A closing down sale has been launched at an independent cut-price Penrith clothes shop as it prepares to shut its doors at the end of this month.
After nearly three years in business, the White Wave Clothing Company, in Middlegate, will call it a day at the close of trade on 30th January.
The shop specialises in cut-price clothing and shoes, including bankrupt stock from the likes of collapsed chains Burton and Dorothy Perkins.
It also aims to undersell bargain basement fashion retailer Primark.
Yet in a sign of the cost of living crisis, loyal shoppers are increasingly cutting back on Penrith’s embattled high street.
The shop is owned by Bettina Bush, whose partner Jason Elliott works in the business. He confirmed the plan now is to sell-off stock with a fire sale.
Prices will be slashed with 70 to 80 per cent off and then massive discounts on any second item, before
the doors are closed and the business is shifted to trading entirely on eBay.
The shop employed around four members of staff but some would be retained to help with the move to the new online-only enterprise.
He added: “We were doing really well the first two years but this last year has hit so many people and people just haven’t been spending in the same way. We’ve noticed our sales slump by 40 to 50 per cent.
“How we set our prices in the shop is by checking eBay, which is generally the cheapest on the internet.
“We make sure our prices are under theirs so if something is 70 per cent off on eBay, we’ll go to 80 per cent off, and it makes us among the cheapest in the UK.”
The invasion of Ukraine by Russia had generated an endless doom cycle about rising energy prices which had also contributed to shoppers cutting back to save for bills, Mr Elliott felt.
He added: “We have had a lot of support from people and a lot of people coming in saying they are sorry.
“We have even had customers travelling up from Manchester and staying the night just to come into the shop and get a cheap deal.”
In brighter news, Mr Elliott said his partner is still preparing to open the former British Legion premises in Middlegate with planning permission submitted, and also hopes to reopen the General Wolfe pub in Little Dockray for the summer.
The Centre for Retail Research has said clothing sales have not recovered to pre-pandemic levels of 2019 with a drop of three per cent predicted this year
