Charity shops are retail outlets selling mainly donated goods to raise funds for their parent charities and they have been a staple of the British high street for decades
A major UK charity is shutting around 39 of its charity shops across the UK in a major blow to the high street. Scope – which is one of the largest disability charitys in England and Wales – warned back in January that it could close a number of its 138 high street stores due to rising costs and declining footfalls.
At the time, chief executive Mark Hodgkinson said external factors had “made trading harder”, particularly noting rising rents, higher energy costs, increased staff costs and the cost of living impacting customer’s spending habits. The charity is in consultation until March after facing a £1.5million loss this financial year.
He said: “As a result, and to ensure our funds are best focused upon our charitable purpose, we have let our teams know that we will be putting forward proposals to close some of our shops, in stages, over the next 18 months.”
The proposal from Scope suggested that a total of 41 shops would close by the end of March under the plans. A further 31 shops would then shut between April 1, 2025 and March 31, 2026. The final phase of five more shops would shut when their leases come up for renewal or when there is a break.
Charity shops are retail outlets selling mainly donated goods to raise funds for their parent charities and they have been a staple of the British high street for decades.
Most charity shops have a paid shop manager, working with a team of volunteers who help to sort and sell stock. Although, some charity shops are entirely run by volunteers.
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Most charity shops acquire their stock through people coming in with bags of donations, and according to the Charity Retail Association, more than 90% of charity shop sales are from donations.
HOdgkinson said that online shopping of was also one of the reasons which has contributed to the charity’s decline on the high street, although this wasn’t just “confined to Scope”. He said: “All retailers have been hit with a greater shift to on-line shopping.”
Some shops sell “bought-in” goods, which is new stock which is sold for profit. Scope has already closed at least 22 underperforming shops in locations including Haywards Heath, Castleford, and Southampton.
A number of other sites have also confirmed that the site will be closing and this includes the Scope branch in Binford Place, Bridgwater, which will shut its doors for good on March 29. Overall, 39 stores will be closing before March 31.
Scope stores have been slowly declining in numbers since 2019 after 92 shops didn’t hit targets on lease renewal. Scope’s Annual Report for the year to March 2023 Scope said it had made £24million from trading activities, an increase of £600,000 from the year before. But in the same year Scope spent £24.7million maintaining and operating its shops. This was £1million more than the year before.
Hodgkinson said: “We need to make sure we have the right sized retail estate that is able to withstand future cost increases.” Noting that closing the shops would be a “tough decision to correct that in one go”. He added: “We need to make sure our money and our resources are ultimately focused on the biggest impact we can deliver.”
List of Scope charity shops closing this month
- Amersham
- Bangor
- Barking
- Beckenham
- Bexhill
- Bishop Auckland
- Bridgwater
- Castleford
- Christchurch
- Cambourne
- Devizes
- Dewsbury
- Eastbourne
- Ely
- Gillingham HS
- Halstead
- Haywards Heath
- Hertford
- Hinckley
- Kendal
- Lewisham
- Llandudno
- March
- Mitcham
- Morley
- New Milton
- Nuneaton
- Oadby
- Orpington
- Parkstone
- Petersfield
- Rochdale
- Scarborough
- Scunthorpe
- Shirley (Southampton)
- Skipton
- Stourbridge
- Wednesbury
- Welling
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