Thorntons To Close All Shops

[bassett one]

i love greggs and have the tummy to back it up,but sad loss of thorntons,think we will end up with more flats,might lose cole brothers as well.

[Guest busdriver1]

We are heading to a city centre with housing. That means then that the only viable businesses will be sandwich shops for office workers and takeaways for students. 

All major retail will move out of town or online creating in effect new smaller town centres elsewhere like meadowhall etc. A bit of a reversal. 

[Vaati]

Posts have been removed for off-topic. The topic on on Thorntons closing their shops, not cars/council agendas etc.

[mattsin30]

It's sad for the employees but things change, evolve and tastes change., Thorntons has been in decline for years.  The way people shop is changing covid is just accelerating it. Alot of the shops are also closing in shopping centres like meadowhall, big shopping centres (malls) have also been in decline for a number of years. It's not road closures or bus gates statistics show pedestrianisation normally increases footall,  people are shopping differently you can get a bigger choice for a cheaper price online this is why alot of brands that have gone into administration their online business is saved. The stores that survive will have some kind of unique selling point eg products or services you can't easily get other places. City centres need to change be different not just full of chains where every high street or shopping centre is the same. They won't even have the amount of office workers to rely on as that industry evolves with more flexible and home working rather than companies having expensive city centre premises. 

[Jeffrey Shaw]

Note that:

a. Thorntons will continue to exist as chocolate manufacturers; and

b. franchisees' shops are unaffected- it's just Thorntons' own 61 that are closing.

[Mossway]

Yes, I think there are 104 franchisees who will, apparently, continue, certainly for the time being !

[catmiss]

On 16/03/2021 at 11:32, Mister M said:

Well, then when it's gone all those people who will no doubt moan about Sheffield City Centre being 'dead' will be able to console themselves that if they shopped online and at Meadowhall, then they were part of the problem.

I, along with several friends in my over 60s age group, hate Meadowhall but have kids who love to shop there for a day out. The pandemic has forced many of us oldies to shop online when we’d much rather go shopping. The city centre has to encourage independent shops and leisure activities appealing to all age groups in order to survive 

[Mister M]

6 hours ago, catmiss said:

I, along with several friends in my over 60s age group, hate Meadowhall but have kids who love to shop there for a day out. The pandemic has forced many of us oldies to shop online when we’d much rather go shopping. The city centre has to encourage independent shops and leisure activities appealing to all age groups in order to survive 

I would've thought in the last year, that when not in lockdown, and shops were open, most people would not want to be in an enclosed space like Meadowhall. However I have a friend who works in Meadowhall, and said it was ram packed, and many were not observing rules. Pandemic or not, and I've said this on here a few times before, some people refuse to change, no matter what the incentives or disincentives.

With the theme of your post, I hope many people will go to independent shops like Atkinsons to ensure their survival.

[Cycleracer]

Times and habit's change and making it hard for cars is just one of the problems why the High Street is dying out.

It is on line buying that has really cut the throat of the Town centre and places like Meadowhall.

The reason I stopped going many years ago now was the parking price's that went up and up and the Council just got greedy and now they are paying the price.

Me personally won't miss the High street that ship sailed for me years ago but there are many jobs at risk and that is the sad side to this.

The pandemic as put the nail in the coffin but it has been going down hill for years, we all need to embrace the new shopping way by technology like it or lump it on line buying is not going away and is going to get even more popular.

You can blame the council for making motorist's life harder to get there, you can blame lack of investment for years as another, you can blame greedy landlords who charge extortionate rents for the premise's, online buying and the pandemic but the fact is I can't see any foreseeable recovery.

[nightrider]

On 17/03/2021 at 14:58, mattsin30 said:

It's sad for the employees but things change, evolve and tastes change., Thorntons has been in decline for years.  The way people shop is changing covid is just accelerating it. Alot of the shops are also closing in shopping centres like meadowhall, big shopping centres (malls) have also been in decline for a number of years. It's not road closures or bus gates statistics show pedestrianisation normally increases footall, 

I mostly shopped on foot in the city centre - it was a short walk from my office. Now I work from home its too far. So they will have seen a large drop in footfall in the last year due to this.

 

Also product quality at Thorntons is not competitive with rivals, so anyway I would not buy from them nowadays...