{"id":39482,"date":"2025-10-19T01:38:15","date_gmt":"2025-10-19T01:38:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/coopers-shop-closures-in-east-anglia-heartbreaking-say-workers\/"},"modified":"2025-10-19T01:38:15","modified_gmt":"2025-10-19T01:38:15","slug":"coopers-shop-closures-in-east-anglia-heartbreaking-say-workers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/coopers-shop-closures-in-east-anglia-heartbreaking-say-workers\/","title":{"rendered":"Coopers shop closures in East Anglia heartbreaking, say workers"},"content":{"rendered":"


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<\/p>\n

Debbie Tubby<\/span>in Bungay<\/span>,<\/span><\/p>\n

Luke Deal<\/span>in Leiston<\/span> and<\/span><\/p>\n

George King<\/span><\/p>\n

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\"MartinMartin Giles\/BBC<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Coopers boss Stuart Ruskin described the closure of the company as devastating for employees and customers<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
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For nearly nine decades, hardware shop Coopers has been a High Street mainstay in Suffolk and Norfolk.<\/p>\n

The retail stalwart, which has a head office in Worlingham near Beccles, opened back in 1938.<\/p>\n

But, on Saturday at 15:00 BST, trading will cease and the company’s stores in Beccles, Bungay, Halesworth, Harleston, Leiston and Framlingham will close.<\/p>\n

Commercial director Stuart Ruskin said the firm, like many other shops, had struggled to attract customers through the doors because of “how the High Street is today”.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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“Bills were not getting paid, even online was struggling, so it is just not working anymore,” he said.<\/p>\n

“We will sell what we can and then the doors will close and that will be the end – it’ll be a very sad day because our workers are not just colleagues, they are our friends.”<\/p>\n

Mr Ruskin, who has worked for Coopers for nearly 30 years, said rising bills and wages had also played their part in the decision.<\/p>\n

He said departing employees – who had worked for the firm for as much as 40 years – would all be paid and supported.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"MartinMartin Giles\/BBC<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Bungay store manager Gary Revell said he would miss working for Coopers<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
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Bungay shop manager Gary Revell, who is a former on-call firefighter, said: “I am four and a half years off retirement, so it is difficult, and I have no idea what will happen to me.<\/p>\n

“We are all devastated. It is a shame for the town and I am going to miss it – I have built up such a friendship with the customers, so it is heartbreaking.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"LukeLuke Deal\/BBC<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Part-time worker Angie Daglish, who works in Coopers’ Leiston store, said she was concerned about colleagues who will be left jobless as a result of the closure<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
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Part-time employee Angie Daglish, who has worked at the Leiston store for three years, said she was “not surprised but shocked” by the impending closure.<\/p>\n

“The workers were gutted [when they were told] because some of them have now got to go and look for jobs,” she said.<\/p>\n

“My son works here and he has a young family, so I worry more about him. It will be horrible and not very nice on Saturday.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"LukeLuke Deal\/BBC<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Concerns have been raised about the future of Post Office branches which are inside Coopers stores in Halesworth and Leiston<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
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The closure has also caused some concern about Post Office provision, given Coopers stores in Halesworth and Leiston each play home to a Post Office branch.<\/p>\n

The Post Office said it would need to “review Post Office service provision in the area” due to the company’s “unplanned closures”.<\/p>\n

“We were very sad to hear that Coopers stores are closing this weekend,” a spokesperson said.<\/p>\n

They pointed out that Leiston had a recently opened banking hub that could do bill payments, plus personal and business banking services.<\/p>\n

Other east Suffolk branches that were open included Aldeburgh, Saxmundham and Peasenhall, the Post Office said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n


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Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Debbie Tubbyin Bungay, Luke Dealin Leiston and George King Martin Giles\/BBC Coopers boss Stuart Ruskin described the closure of the company as devastating for employees and customers For nearly nine decades, hardware shop Coopers has been a High Street mainstay in Suffolk and Norfolk. The retail stalwart, which has a head office in Worlingham near […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":39483,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[7022,2216,12296,140,12297,638,849],"class_list":["post-39482","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-companies","tag-anglia","tag-closures","tag-coopers","tag-east","tag-heartbreaking","tag-shop","tag-workers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39482","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39482"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39482\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":39484,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39482\/revisions\/39484"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/39483"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39482"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39482"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39482"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}