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Decade of collapse for big-name shops Cut-throat business bleeding towns dry

GONE BHS was the most controversial collapse TOYS R Us and Maplin look set to join the graveyard of big-name chain stores.

It is a decade since Woolworths went to the wall, triggering 30,000 job losses.

That same year in 2008, kitchen and bedroom furniture chain MFI went into administration.

In 2009, book store Borders bit the dust. By Christmas Eve, all its UK shops had closed.

Electrical chain Comet went bust in 2012 after racking up heavy losses, the same year sportswear retailer JJB disappeared.

The following year, video and DVD rental chain Blockbusters went, killed off by the growth of online delivery rivals and then streaming.

But perhaps the biggest and most controversial collapse was department store BHS, in 2016.

The chain was sold by tycoon Sir Philip Green for £1 the previous year to a bunch of investors with no retail experience.

The list of collapses this year includes bed chain Warren Evans, clothing firm Berwin & Berwin and the company behind the once trendy label Joe Bloggs.

But many other retailers over the years have entered administration and managed to survive in one shape or another.

GRAHAM HISCOTT

BLOCKED CHAIN DVD shop vanished OUR town centres are under siege and it is not just shops closing at a rate of knots.

Big banks are axing hundreds of branches, the Post Office is closing outlets, Thomas Cook is shutting 50 shops, and two pubs disappear every day.

Throw in the demise of police stations, libraries and others and the fabric of many communities is being decimated.

Three Bs – business rates, stretched budgets and the weak pound pushing up import costs after Brexit – are partly why Toys R Us and Maplin have come a cropper.

But the other big factor is the seismic change which online shopping has heralded.

Shops bosses tell me all the time it is the most cut-throat time in their careers.

But for the sake of our communities, our wellbeing and much more we need action.

Town centres can thrive, but they need radical help from government.

Make the high street cheap to visit, affordable to trade on, vibrant and exciting, and we can once again be a nation of shopkeepers. RADICAL Sally Jones