25
Jun
Staff shocked after Harrogate shop closes after 17 years
A Harrogate shop has closed after 17 years in the town centre.
Foot care chain Shuropody ceased trading on Oxford Street yesterday after five weeks of a closing down sale.
Staff were in the store today to pack away any remaining stock.
The shop opened in Harrogate in 2007 and sold comfort footwear, including brands such as Rieker, Strive and Josef Seibel. It also provided footcare and podiatry services.
Staff at the store said they were unaware of the closure until they were sent ‘closing down’ banners five weeks ago.
They then received a call yesterday notifying them the store would close at the end of the day and they would be out of employment.
The news left three staff unemployed.
Jo Sisley, a retail worker at Shuropody Harrogate, told the Stray Ferret the closure has left her "gobsmacked".
Ms Sisley, who had worked in the shop for 11 years, said:
We had no correspondence at all and no confirmation we were closing until I got a phone call yesterday. I feel let down, angry and upset, it’s like no one cares.
After 11 years I am finding it really hard. The customers are all amazing people, and I am struggling to understand why this has happened. I want our customers to know that we don’t have any answers to give them.
Ms Sisley added the water and the internet in the store had been cut off over the past few weeks.
Inside the store today.
Other Shuropody stores have closed elsewhere in England lately, including in Coventry, Salisbury, and Winchester.
According to the Hampshire Chronicle the Winchester store closed in a similarly abrupt manner, with staff told they would lose their jobs the day before.
The Stray Ferret has contacted Shuropody for more details but has not yet received a response.
Shuropody is the second long standing shoe shop to close in Harrogate this year. Exelby’s Shoes of Harrogate closed after sixty-five years on Station Parade in March.
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