A huge presence on Britain’s high streets has been slammed by locals after it decided to close its doors, raising fears that the seaside resort is becoming a “ghost town.” Despite having over 800 branches up and down the country, Superdrug is joining others in shutting up shop on Bournemouth’s High Street.
Residents called the makeup and medicine retailer’s decision “ridiculous,” with just days to go until the town’s WH Smiths also shuts down on January 18. This disaster for the town’s shopping area is part of a wider picture of high street decline, with more than 13,000 stores closing in the first 11 months of 2024—bringing the total number of shops lost in two years to almost 25,000.
Over this same period, around a quarter of a million retail jobs have also been lost, in yet another blow to many towns’ economies. With the loss of another major retailer, people in Bournemouth said it was “shocking” to see yet another store leave, with many wondering “what went wrong?”
While there are three other Superdrugs in Bournemouth, the nearest at least three miles from the town centre, the loss leaves a large 17,736 sq ft hole opposite the shopping arcade on Commercial Road – causing one local to lament “Bournemouth has died.”
While Superdrug has not publicly confirmed the cause for its central Bournemouth closure, the Sun has learned the retailer had to leave due to the landlord wanting to redevelop the site. Instead of the double-length shop front, shoppers will see the store turned into eight smaller units.
The decision has puzzled some who said of the central Superdrug “It’s such a good shop,” adding that the closing WH Smith was “one of the best” places in Bournemouth to get art supplies. This shop’s imminent closure follows others in Bournemouth, also closing the Wincanton branch of WH Smith in February, after already closing one in nearby Boscombe last year.
Though a familiar sight on most British high streets, WH Smith has decided to focus its business on its more lucrative travel and kiosk offerings. By the end of the year, it plans to open 15 more stores in this sector.
Despite being in a relatively better period for consumer spending than in previous years, the British Retail Consortium (BRC) is predicting that this trend of shop closures could actually get worse in 2025. This is because of the Treasury’s decision to hike National Insurance Contributions for employers, slapping an extra £2.3 billion tax bill onto business.
In a survey carried out by the BRC, three-quarters of businesses cited the rising cost of employing workers as their primary financial stress. The Centre for Retail Research has warned that this, as well as other factors, could lead to a whopping 17,350 shop closures this year, with up to 200,000 job losses
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. 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.”
