Major high street retailer with 106 stores to shut shopping centre branch as two others close this week
Smiggle, founded in Melbourne, Australia, and selling school, birthday and leisure essentials, is shutting a shop in Wales this summer.
The store in the Cwmbran Shopping Centre will pull down its shutters for the final time in August, a store member confirmed to The Sun.
It's not clear what exact date the location will close, nor the reason it will shut.
Reaction to the closure from shoppers has not been positive, with one local even setting up a petition demanding the branch stay open.
The petition, which has been signed by over 70 people, reads: "This petition is a heartfelt plea to prevent the closure of our beloved Smiggle store in Cwmbran.
"This store is more than just a retail space – it's a vibrant corner of our community, a place where children light up with excitement and adults find joy in a wide array of unique and colourful products.
"The closure of this cherished store would not only be a significant loss to the local shopping landscape, but also to the Cwmbran community which benefits from its presence in innumerable ways."
The closure of the Cwmbran branch .
A store in the Eastgate Shopping Centre, Inverness, shut its doors on Wednesday (May 21), while a store in the Darwin Centre, Shrewsbury, is closing tomorrow (May 25).
Both sites launched closing down sales to clear remaining stock, offering discounts of up to 70%.
Shoppers have reacted with sadness after finding out the two stores will permanently shut.
Britain's retail apocalypse: why your favourite stores KEEP closing down
Commenting on the Shrewsbury store closure, one said: "Another one gone. Will be the whole centre soon."
Discussing the Inverness branch shutting, one shopper said: "So sorry for the staff, hope customers will be kind to the staff at this difficult time."
The Sun asked Smiggle to comment.
RETAIL SECTOR STRUGGLES
It's worth bearing in mind, larger retail chains often open and close branches based on customer demand and sales.
Sometimes a single store might shut because a lease is ending and the chain has decided it is better to direct cash into other shops or opening new ones.
However, the retail sector more broadly has struggled since the 2008 financial crash.
The Centre for Retail Research has said the industry has been going through a "permacrisis" during this period.
There are a number of reasons the sector is struggling, one being the rise of online shopping.
This has seen footfall to high street stores fall seeing large swathes of branches close across the UK.
Challenging economic conditions in recent years, including soaring inflation, have dented shoppers' wallets and purses too.
While some bigger retailers have struggled to stay afloat, including Wilko, in recent years independent shops have suffered the most.
The Centre for Retail Research said more than 13,000 high street shops closed in 2024, with over 11,000 of these independents.
This is in addition to almost 7,800 independent stores that closed in 2023.
RETAIL PAIN IN 2025
The British Retail Consortium predicted that the Treasury's hike to employer NICs will cost the retail sector £2.3billion.
Research by the British Chambers of Commerce showed that more than half of companies planned to raise prices by early April.
A survey of more than 4,800 firms also found that 55% expect prices to increase in the next three months, up from 39% in a similar poll conducted in the latter half of 2024.
Three-quarters of companies cited the cost of employing people as their primary financial pressure.
The Centre for Retail Research (CRR) has also warned that around 17,350 retail sites are expected to shut down this year.
It comes on the back of a tough 2024 when 13,000 shops closed their doors for good, already a 28% increase on the previous year.
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."
Professor Bamfield has also warned of a bleak outlook for 2025, predicting that as many as 202,000 jobs could be lost in the sector.
"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."
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