Stoke Gifford Co-op to close on 31st January

The Co-operative Food store in North Road, Stoke Gifford (located in the former Parkway Tavern premises) is to cease trading on 31st January.

Notices announcing the closure are currently on display at the shop, with an additional message saying: “It’s been lovely serving the Stoke Gifford community”.

The North Road convenience store is one of two Co-op stores in the Bristol area that will close this month, the other being the one on Gloucester Road, Bishopston, which is set to cease trading later this week.

A spokesperson for Southern Co-op said the “difficult decision” to close the Stoke Gifford store had been made “after lengthy consideration due to challenging market conditions and a significant decline in performance over the last few years”.

Southern Co-op will still continue to operate its 13 other retail stores in and around Bristol including the one in Long Down Avenue, Cheswick Village.

Simon Eastwood, Southern Co-op’s chief operating officer for retail, said:

“Colleagues at these stores are part of the local community and have done a lot to support local causes along with our other stores in Bristol. This is just one reason why we don’t take decisions like this lightly and only close a store when we have exhausted all other options.”

“As a food business, we continue to evolve and develop our offering to meet the changing needs of our customers, but unfortunately, market conditions and competition have had a greater impact on these two stores than others.”

“This does not in any way reflect negatively on the hard work and commitment of our colleagues.”

Of the 12 members of staff employed at the Stoke Gifford store, a spokesperson said:

“Our aim is to work with all of them  to transfer as many as possible to other Southern Co-op stores. However, we appreciate that it may not be feasible for [all] our colleagues so we’re currently discussing all possible alternatives.”

The North Road store began trading at the site on 17th October 2013.

To find your closest alternative Southern Co-op store, visit stores.thesouthernco-operative.co.uk/search.html