A BELOVED booze shop has launched huge closing down sale with wine and beer scanning at 50% off.
Milby’s in Chester, which specialises in rare wine and whiskey, announced earlier this week that it would be closing for good.
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In a statement on Facebook, owners explained the store would be closing for good on March 30.
To help shift stock before it closes, it has launched a half price sale on its booze.
The store has stocked a range of premium whiskeys including The Glenlivet and Santis Malt.
It will be a blow to locals in the area who in the past described the shop as a “great shop” and a “hidden gem”.
While another said: “Really good selection of drinks. Great to see local brands too.”
And a fourth said: “Great variety of all Wines, Gins and Whiskey. Proprietor very knowledgeable.”
Its not the first time Chester locals have had to wave goodbye to a store.
High street staple Matalan closed its branch in the area for good back in January. .
The store in Stadium Way near the Greyhound Retail Park shut for good three months ago.
A spokesperson for the clothing and homeware store told The Sun it was closing the shop as the landlord wants to “redevelop the site”.
They added: “Our priority is to support our colleagues and we are working closely with all those affected and where possible offering them alternative positions.”
A Homebase branch in the area also shut as part of mass closures following its administration late last year.
Revolution Bar in Chester also closed last year as part of a major overhaul.
TROUBLE ON THE HIGH STREET
Plenty of other retailers are closing stores across the high street as households lean more towards online shopping and amid high business rates.
Soaring inflation in recent years has also dented shoppers’ pockets.
The Centre for Retail Research’s latest analysis suggests 13,479 stores, the equivalent of 37 each day, shut for good in 2024.
Of those, 11,341 were independent shops while 2,138 were shut by larger retailers.
The data also showed over half the stores that closed last year were shut due to the store or retailer going through insolvency proceedings.
This is when formal measures are taken to deal with tackling a business’s debt.
Retailers are also shutting stores in 2025.
New Look is ramping up a store closure programme ahead of April’s National Insurance hike.
Approximately a quarter of the retailer’s 364 stores are at risk when their leases expire.
This equates to about 91 stores, with a significant impact on its 8,000-strong workforce.
The company has restructured its store estate twice in the past six years, reducing its portfolio from around 600 UK stores in 2018.
It also closed all of its 26 stores across Ireland, marking the end of a two decade tenure in the country.
RETAIL PAIN IN 2025
The British Retail Consortium has predicted that the Treasury’s hike to employer NICs will cost the retail sector £2.3billion.
Research by the British Chambers of Commerce shows that more than half of companies plan to raise prices by early April.
A survey of more than 4,800 firms found that 55% expect prices to increase in the next three months, up from 39% in a similar poll conducted in the latter half of 2024.
Three-quarters of companies cited the cost of employing people as their primary financial pressure.
The Centre for Retail Research (CRR) has also warned that around 17,350 retail sites are expected to shut down this year.
It comes on the back of a tough 2024 when 13,000 shops closed their doors for good, already a 28% increase on the previous year.
Professor Joshua Bamfield, director of the CRR said: “The results for 2024 show that although the outcomes for store closures overall were not as poor as in either 2020 or 2022, they are still disconcerting, with worse set to come in 2025.”
Professor Bamfield has also warned of a bleak outlook for 2025, predicting that as many as 202,000 jobs could be lost in the sector.
“By increasing both the costs of running stores and the costs on each consumer’s household it is highly likely that we will see retail job losses eclipse the height of the pandemic in 2020.”
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