Nottingham City Centre is in ‘a downward spiral’ as Topshop, Topman, and Miss Selfridge close after Asos buys out the brands.
The Topshop and Topman stores in the Intu Victoria Centre will now close in addition to the store on the Riverside Retail Park.
The £330m deal did not include the physical stores, just the 300 head office staff, the brands and their stock, meaning more than 2000 retail employees are now uncertain about their jobs.
Nottingham-based Retail Analyst, Nelson Blackley, said: “It’s a downward spiral unfortunately whether it’s a high street or a shopping centre, if its retail offer is reduced by stores closing it makes it less likely that people will actually take the trouble to travel into these centres to do their shopping, as the offer becomes less compelling.
“Then the footfall drops and the stores struggle, and the whole thing unravels quite quickly, it will be interesting to see how Nottingham survives.
He added: “There are hundreds of thousands of retail employees across the country currently on furlough, but this scheme may be disguising the full impact of Covid on the retail sector.
“I think there will be even more retail brands that fail and stores that close once that furlough scheme ends.”
Last year 170,000 people lost their jobs in retail sector, and it has been estimated that this will increase to 250,000 in 2021.
Before Covid struck the UK retail sector was already struggling, and many mid-market fashion retailers had already began to move online.
Currently an estimated 55% of the fashion retail sector is now online, a significant increase due to coronavirus, as before the first national lockdown this was only 33%.
A spokesperson from independent clothing retailer, White Rose, which has branches on Goose Gate and Long Row, added: “Obviously it’s very sad that it’s closing and people are losing their jobs, but a positive is that it could drive more people towards independent retailers who are able to offer a more personal service.”
