Iceland, Argos, Boots, New Look and Habitat store closures in full for July

Highstreets across the UK have lost hundreds of retail stores in recent years as many major brands increase their online presence.

Supermarket giants, fashion brands, and chemist chains are among those that announced plans to reduce their brick-and-mortar portfolios earlier this year, with Boots alone pledging to shut 300 stores across the UK.

Argos, Habitat, New Look and Iceland joined the beauty retailer in shutting a string of branches throughout July, with more expected to follow in August.

Boots

The pharmacy shared that eight shops would close down in a matter of weeks, two of which happened earlier this month.

Boots pharmacy sites at Heathside Road, Woking and the University of East Anglia campus, Norwich closed their doors for good just days ago.

A third store in Hamlet Court Road, Westcliff-on-Sea will shut its doors for good tomorrow, Tuesday, August 1.

James Kehoe, global chief financial officer at Boots parent company, Walgreens Boots Alliance, issued the following statement: “We will continue to optimise our locations and opening hours, and expect to close an additional 300 locations in the UK and 150 locations in the US.”

Iceland

The budget supermarket chain has already removed more than six of its physical stores from UK highstreets this year.

While it still operates roughly 500 stores nationwide, the St David’s Place branch in Swansea City Centre was the latest to cease trading on Saturday, July 29.

Argos

Argos customers local to Cardiff Bay lost their branch earlier this month as part of widespread closures across the UK. 

It comes as part of plans from Sainsbury’s, who owns the brand, to move the retailer into its larger supermarket locations rather than operate standalone Argos stores. By the end of March 2024 the brand plans to have 430 counters operating within large Sainsbury’s sites in addition to 160 designated Argos shops.

Habitat

Habitat is the main homewares and furnishings brand within the Sainsbury’s group and has followed Argos in closing standalone stores. The retailer lost all three of its remaining sites earlier in July, including the Brighton, Leeds and White City’s Westfield, London store.

Sainsbury’s claimed that it will look to redeploy all impacted shop staff within its own supermarkets or Argos stores to minimise job losses.

New Look

The popular high-street fashion brand has bid farewell to more than 85 UK stores since 2018. Its latest branch closure occurred in Teesside Retail Park in Stockton-on-Tees on July 7.

Despite closures, the retailer still has more than 400 sites across the nation with several new sites opened in November 2022.