Coop to close

The original Coop on Walton Street suffered a dramatic loss in the trade following the opening of Sainsbury's. Now the shop, including five flats on the first and second floors, is up for sale for £2.5 million.

This is the latest in a sequence of supermarket manoevres on Walton Street. This Coop had a virtual monopoly for decades and there were complaints about high prices. In 2011, when it was faced with the prospect of competition from the renovated premises close to little Clarendon Street  it took those too in order to keep Tesco out. Originally this second shop was also to have a post office branch, but negotiations went nowhere. So we finished up with the strange situation of two Coops within a couple of hundred yards of each other. 

Now that oddity at least has been resolved. However the preoccupation with competition remains. According to the sale listing, the shop part of the property "will have a restrictive covenant in place so a purchaser will not be able to re-open this area as a convenience store or off-licence in the future. The trading area would suit a number of alternative uses that could include a coffee shop, office or residential accommodation subject to planning."