Cancer Research is closing almost 200 of its shops over the next 18 months. The Ludlow Castle Street shop is on the list and is expected to close at the beginning of the year. Shrewsbury is slated to close by May 2026. This will be a loss to the market area and I hope that new tenants for the premises are found quickly.
Over the decades, charity shops have become a familiar feature of the high street landscape and have become widely accepted, even in towns of independent shops like ours.
Charity shops have a long history. The first shop rather than street selling was in the late nineteenth century and many shops were opened to support soldiers, sailors and airmen during the two world wars of the 20th century. The modern run of charity shops got underway with Oxfam opening a shop in Oxford in 1947. The number of shops expanded in the recessions of the 1980s and after the financial crash of 2008.
The 1980s shops were akin to a jumble sale – goods piled up at low prices. With the expansion in the 2010s, charity shops became much more professionally organised, though continuing to rely heavily on volunteers. Currently there are more than 11,000 charity shops in the UK.
After record trading in 2022-23, like-for-like growth slowed in 2024-25 while energy, rents, National Living Wage and national insurance bills rose. That has squeezed shop profitability as has the increasing costs of charity shop items. There is now a thriving second hand (pre-loved if you must) online peer to peer market aimed at recycling fast fashion (Vinted, Thrift+, Depop etc.), some of which allow sales income to be donated to charities.
In the year to 31 March 2025, Cancer Research UK had a retail income of £120.8m with associated costs of £120.0m, £0.8m net on more than 500 shops. The prior year netted about £4m.
It is in this environment that charities like Scope and Cancer Research are cutting back on their high street stores. Cancer Research UK is refocusing on its most profitable stores and expanding its out-of-town superstores. The Shrewsbury store will close by May 2026.
The closure of charity shops and the growth of out of town charity superstores will be a blow to high streets.
It will also be a blow to the large volunteer community that works hard to keep the shops staffed. Cancer Research UK has around 13,000 volunteers in its shops. About 3,000 are affected by the closures. That is a blow to their lives. One told me, “I don’t know what I will do now.”
More broadly, charity retailers were profitable last year with average margins of 17-18%.
So unfortunate and upsetting that we will see yet another shop unit fall empty, what are local leaders doing to halt Ludlow’s slow death, lots of sentiment but still the number of empty shops grow, hopefully it won’t become another so called Turkish barbers or Estate agent…