A POPULAR discount chain has launched a huge closing-down sale before closing a key branch.
Latifs, a discount homeware chain based in Birmingham, is closing one of its stores.
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The brand, which operates out of two branches, is closing its shops in Bilston, Wolverhampton.
The store, located in the Loxdale Industrial Estate on Northcott Road, will close for the final time in November.
As a result, the brand has launched a huge closing-down sale ahead of this.
A banner hung outside the Latifs store reads: “Closing down sale.
“Everything must go!
“Branch closes November 10.”
Latifs was founded in Birmingham in 1956 and is famed for its slogan of saving shoppers “pounds not pennies”.
The bargain brand employs a 40-strong team delivering an “Aladdins Cave of clearance bargains”.
Shoppers can bag anything at a reduced cost, including bedding, linen, towels, plasticware, kitchenware, rugs, and much, much more.
Once the Bilston store closes, Latifs will only operate from a single store in Pickford St, Digbeth, Birmingham.
Shoppers can also continue to shop for hundreds of items online by visiting www.latifs.co.uk.
The Sun has contacted Latifs to confirm the reason for the Bilston store closure.
It is also normal for retailers to open and close branches in different areas depending on customer demand.
Plus, if stores are located close together, businesses may choose to merge them to help reduce their overhead costs.
Why are retailers closing shops?
EMPTY shops have become an eyesore on many British high streets and are often symbolic of a town centre’s decline.
The Sun’s business editor Ashley Armstrong explains why so many retailers are shutting their doors.
In many cases, retailers are shutting stores because they are no longer the money-makers they once were because of the rise of online shopping.
Falling store sales and rising staff costs have made it even more expensive for shops to stay open. In some cases, retailers are shutting a store and reopening a new shop at the other end of a high street to reflect how a town has changed.
The problem is that when a big shop closes, footfall falls across the local high street, which puts more shops at risk of closing.
Retail parks are increasingly popular with shoppers, who want to be able to get easy, free parking at a time when local councils have hiked parking charges in towns.
Many retailers including Next and Marks & Spencer have been shutting stores on the high street and taking bigger stores in better-performing retail parks instead.
Boss Stuart Machin recently said that when it relocated a tired store in Chesterfield to a new big store in a retail park half a mile away, its sales in the area rose by 103 per cent.
In some cases, stores have been shut when a retailer goes bust, as in the case of Wilko, Debenhams Topshop, Dorothy Perkins and Paperchase to name a few.
What’s increasingly common is when a chain goes bust a rival retailer or private equity firm snaps up the intellectual property rights so they can own the brand and sell it online.
They may go on to open a handful of stores if there is customer demand, but there are rarely ever as many stores or in the same places.
It’s not always doom and gloom on the high street.
Several other major retailers have plans to increase their store counts.
German discounter Aldi has announced it will open 35 new UK stores this year. The openings form part of Aldi’s long-term target of operating 1,500 stores in the UK.
Asda has been opening hundreds of convenience stores as it looks to rival major players Tesco and Sainsbury’s.
Purepay Retail Limited , the parent company of Bonmarché, Edinburgh Woollen Mill (EWM) and Peacocks, Purepay Retail Limited, has said it wants to open 100 new high street stores over the next 18 months.
Home Bargains has said it wants to “eventually have between 800 and 1,000 retail outlets open”.
Primark is also opening new branches and investing and renovating more than a dozen of its existing shops.
Lidl is set to open hundreds of new stores across the UK.
Screwfix is set to open 40 new stores nationwide as its owner, Kingfisher, seeks to expand the DIY brand’s national presence.
Superdrug has plans to swing the shutters up on 25 new branches in the coming months.
Tesco has revealed plans to open 70 more stores across the UK over the next year as part of major expansion plans.
WHSmith has turned its focus to the travel side of its business, with plans to open new sites in airports, railway stations and hospitals.