Waitrose of the North confirms store closure with Tesco set to take over site

By ANGHARAD CARRICK

Updated: 12:32 BST, 3 July 2025

An upmarket supermarket chain is set to close one of its stores this month, with Tesco taking over the site.

Booths, dubbed the ‘Waitrose of the North’, announced its branch in Ripon, North Yorkshire will close after 16 years.

The supermarket chain confirmed the closure last month after struggling with higher operating costs. 

Booths’ Ripon store’s last trading day in less than three weeks.

In a statement on X, Booths said: ‘Your Booths Ripon store closes for the final time on Sunday 20th July 4pm.

‘Closing any Booths store is always a difficult decision and we’d like to say a heartfelt thank you to our colleagues and customers for their support over the years. Until then, we’re open as usual.’

Booths has 27 stores across the north, with most in Lancashire and Cumbria, with only three in Yorkshire.

Store closure: Booths will close its store in Ripon, North Yorkshire this month  

The store will be replaced by a Tesco store, although no official date has been set for its opening.

It is reported that the takeover will be completed later this year, with all 95 staff transferring over to Tesco.

Family-owned supermarket Booths received praise from shoppers in 2023 after ditching self-checkouts from all of its stores as bigger chains have embraced them.

It said it hoped the more would cut costs and speed up waiting times. Managing director Nigel Murray told The Grocer that customer satisfaction was up, as a result.

‘Not all of that is due to the fact that we’ve taken self-service checkouts out of many stores. But when you look at things like service, into the ‘promise of things to come’ section, we’ve scored brilliantly.’

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Waitrose of the North confirms store closure with Tesco set to take over site

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