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A MAJOR fashion chain is vanishing from the high street as its last UK store prepares to shut for good.
Large posters have already gone up across the shopfront in Cabot Circus, announcing a closing down sale and thanking loyal customers for their support.
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Monki, owned by Swedish retail giant H&M, will close the doors of its Bristol branch on September 14, bringing an end to the brand’s presence on Britain’s shopping streets.
Bargain hunters have been flocking to the store to snap up cut-price items before the final day of trading.
Monki was first launched as a youth-focused label under H&M’s umbrella and quickly became popular for its bold, quirky designs.
The brand had seven stores in 2024, before H&M Group began closing them in late 2024 and early 2025 to merge the brand with Weekday.
Read more on the high street
Its branches across Manchester and Newcastle closed in January.
There are currently just three Weekday stores in the UK, all of them based in London.
When the shake-up was revealed in late 2024, H&M said only a limited number of Monki shops would be converted to Weekday outlets, while the rest would close permanently.
A spokesperson said: ” With the recent launch of the Weekday creative multi-space, Weekday has introduced a curated world where culture, style and street fashion come together.
“This space brings together our brands – Weekday, Monki and Cheap Monday – along with second-hand fashion, exclusive drops and more, all under one roof.
“Monki’s distinct brand experience is now integrated into weekday.com, where it complements the Weekday offering, focusing on where we create the best value for our customer.
During 2025 a limited number of Monki stores are intended to be transformed into multi-brand Weekday destinations, while the others are intended to be closed. “
The Bristol branch is now the last surviving Monki store in the country, meaning the brand will disappear entirely from the British high street once it closes on September 14.
A Weekday spokeswoman confirmed the date of closure and said there were no plans to convert the unit into a Weekday store.
However, Monki products will remain available to buy online.
The closure is the latest blow for Bristol’s city centre retail scene.
In recent months, a number of well-known names have disappeared from Cabot Circus and the neighbouring Broadmead area.
Earlier this month, the city’s flagship Apple Store shut its doors after 15 years of trading.
The move comes ahead of a major redevelopment of the Quakers Friars area, led by shopping centre owner Hammerson.
Plans for the former Apple site include transforming the building into a health centre.
With Monki shutting down and no replacement store lined up, fashion fans in Bristol and beyond will soon have to turn online if they want to get their hands on the brand’s distinctive clothing.
Why are retailers closing stores?
RETAILERS have been feeling the squeeze since the pandemic, while shoppers are cutting back on spending due to the soaring cost of living crisis.
High energy costs and a move to shopping online after the pandemic are also taking a toll, and many high street shops have struggled to keep going.
However, additional costs have added further pain to an already struggling sector.
The British Retail Consortium has predicted that the Treasury’s hike to employer NICs from April will cost the retail sector £2.3billion.
At the same time, the minimum wage will rise to £12.21 an hour from April, and the minimum wage for people aged 18-20 will rise to £10 an hour, an increase of £1.40.
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.”
It comes after almost 170,000 retail workers lost their jobs in 2024.
End-of-year figures compiled by the Centre for Retail Research showed the number of job losses spiked amid the collapse of major chains such as Homebase and Ted Baker.
It said its latest analysis showed that a total of 169,395 retail jobs were lost in the 2024 calendar year to date.
This was up 49,990 – an increase of 41.9% – compared with 2023.
It is the highest annual reading since more than 200,000 jobs were lost in 2020 in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, which forced retailers to shut their stores during lockdowns.
The centre said 38 major retailers went into administration in 2024, including household names such as Lloyds Pharmacy, Homebase, The Body Shop, Carpetright and Ted Baker.
Around a third of all retail job losses in 2024, 33% or 55,914 in total, resulted from administrations.
Experts have said small high street shops could face a particularly challenging 2025 because of Budget tax and wage changes.
Professor Bamfield has warned of a bleak outlook for 2025, predicting that as many as 202,000 jobs could be lost in the sector.
“By increasing both the costs of running stores and the costs on each consumer’s household it is highly likely that we will see retail job losses eclipse the height of the pandemic in 2020.”
More high street closures
Monki isn’t the only retailer that has been forced to shut stores recently.
Poundland, which was bought out by investment firm Pepco in June, is shutting 49 branches this month.
A total of 68 stores are expected to shut by mid-October.
River Island also had plans to shut 33 branches approved by the High Court as it tries to rescue the business.
Meanwhile The Original Factory Shop is closing branches next month as it goes through a restructuring.
Footasylum has shut several locations across the country since the start of the year.
And GAME, which operates around 240 stores across the UK, has announced the closure of six of its stores across the UK in August and September.
It’s slashed the prices of some of its products by up to 20% across the closing stores.
Plus, jewellery chain Claire’s has collapsed into administration and stopped its online orders for customers.
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