M&S closing down shop

KMK

Not a bad idea Brightonman. Thanks for your positive suggestion!


Sounds like M&S have done a Kraft if they said the new store would not result in the closure of the existing Redcar store. No " guarantee" was given? Perhaps the council were too trusting of M&S and its reputation to insist on such a guarantee.


Sounds a bit shabby to me; let them think Redcar is safe, get the planning permission for a rival store and then, with nothing in writing, close down Redcar two years down the line. So much for "ethical" M&S!


I had expected better of them.

meer53

KMK wrote: »

Actually I only live about a mile away from the Redcar store and visit regularly. The nearest store with food and clothing will be M'bro which is about 13 miles away.


I have heard that permission for the new M&S food store at Skippers Lane (6 miles from Redcar) was given only on condition that the Redcar store was not closed. Clearly that hasn't happened. Bit like Kraft and their empty promise.


I was in the store on Friday and the staff seemed very depressed about the closure. I would have thought a firm the size of M&S could have persevered a bit longer with Redcar, given its 76 year history there and the situation of the town. Clearly profits are an issue, although the staff were adamant the store is in profit. But big profits aren't everything.....are they? The shop has a prime site overlooking the sea but it no doubt needs up grading.


Looks like the end of an era. Sad really. Still disappointed with M&S's decision.

I think you'll find that big profits are exactly what it's all about. They aren't interested in the staff or how long the store has been there. If they own the building i bet they'll make more profit on selling it than they will by keeping the store open for the next 76 years.

I really don't get the fascination with M & S, they lost the plot with their clothes years ago. They've been overtaken by other retailers who manage to sell clothes that people want to buy.

redcarone

At the end of the day money talks and M&S are claining it would cost £850k to repair and modernise the redcar store and nothing to close it. No redundancies means just that, move to another store or walk away from your job.. Shortsighted probably but what would be ideal is to relocate elsewhere in redcar. The old Leveys place next to Franks factory carpets would make a perfect Simply Food store, car parking at the front, distribution and delivery at the rear of the property and not too large a store to sell food and open a cafe inside. If it's true that the redcar store is still in profit then with a bit of investment, the store could pay for itself in no time. It needs a M&S man to look into it to see it's benefits.

EdwardS033

Marks and Spencer are the tenant of the shop and they will be paying rent of £145,000 per year until 2025 unless they can find a tenant to sub let the shop from them.

The site is up for sale for £1,800,000 though so if a new landlord buys it they may be able to negotiate an exit from the lease.

http://www.propex.co.uk/emails/pdfs/20_02_14_Red.pdf

charlie3090

I think they must be doing this all over, the m and s in Harlow is closing and they are opening a simply food store on a retail park a couple of miles away .
This will be a big blow for the town centre and difficult for people without cars but I guess their clothing range just does not make the profits for them it used to,a real shame but thats progress I guess.

Fishingtime

Look on the bright side you may get another £ shop

charlie3090

Or even another overpriced charity shop

whatmichaelsays

This is just a cultural shift in the retail sector. I think that the days of retailers having 500+ stores across every town centre in the country are long gone (with some exceptions) and that instead, retailers will focus their efforts on fewer prime locations in the most profitable cities and towns.

People talk of London sucking everything in from the outlying areas and I think that is happening around other cities in the UK. In this area, M&S closes it's Dewsbury store because so many from that town were shopping in its White Rose and Leeds City Centre stores. Westfield spent nine years trying to get out of their development in Bradford because it was too difficult to attract tenants to that - due largely to competing developments in Manchester, Wakefield and Leeds.

At the end of the day, if the people of Redcar cared that much for their local M&S, it wouldn't be closing. However, I suspect that a large amount of Redcar residents are taking their income elsewhere.

pimento

Fishingtime wrote: »

Look on the bright side you may get another £ shop

Or a greetings card shop.

marywooyeah

Fishingtime wrote: »

Look on the bright side you may get another £ shop

charlie3090 wrote: »

Or even another overpriced charity shop

pimento wrote: »

Or a greetings card shop.

or another coffee shop!