The British catalogue giant has drastically reduced its portfolio of brick-and-mortar shops throughout 2023, having already closed more than 45 of its standalone stores.
This will continue into 2024 when at least one more store is expected to exit the high street.
It comes as part of plans to lose standalone Argos stores and swap them for branches within large Sainsbury’s sites.
This strategy has been a long time coming since 2016 when Sainsbury’s purchased Argos and merged the two major British retailers.
Argos’ recently confirmed that the shop in Kingstown, Carlisle will be the next branch to shut its doors for good.
The site is set to close in March next year, but an exact date has not yet been given.
It’s not all bad news though, with some new sites planned to replace former standalone Argos shops.
In the last 12 months, the retailer has lost more than 45 branches but opened up more than 25 inside existing Sainsbury’s stores.
The catalogue retailer closed all of its 34 stores in the Republic of Ireland on June 24.
It claimed that this was due to the necessary work required to develop the Irish part of the business not being viable.
By March 2024, Sainsbury’s expects to have 160 standalone stores and between 430 and 460 Argos counters inside its supermarkets.
