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A HIGH-STREET favourite is being forced to unopen for bully aft 50 years, leaving customers feeling acrophobic for their municipality centre.
Steffans Jewellers, Northampton, has been forced to adjacent aft being a 'class' municipality centre jewellers for 48 years.
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The store connected Abington Square volition beryllium saying its last goodbyes connected November 9, with proprietor Steffan Suter gutted to spot it go.
He said: "I was hoping to marque it 50 years successful Northampton but the town's retail situation isn't arsenic bully arsenic it utilized to be."
Steffan founded the jewellers successful 1974 astatine 24-years-old was capable to grow into the store adjacent doorway aft 18 months.
When Steffan's son, Wes Suter, was conscionable 9 helium besides began moving successful his fathers shop and is besides bittersweet to spot it go.
The household said they tried their champion to enactment Northampton but their ideas were turned down erstwhile suggesting ways to marque the municipality centre much appealing to visitors.
Loyal customers of the jewellers person flocked to Facebook to dependable their concerns implicit different high-street store being forced to close.
One wrote: "Another bully retail outlet leaves our town. Revamping the marketplace quadrate volition ne'er pull shoppers to the centre, the Council needs to find a mode to pull retailers backmost into Northampton."
Another added: "Sad different people store closings for good. Yet different spot of aged Northampton is going."
A 3rd idiosyncratic said: "I went into Northampton past week for the archetypal clip successful years. It’s atrocious - radical sleeping successful doorways, each banks and gathering societies successful Abington St isolated from Bonmarche.
"And the ‘new’ marketplace quadrate is successful my sentiment a full discarded of the millions it cost! The wealth would person been amended spent connected accommodation for those sleeping successful doorways!"
Northampton municipality centre Business Improvement District Mark Mullen backed the municipality centre revamp.
He said: "There is immense positivity astir the caller Market Square and with enactment owed to implicit soon connected Abington Street and Fish Street, positive the accomplishment of Stack, the beginnings of a agleam caller epoch for Northampton municipality centre are starting to emerge".
Unfortunately, Steffans Jewellers isn't the archetypal retailers to adjacent successful Northampton, with galore different shops struggling with the simplification successful footfall successful municipality centres.
Fashion elephantine Next is closing aft arriving successful 2015, arsenic good arsenic a immense subdivision of the DIY retailer Homebase.
TGI Friday's declared it would beryllium shutting successful Northampton and filed bankruptcy earlier this month.
It's present closing 35 determination successful the UK with much than 1,000 unit losing their jobs.
Another good loved concatenation that has closed its doors for the past clip is The Body Shop.
The Northampton subdivision started retired successful Peacock Way successful 1981 and has been a cardinal portion of the high-street's history.
A spokesperson from West Northamptonshire Council said they are saddened to perceive astir the closure of Steffans and admit the important relation it has played successful Northampton’s history.
They added: "As a council, we are committed to creating a vibrant situation wherever businesses tin turn and succeed.
"Supporting our tiny concern assemblage is simply a cardinal precedence for the council."
Thankfully, The Suter household has decided to acceptable up store 20 miles down the roadworthy successful Market Harborough.
They are readying connected opening this store arsenic begetter and lad aft after Steffans Jewellers closes.
The Sun has reached retired for Northampton Council for a comment.
Why are retailers closing shops?
EMPTY shops person go an eyesore connected galore British precocious streets and are often symbolic of a municipality centre’s decline.
The Sun's concern editor Ashley Armstrong explains wherefore truthful galore retailers are shutting their doors.
In galore cases, retailers are shutting stores due to the fact that they are nary longer the money-makers they erstwhile were due to the fact that of the emergence of online shopping.
Falling store income and rising unit costs person made it adjacent much costly for shops to enactment open. In immoderate cases, retailers are shutting a store and reopening a caller store astatine the different extremity of a precocious thoroughfare to bespeak however a municipality has changed.
The occupation is that erstwhile a large store closes, footfall falls crossed the section precocious street, which puts much shops astatine hazard of closing.
Retail parks are progressively fashionable with shoppers, who privation to beryllium capable to get easy, escaped parking astatine a clip erstwhile section councils person hiked parking charges successful towns.
Many retailers including Next and Marks & Spencer person been shutting stores connected the precocious thoroughfare and taking bigger stores successful better-performing retail parks instead.
Boss Stuart Machin precocious said that erstwhile it relocated a bushed store successful Chesterfield to a caller large store successful a retail parkland fractional a mile away, its income successful the country roseate by 103 per cent.
In immoderate cases, stores person been unopen erstwhile a retailer goes bust, arsenic successful the lawsuit of Wilko, Debenhams Topshop, Dorothy Perkins and Paperchase to sanction a few.
What’s progressively communal is erstwhile a concatenation goes bust a rival retailer oregon backstage equity steadfast snaps up the intelligence spot rights truthful they tin ain the marque and merchantability it online.
They whitethorn spell connected to unfastened a fistful of stores if determination is lawsuit demand, but determination are seldom ever arsenic galore stores oregon successful the aforesaid places.
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