A POPULAR electronics retailer is set to shut its doors for the final time after 20 years of serving the community. It's left one fan saying it feels like its the "end of an era" - in another blow to Britain's high street stores. Cameraworld in Chelmsford, Essex, is set to close for good with locals using the store now having the travel to London or Stevenage. Large signs sit in the front windows alerting soon to be heartbroken customers to the closure.

"We are moving," it reads. "We are relocating to our London and Stevenage stores. Come and visit us there!". The closure of the Chelmsford store will leave the chain with only two stores and camera lovers now having to make a longer journey for their camera needs. One photographer alerted other camera fans on Facebook saying they had made friends there in the 20 years they had been shopping there. They said: "Really hoping things work out okay for the team that's there now, be sure to pop in and see them this weekend if you can, just don't ask if there's a closing down sale - all stock is going to London and Stevenage.

"I was always more than happy to send people the other way too, it's been great to have a shop like Cameraworld local to us in the middle of the County, and I've always been happy to recommend them as somewhere that wouldn't sell you something for the sake of it.". Other fans of the store replied to the post and shared their sadness at its closure. One said: "That's sad. I recently got back into photography and bought my kit here, they were really helpful.".

Another wrote: "What a shame. Bought a lot of camera gear from these guys over the years. Staff were excellent.". While a third said: "Ah that's a real shame. Always liked popping in there and also seeing many of the team at The Photography Show and similar events. Definitely end of an era.". The high street seems to be suffering all around as Brits steer more towards online shopping and amid high business rates.

Soaring inflation in recent years has also dented shoppers' pockets. The Centre for Retail Research's latest analysis suggests 13,479 stores, the equivalent of 37 each day, shut for good in 2024. Of those, 11,341 were independent shops while 2,138 were shut by larger retailers. The data also showed over half the stores that closed last year were shut due to the store or retailer going through insolvency proceedings.

This is when formal measures are taken to deal with tackling a business's debt. Retailers are shutting stores in 2025 too. The Body Shop is pulling down the shutters on five branches  in Exeter, Plymouth, Horsham, Norwich and Sheffield. Three other branches have already closed in Cambridge and Hove. The British Retail Consortium has predicted that the Treasury's hike to employer NICs will cost the retail sector £2.3billion.

Research by the British Chambers of Commerce shows that more than half of companies plan to raise prices by early April. A survey of more than 4,800 firms found that 55% expect prices to increase in the next three months, up from 39% in a similar poll conducted in the latter half of 2024. Three-quarters of companies cited the cost of employing people as their primary financial pressure. The Centre for Retail Research (CRR) has also warned that around 17,350 retail sites are expected to shut down this year.

It comes on the back of a tough 2024 when 13,000 shops closed their doors for good, already a 28% increase on the previous year. Professor Joshua Bamfield, director of the CRR said: "The results for 2024 show that although the outcomes for store closures overall were not as poor as in either 2020 or 2022, they are still disconcerting, with worse set to come in 2025.". Professor Bamfield has also warned of a bleak outlook for 2025, predicting that as many as 202,000 jobs could be lost in the sector.