Research reveals how more than eight out of 10 department stores have closed since 2016
More than 120,000 shops have closed across the UK in the past decade, a report found.
The mass decline in the number of stores comes as many communities have also seen a wave of other businesses vanish too. That includes nearly 6,600 bank branches that shut between 2016 and 2025, according to research by package price comparison website Parcelhero.
Its latest look at the health of the high street comes four years on a previous study, which forecast that around 100,000 stores would close by 2030.
“In fact, between the publication of the first edition of our report in 2016 and 2025, an estimated 122,682 physical stores have closed down,” it said.
The grim roll call of retailers that have gone from the high street since 2016 includes Jaeger, Toys R Us, Maplin, Mothercare, Thomas Cook, Debenhams, Laura Ashley, Paperchase, Homebase, Ted Baker, and Oddbins.
Among the report latest findings is a dramatic decline in the number of department stores, with 83% of those around in 2016 now gone. Given the size of many of the premises they occupy, their loss often leaves a gaping hole in many high streets, with some left empty, boarded-up and blight on the surrounding area.
The Mirror recently revealed how, five years after Debenhams collapsed, more than a dozen of its former branches remain empty or boarded up. At least one has become a magnet for crime.
David Jinks, Parcelhero’s head of consumer research, said: “Ten years ago, we warned that department stores faced extinction unless they fundamentally reinvented themselves for the digital age. Sadly, for most of the sector, that reinvention never came.
“This is not a story of retailers that were unlucky – it is a story of a sector that, with a few notable exceptions, failed to adapt to a world that had moved on.”
The reason for the demise of many department stores is similar in many ways to why so many other retailers have gone to the wall, with soaring costs making some financially unviable in the face of cut throat online competition.
On top of that came the impact of the Covid crisis, from which some stores have still not recovered. Mr Jinks said: “For many stores, the pandemic proved the final nail in their coffin.”
Among the department store casualties is House of Fraser, which fell into administration in August 2018. Sports Direct bought the business, but the number of stores has halved from 59 to 23 today.
Thousands of clothing stores have also closed in the past decade. One of the biggest to go was Sir Philip Green’s Arcadia empire, and with it Topshop, Burton and Dorothy Perkins stores.
The report warns “the war’s not over” when it comes to high street closures.
Stationery chain TG Jones, the rebranded name for WH Smith after the sale of its high street arm, is the latest retailer in trouble. It emerged earlier this month more than one in four TG Jones stores may be closed under sweeping plans. The cull of up to 150 stores threatens thousands of job losses across its 5,000-strong workforce.
Other retailers have announced restructuring plans to reduce costs that have led to closures. Supermarket chain Morrisons is planning to shut 100 stores over the coming months, blaming government policies for pushing up costs
