The Four Color Media Monitor

If you've wondered whether any foreign specialty stores could've suffered from financial difficulties over the past 2 years, UK Messenger Newspapers has word of the branch of one working in Stretford Mall (which is in Manchester) that's closing down because of a lot of these very problems turning up:

A COMIC book store in Stretford is set to close as a rise in costs continues to take its toll on the borough's businesses.

A branch of Wow Comix opened in Stretford Mall in December 2020, but struggled to make its mark due to a coronavirus lockdown soon afterwards.

It reopened after lockdown and it held Stretford's first comic book festival in October, but it is now to close on April 16.

According to a post on the store's website, there are a number of reasons for the closure, such as a rise in business rates, staff costs and utilities costs, combined with a fall in footfall at the shopping centre on Chester Road.

But Wow Comix also revealed it was not warned of the now approved demolition and redevelopment of Stretford Mall, which it said risked added disruption to the store after an already inauspicious start to its time in the town.

The post reads: "In the circumstances, taking all this into consideration, we have come to the conclusion that it's simply not worth staying in Stretford."

So this store was sadly hurt by the Covid19 wave that's devastated only so many businesses since. Just like some specialty stores in the USA, the crisis also badly hurt similar businesses in the UK. Very unfortunate.

Labels: conventions, Europe and Asia, sales