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SUPERMARKET chain Iceland is closing two stores starting in days as shoppers share their devastation.

The frozen food specialist is shutting a location in Margate on the Kent coast on June 21.

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Iceland is closing two stores starting in days[/caption]

Meanwhile, a further branch will close for good in Inverness, Scotland, on July 12.

The retailer said in a statement that staff at both sites have been offered roles at surrounding stores “where possible”.

But news of the closures has still been met with heartbreak from locals and shoppers.

One, posting on Facebook about the Margate closure, said: “Margate is losing everything bit by bit.”

Another added: “Can the town centre get any worse with empty buildings.”

Commenting on the Inverness branch shutting, one shopper said: “Very sad to hear this news.”

Another chipped in: “I’m so gutted.”

The closure of the Inverness branch means there will no longer be any Iceland stores in the Scottish city.

The nearest Iceland store will be in Aberdeen while there is a Food Warehouse, run by Iceland, in Inverness’s Telford Street.

It’s not the first store closure made by Iceland in the past few months.

It pulled down the shutters permanently on its site in Welling at the start of the year.

A site in Borehamwood and another in Exeter permanently shut around the same time.

The latest closures means Iceland has shut more than 20 stores since the start of 2023.

It’s worth bearing in mind retailers often shut branches in underperforming areas and open them where they think they’ll get more footfall and sales.

For example, it’s not all bad new for Iceland as in 2024 it announced plans to open more of its Food Warehouse format stores across the UK.

Food Warehouse stores, run by the Iceland Foods Group, are generally larger than Iceland shops and usually found in retail parks.

OTHER RETAIL CLOSURES

The retail sector has struggled in recent years due to the onset of online shopping and lockdowns during the coronavirus pandemic.

Higher inflation since 2022 has also hit shoppers’ budgets while businesses have struggled with higher wage, tax and energy costs.

The Centre for Retail Research has described the sector as going through a “permacrisis” since the 2008 financial crash.

Figures from the Centre also show 34 retail companies operating multiple stores stopped trading in 2024, leading to the closure of 7,537 shops.

This was the highest number of stores affected in a calendar year since the Centre started collecting this data in 2007.

On top of these more than 7,500 stores, over 11,000 independent shops closed in 2024.

This is in addition to almost 7,800 independent stores that closed in 2023.

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