Sainsbury's has confirmed plans to shut more standalone Argos stores in a major blow for shoppers.
The supermarket chain, which owns Argos, has already shut dozens of Argos branches - but it has now revealed it will close nine more stores this financial year. Sainsbury’s has not published the locations of the branches that will be shutting.
The total number of standalone Argos stores has been reduced by 72, down to 213 from 385, since March 2023. The supermarket group has instead been focused on opening more Argos stores and collection points within its Sainsbury’s stores. The number of Argos stores within Sainsbury's supermarkets has gone up by 22, from 424 to 446. The supermarket group plans on opening 13 new Argos stores within Sainsbury's this year.
Between March and September 2024, Sainsbury’s closed six Argos standalone stores and two Argos collection points within Sainsbury's stores. It opened three new Argos stores in Sainsbury's and eight new Argos collection points within Sainsbury's.
A spokesperson for Argos said: "The transformation of our Argos store and distribution network has been progressing at pace for several years now, improving availability, convenience and service for customers. As part of this, we are continuing to open new Argos stores and collection points in many of our Sainsbury’s supermarkets, enabling customers to purchase thousands of technology, home and toy products from Argos while picking up their groceries."
It comes after the boss of Sainsbury's said the supermarket chain will be hit with £140million in extra costs after the Budget. Chancellor Rachel Reeves confirmed an increase to employer National Insurance contributions and the minimum wage businesses must pay staff. Simon Roberts said the “unexpected barrage of costs” will “feed into a higher level of inflation” for customers.
The supermarket saw group revenues increase by 2.3% to £17.2billion for the 28 weeks to September 14, compared with the same period a year earlier. Like-for-like retail sales, excluding fuel, grew by 3.4% for the period, driven by a 4.2% jump in the most recent quarter.
Sales across Argos were 5% lower for the half-year, after its decline slowed to 1.4% in the second quarter from a 7.7% slump in the first quarter. Mr Roberts said: “Our food business is going from strength to strength and we’re making the biggest market share gains in the industry, with continued strong volume growth.
“More and more customers are coming to us for their big food shop, recognising our winning combination of value, quality and service. As we head into the festive season, there is real energy and excitement at Sainsbury’s and Argos and we’re expecting another strong performance.”