of other retailers are closing stores across the high street as households lean more towards online shopping and amid high business rates.
Soaring inflation in recent years has also dented shoppers’ pockets.
The Centre for Retail Research’s latest analysis suggests 13,479 stores, the equivalent of 37 each day, shut for good in 2024.
Of those, 11,341 were independent shops while 2,138 were shut by larger retailers.
The data also showed over half the stores that closed last year were shut due to the store or retailer going through insolvency proceedings.
This is when formal measures are taken to deal with tackling a business‘s debt.
Retailers are also shutting stores in 2025.
New Look is ramping up a store closure programme ahead of April’s National Insurance hike.
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 its 8,000-strong workforce.
The company has restructured its store estate twice in the past six years, reducing its portfolio from around 600 UK stores in 2018.
It also closed all of its 26 stores across Ireland, marking the end of a two decade tenure in the country.
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.”
