God, I hate writing these stories. Another day, another high street casualty. Shoe Zone's Bexhill branch closes TODAY, and I've been reading comments from devastated locals all morning.
The discount footwear retailer - you know, the one with those bright blue storefronts and 297 shops nationwide - is pulling the plug on its Devonshire Road location after the final customer walks out this evening. Just like that. Gone.
I actually popped in there last summer looking for some cheap flip-flops. The staff were lovely.
What the hell is happening to our town centres?
One local didn't mince words on Facebook: "Bexhill is turning into a ghost town." Another wrote something that stuck with me: "This is so sad, soon we'll have nothing left." I mean, they're not wrong, are they?
The writing's been on teh wall since November when the closing signs first appeared. Now the property's already up for rent - Dyer & Hobbis want £29,500 a year for it. Good luck with that in this climate.
The Blame Game (Spoiler: It's Not Just One Thing)
Shoe Zone has been pretty upfront about why they're shutting shops. Business rates are through the roof, wage costs keep climbing, and apparently we can even blame the British weather. Their chairman Charles Smith specifically pointed to 2023's "unseasonably wet summer" for tanking their sales.
The company's pre-tax profits dropped by a whopping 40% last year. Ouch.
Back in 2021, I interviewed a small business owner in another seaside town who told me, "Every time it rains for more than two days, I lose about £600 in sales." Never really connected weather patterns to retail performance before that conversation.
Not the first... definitely not the last
Bexhill is just the latest casualty in Shoe Zone's retreat. They've already closed branches in Boscombe, Bournemouth, Burgess Hill, Watford, Stoke-on-Trent and Inverness.
Their strategy seems to be abandoning smaller locations and focusing on bigger, more profitable stores. They've opened new sites in places like Maidstone and Bristol... which doesn't help Bexhill residents one bit.
The High Street Massacre Continues
It's not just shoes disappearing from our town centres.
Huttons in London - that lovely gift shop in the Putney Exchange that's been there since the 90s - is shutting up shop because of ridiculous energy costs.
New Look is having a bloodbath of its own, reportedly closing almost 100 stores - about a quarter of their entire UK operation. Stores in Gateshead, St Austell and Porth have already started their closing down sales.
My sister texted me yesterday saying she'd spotted "everything must go" signs in her local branch. Her response: "Where am I supposed to buy affordable work clothes now?"
And then there's Beales... 140 YEARS of history coming to an end. Their last remaining shop in Poole's Dolphin Centre closes May 31st. I walked past their 70% off sale last weekend and it was depressing as hell.
Their CEO Tony Brown didn't hold back, blaming the "devastating impact" of higher national insurance contributions and minimum wage increases.
So... who's next?
I spent £4K renovating my home office last year. Might've been the smartest investment I ever made, because at this rate, there won't be any physical shops left to visit by 2025.
Listen. I'm not saying online shopping is evil. I do it too. But there's something soul-destroying about watching these community spaces vanish one by one.
Bexhill locals - I feel for you today.
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