DOWN TOWN
FRUSTRATED residents have revealed their lovely market town has turned into a dump after Wilko closed.
Desperate locals in Loughborough said the area is full of empty stores and fear student flats will take "the heart out of their town".
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Loyal shoppers were left devastated when the last Wilko closed its doors two weeks ago.
The retailer fell into administration on August 10 resulting in the closure of all 400 stores.
And residents have now one more empty store to add to their "unattractive" market town.
Maz Chester, 68, told LeicestershireLive: “Loughborough used to be a lovely market, the whole town has been spoiled.
"It used to be a really nice market town but it now largely isn’t. To put it bluntly, it's a dump.”
The store unit now sits empty and savvy shoppers said they want another bargain store to take over.
Debra said: “We are really fed up with it. The High Street is losing so much attraction. On one alley there are 10 shops empty.
"We are very sad about it. B&M would be nice, something along those lines where we can get that sort of thing without going too far.”
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Customers have to drive miles from the market town if they want to snap up their reduced items.
Sandra Tyers, 68, said a bargain shop could be useful for the community as not everyone can get to the ones out of town.
“There is nothing here now really, even the market has got smaller. I think maybe it’s renters and people that aren’t spending as much as before," she said.
But others are worried the unit will be transformed into a student housing and ruin the market.
Fellow shopper Michael Cart, 77, fumed: “There’s too many student flats. They are taking the heart out of the town.”
Jonathan Aikman, 60, added: “It’ll all be replaced by more student housing. There are a lot of other supermarkets but they are all on the outskirts.
“I don’t really have a preference. It could be any eating establishment. We don’t need anymore nail bars or hairdressers.
Instead, residents said they want to see more independent stores in the town.
Naomi O’Halloran explained: “Retail in general is a bit stale at the moment, so some interesting independents would be good.”
It comes as a supermarket with more than 300 stores announced it will close another shop within weeks leaving shoppers fearing for their town.
Farmfoods will shut its supermarket in Tranent, East Lothian for good at the end of October.
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Elsewhere, neighbours living in a once-thriving area say it's now a ghost town and there's no need to leave their homes.
Charlotte Gurney runs a retail park and shop in the small Norfolk village and says she feels like she's losing money week-on-week.