'Sadness and anger' over closure of Crawley M&S store

The store has traded from its premises in Queensway for decades but company bosses have now revealed that the store will shut for good on Saturday November 16.

The announcement has prompted scores of shoppers to speak out about the closure declaring it ‘madness’ with many saying that it would leave no reason for people to visit the town centre.

And many blamed the shop’s closure on increasing numbers of people shopping on line rather than visiting the store in person. Others blamed rising property rents.

Michael Riddles, in a social media post, said: “The high street is doomed, because of online shopping. Madness!!” Helen Chow added: “How sad to hear.”

Many pointed out that the Redhill branch of M&S closed in August and, following the closure of Debenhams some time ago, “there will be no reason to go shopping in Crawley.”

Sarah Bransby added: “The world has gone MAD, used this store years ago in the 70s and 80s, such a shame for the big town.”

Mark C G White said: “Very sad indeed.” And Jan Cloutman commented: “It will be a very sad day when the store closes, we are losing all our big stores and becoming a coffee town.”

Claire Orridge described the closure as “a real shame” and Christina Woodman added: “We will all be living in ghost towns soon.”

Brenda Cade said: “I am a pensioner, and as a treat go to M&S for either lunch or coffee and cake, and meet my friends. It is our treat, all the other so called coffee shops are too expensive. What are we supposed to do or go to now?”

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Nigel Hunt said: “Such a shame as M&S is a very popular shop but obviously not popular enough to keep it open .... why ??? More than likely one of the main reasons is the unaffordable rents the local council charge these stores … add to this recovery from Covid times and increases in overheads including wages ... companies, even the long established, just can't continue to trade.”