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21
Jul
Ripon prepares for Tesco as Booths bids farewell
The majority of shelves were bare at Booths in Ripon yesterday afternoon (Sunday) as the upmarket grocer prepared to close its doors one last time.
The store shut at 4pm after 16 years of serving the city. In the weeks ahead it will be refurbished and rebranded as a Tesco supermarket.
The Stray Ferret understands that all 95 staff were given the opportunity to transfer to the retail giant. During the shutdown, they will receive training at other Tesco stores in North Yorkshire, as the retailer aims for a pre-Christmas opening in Ripon, believed to be in November.
Empty shelves at Booths yesterday afternoon.
In May, the Stray Ferret exclusively revealed that the lease on the 18,000 sq ft store at Marshall Way was being transferred to Tesco, which told us:
Following a short closure the Booths Ripon store will reopen as a Tesco store later this year.
All colleagues will have the choice to transfer to the new Tesco store, and there will be a consultation about what the changes mean for colleagues over the coming weeks. There will be no compulsory redundancies as a result of these changes.
The last few vegetables on sale.
Earlier this month Booths said:
Since opening in 2009 we have worked hard to refine the offer and improve performance at Ripon, but the challenges of significantly increased operating costs have meant that we cannot see a future where the store will be profitable under the Booths model.
Booths would like to thank all colleagues and customers for their support since the store opened over 16 years ago. We would also like to provide some reassurance that we have no current plans to exit any of our other stores.
The Stray Ferret has sought confirmation from Tesco of its planned opening date, but no response had been received at the time of publication.
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