Blow for town as another shop pulls out
ARGOS has announced that its store in Llanelli’s St Elli Shopping Centre has closed.
The national retail company has been a fixture in the town’s shopping centre for many years but it has now been confirmed that it will not be reopening its doors following the latest lockdown.
Its store in the Parc Pemberton retail park adjacent to Parc y Scarlets is unaffected and will remain open.
The company explained that members of staff at the store were offered “opportunities to redeploy to alternative roles” within Sainsbury’s, which bought Argos in 2016.
Last year, the company shared plans to open 350 more Argos stores in
Sainsbury’s and Argos collection points in supermarkets and convenience stores by March 2024.
As a result, the company has said it no longer needs as many standalone stores and plans to close around 420 branches.
A spokeswoman for Argos said: “The St Elli Shopping Centre Argos store has now closed and colleagues were offered opportunities to redeploy to alternative roles within Sainsbury’s. Customers can continue to shop with us at nearby stores, including at Parc Pemberton and the collection point in Gorseinon Sainsbury’s.”
In December 2019 it was announced that the Argos Extra store in Swansea’s High Street would be closing and relocating to the nearby Sainsbury’s. The move saw no direct job losses as staff also moved across to the supermarket.
Last year, mobile network operator EE closed its store in Stepney Street in Llanelli town centre as part of a planned consolidation with the store in Parc Trostre, while shoe retail company Clarks also confirmed it would be closing its Llanelli store.
It was also confirmed that fashion brand Animal would be shutting its store in Parc Trostre in December, as well as its brand in Swansea’s Quadrant Shopping Centre.