“Another nail in the town centre’s coffin” – Clinton’s card shop shuts in Dorchester
Dorchester Town Councillor Les Fry says more shops shutting is "extremely disappointing"
Clinton’s, the card shop on South Street in Dorchester, has closed permanently despite managing to trade over Christmas.
The card shop joins M&Co, Joules and The Healthy Weigh in closing their doors, while HSBC has also announced they will be closing their Dorchester branch by the end of the year.
With the rising costs of energy along with the price of rent in Dorchester, a town councillors says it's perhaps no surprise that more and more shops are struggling.
Dorchester (West Ward) Councillor, Les Fry said: “We need to look at why each and every one of them is shutting individually and not as a collective, but I suspect a lot of them is to do with the price of their rents.
“At the minute we are just going through a mix of difficult challenges for retailers. The price of running a shop has gone up significantly.”
But he is hopeful for the future and does not believe this marks the death of high street shopping, “I’d like to think as the year goes on things will improve and retailers will open up again”
Cllr Fry called it “extremely disappointing” that more shops are shutting in Dorchester but said “we need to do more” to keep these shops running.
He said: “We as a community should shop locally, support local traders and avoid online shopping unless you really have to.”
Online shopping has risen exponentially year on year with Statista reporting a total spend of £120bn to online retailers in 2021, a £45bn increase from 2019.
Cllr Fry said: “What we need is for our government to look at online sales and tax that appropriately to encourage people back into the town centres.”
With these staggering online sales figures, it’s perhaps no surprise footfall has dropped on Dorchester high street.
According to Les Fry, more people are using the town centre for leisure and to meet people that’s why we are seeing a surge in coffee shops on the high street.
He said: “Town centres are changing and until people stop going online to do their shopping then the high street is going to suffer from that.”