The Clarks shoe shop on Bury Street closes today (April 22nd, 2024). This follows the recent closures of Clarks branches in Newbury, Maidenhead, and Windsor. However, Clarks will remain open in Didcot and Oxford.
So we don’t have a shoe shop in Abingdon anymore.
Clarks have been a stalwart of the town for many many years and will be sadly missed.
Happening all over. Clarks started a closure plan for around 50 shops in 2020 as part of a rescue plan. Boots plan to close 300, M&S 67, Papa John’s 43 etc
https://www.timeout.com/uk/news/heres-the-full-list-of-high-street-stores-closing-in-2024-010224
https://www.express.co.uk/life-style/life/1880460/store-closures-Argos-WHSmith-C
There are always people in there when I go in. These greedy companies are only interested in profit. Unless they make a certain amount they shut up shop. No concern whatsoever about providing a customer service. You can’t buy shoes online as you have to try them on to see if they fit. So now they make you go to Didcot or Oxford. Well I won’t be patronising Clarks any more.
Amazing isn’t it. A for profit organisation making decisions based on profit. The world isn’t a social enterprise.
A shame. It’s not easy to buy shoes online, involves much faffing sending things back when they don’t fit. I’m sure the costs of rent vs revenue just wasn’t stacking up well for the little Abingdon shop.
Vodafone is going too…..the rents in the precinct are so high that businesses are being pushed out as they cannot afford the bills.
Already closed in Wallingford I believe?
It is a shame that these shops are leaving Abingdon. However, fear not! I saw that what used to be the Nursery Shop in Stert Street is now a big Turkish Barbers with Hookahs in the window. Abingdon seems to be a Mecca for Turkish Barbers. I have lost count how many there are. If you want to have your hair cut with a few puffs on a Hookah well you will have plenty of choice.
And your money laundered at the same time.
Hookah in the shape of a golden cobra. And what looks like a chrome plated Kalashnikov AK47!!!
Janet – It’s not only here, they’ve sprouted almost everywhere in the UK, oddly I never see many customers in them which begs the question… where’s all the money coming from to keep all these businesses afloat? Is all the drug paraphernalia offering too close a pointer to that?
I think you and Janet are spouting an urban myth . Unfortunate that Janet talks about Mecca and Turkey in the same sentence; I could elaborate but I had best leave it there for fear of being cancelled …
Just too expensive for children’s shoes. Yes, they’re good quality, but children grow out of them so fast that they’re not good value. Other shoe shops offer measuring, or you can do it at home.
I’m surprised no-one has mentioned parking. This is a real issue in Abingdon. It’s difficult- sometimes impossible- to find anywhere at all to leave a car.
And yet others say nobody comes to Abingdon because there are no decent shops (which there are) and/or you only get 1 hour free parking.
Provided you don’t have any mobility/walking difficulties there is always some where to park. Plenty of room over the bridge even in the height of summer.
I like Abingdon and, had I not got mobility issues, would walk there often. Rye Farm car park is too far for me to walk from and the pavements too full of trip hazards.
I stand by what I say about lack of parking in town: expensive or not, it is often simply not available. Perhaps a mini- bus ( with reasonable fare) from Rye Farm to town centre ?
This is a shoe-sizing chart from Clarks:
https://www.clarks.com/en-gb/fitguide
Sizes are given in shoe length so all you need is a ruler, or a measuring tape and you could mark out the length of your feet on a piece of paper to make the process easier.
Too few shoe manufacturers provide the width of their shoes and, if they do, there’s not a common system.
What’s needed is a universal sizing agreement … perhaps Liz Truss could sort that out.
Or Rishi Shoe-knack.