Calls to act as shop shuts after 100 years: 'Increased overheads, online shopping, and demise of the high street'
Unless action is taken to ease the burden on traders there will be “no high street left to save” says an MP, as it was announced that a second long-standing family firm in his district within weeks is to shut.
The family-run McKillen's shoe shop in Ballymena, which has been trading for 100 years, announced yesterday that it is to close, blaming “increased overheads, online shopping, and demise of the high street”.
It stands several doors down from Wyse Byse, which announced it was shutting less than a fortnight ago, having first opened in 1972 (with two other branches, in Belfast, likewise shutting after the group’s managing director retired).
Glyn Roberts of the business lobby group Retail NI said: “This must be a wake-up call to government at all levels to get its act together on the growing cost-of-doing-business crisis that is afflicting our high streets.
“Northern Ireland now has 25% of its high street buildings lying derelict – twice the UK average.”
And North Antrim MP Jim Allister said: “When family institutions that survived a century of upheaval are forced to surrender, it isn't just an economic shift, it is a systemic failure.”
The McKillen family said: “These have and continue to be challenging days and this is a decision that has not been taken lightly.”