Shoppers are saying farewell today (Saturday) to a ‘landmark’ Marks & Spencer store that has stood in a town centre for more than half a century. The M&S in Queensway, Crawley, West Sussex, opened its doors in October 1968.
But at 4pm on Saturday they will close for the final time. The retail giant said the decision was partially down to changing shopping habits, although it said back in the summer that it wasn’t giving up on high streets.
Residents have said they are sad that the store is closing. They said it would leave a big hole in a town centre that was in a “sorry state”.
Vanessa Roberts, who has lived in the town since 1982, told BBC Radio Sussex: “It’s shocking really because the town centre is just empty. It’s just coffee shops, charity shops, barbers and nail salons. M&S has been here as long as I’ve lived here. It’s really sad.”
Another resident told the BBC: “It’s a landmark store for the town, it’s a bit of a shame that it’s closing, but I guess that’s the times changing. It’s a shame to be losing an iconic store in the town centre.”
The store is not much younger than present-day Crawley itself. It was designated as a new town in 1947, with the villages of Three Bridges and Ifield being merged with what was then the small market town of Crawley. Rapid growth followed and in 1958 Queen Elizabeth II opened Queens Square, the major shopping area close to the M&S store.
Graham Bennett, M&S regional manager, said staff would be offered alternative roles with M&S where possible.
He added: “Thank you to all our customers who have shopped at the store – we will continue to work hard serving you at our nearby Acorn Park M&S Food. Shopping habits are changing and our store rotation strategy is all about making sure we have the right stores with the right space – in the past year we have invested more than £12m in our stores across the South East.”
It might not be the end, though. M&S has said it would be open to investing in a new store in the town if it finds the right site in the future. In recent years, M&S has focussed on more modern stores in out-of-town retail parks, with some of its more traditional stores, like Crawley, being closed. Another example is Falmouth, Cornwall, which lost its large M&S store in early 2019 – the site still stands vacant.
But in July bosses at Marks & Spencer said they would not “leave city centres” amid criticism from shareholders over moving some stores to out-of-town developments. It came as the retail giant announced plans to invest £38 million in major new high street stores in Bath and Bristol at its annual general meeting in west London.
The retailer has undergone a sweeping overhaul under chief executive Stuart Machin, and previous boss Steve Rowe, which saw the group shake up its store estate. In 2019, the group launched 110 store closures as part of the plans, affecting a number of its longstanding high street shops.
The group’s bosses were asked whether they have “given up on the high street” at the AGM in July, amid concerns they were shifting increasingly towards retail parks.
Archie Norman, chairman of the business, said: “No, we haven’t given up on the high street. We have a very important store rotation programme but we are absolutely not trying to leave city centres – that has never been our intention. We do have some older stores that are hard and costly to maintain and run so we have to look at that.”
Mr Machin said the programme of closures, refurbishments and relocations followed a previous lack of necessary investment. “Our store rotation is really a catch-up programme on the last 20 years as we have previously underinvested,” he said.
In July, the retailer confirmed that it was investing £17 million in a new store in the centre of Bath and £21 million on a new flagship store in central Bristol. It said these were expected to create around 150 jobs.
