Argos in Formby closes down this Saturday

Feb 20, 20172 min read

The Argos store in Formby which is inside Homebase is unfortunately closing down on Saturday 25th February.

The Argos store opened in Formby on 19th June 2015 and has been very popular in our Bubble but due to the takeover by Sainsbury's, is now due to close. All the staff have been offered jobs in other Argos stores in Southport, Liverpool and Ormskirk.

The Argos Formby store manager said: "The ownership of Argos as a company has now been taken over by Sainsbury's, therefore these type of concessions can no longer stay in Homebase. We would like to say thank you to everyone who has shopped with us over the past year and a half and we are very sad to be going!"

The Sainsbury’s £1.4bn takeover of Home Retail Group, which owns Argos, has cleared the way for the supermarket chain to become Britain’s biggest seller of general goods. The supermarket chain is to put Argos stores inside it's Sainsbury's stores.

Sainsbury’s is now the UK’s biggest retailer of non-food, as well as the second biggest grocer, with 195,000 employees and more than 2,000 outlets including supermarkets, Argos stores, convenience stores and three flagship Habitat outlets.

J Sainsbury plc successfully completed its acquisition of Home Retail Group plc on 2nd September last year.

Mike Coupe, Chief Executive of Sainsbury’s, said: “We are delighted our acquisition of Home Retail Group is now complete. The combination of Sainsbury’s and Home Retail Group creates one of the UK’s largest food and non–food retailers, offering customers over 90,000 products in over 2,000 stores and across market leading digital channels, employing 195,000 colleagues across the UK and Ireland. We look forward to welcoming our new colleagues and customers and our focus, as always, is on delivering excellent customer service.”

John Rogers, Chief Executive of Sainsbury’s Argos, added: “The way people shop is changing – customers expect choice, convenience, flexibility, fast delivery and to shop whenever and wherever they want. I am excited about leading the newly formed Sainsburys Argos management team. Our customers will benefit from great quality products and services and fast delivery networks, so whether customers want home delivery, Click & Collect or to visit our stores, we will make it easy and convenient for them.”

Shoppers at the concessions will be able to pick up goods ordered from Argos online, and place new orders in-store, at the same time as grocery shopping.

The grocer has previously said standalone Argos stores would be closed in locations where a concession can be opened in a nearby supermarket. Mr Coupe anticipated some job losses where there was overlap but expects the total number of employees to increase by 1,000, in part through the opening of these new click-and-collect locations.

None of this helps our Formby community though as our nearest Sainsbury's store is Southport so unfortunately, unless Sainsbury's open in Formby, we will lose out!