A bargain retailer has closed a store in Sutton Coldfield without warning, less than two years after it opened. One of its local concept stores, it opened in Boldmere Road in 2022.

Signs on the outside of the store state: “Sorry. We have closed. Don’t worry! We’re not far! Visit our store nearby…” and then showing a map to the Poundland in The Parade in Sutton town centre, which is 1.8 miles away. In fact, the Poundland at Princess Alice Retail Park is nearer at 1.2 miles away.

The discount chain, with its headquarters in nearby Walsall, was testing the new format Poundland Local shop to ‘bring convenience shopping to neighbourhoods not currently served by Poundland’.

The store was established to fill the gap between the chain’s big shop at the Princess Alice Retail Park in New Oscott and its town centre outlet in the Parade. However, a little over a year-and-a-half later, the ‘neighbourhood convenience store’ has permanently closed.

In addition to its usual range of discounted items such as drinks, snacks, health and beauty products, and household items, the store also sold fresh bread, fruits and vegetables, hot pies and pastries, and frozen goods.

A spokesman for Poundland told BirminghamLive: “I’m afraid it’s a location where we’ve been unable to secure a lease that would have enabled us to stay there. Whenever we have to close to a store in those circumstances, we do everything we can to look after colleagues.”