SHOPPERS have been left fearing a "ghost town" as a major retailer with over 100 stores draws up plans to close one of its branches.
USC is set to pull down the shutters on its shop at The Potteries Shopping Centre in Hanley, Stoke-on-Trent.
A staff member said the site, run by the Frasers Group, will shut in June, although did not say which exact date it will close.
Shoppers and locals have been left gutted after finding out the store will call time in just months.
One said: "Everywhere you go places are boarded up it is becoming a ghost town."
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A second said: "Might as well close the Potteries Centre the way things are going."
A third fumed: "Let's face it Hanley's gone cr*p no shops night life rubbish."
A fourth added: "Last one out turn the lights off."
And a fifth said: "Be nothing left soon."
It comes as Frasers Group shakes up its portfolio across the UK amid a turbulent time for retailers.
It shut another USC branch in Stockton-on-Tees in December last year after launching a closing down sale.
House of Fraser, also owned by Frasers Group, is set to close its store in Carlisle in May.
The chain has shuttered several stores since last year, including in Birmingham, Cardiff and Guildford.
A Sports Direct branch in Stroud, Gloucestershire, also pulled the shutters down for good at the end of March.
Sports Direct also called time on its branch in the Central Six Retail Park, Coventry, at the end of January.
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A Flannels site in Market Place Shopping Centre, Bolton, closed for the final time in the new year.
It also shut its site in Bradford in January despite only opening back in October.
However, it's not all bad news as the Frasers Group has been opening stores across the UK as well.
In recent months it has welcomed in customers to "new concept" stores which sell brands from across the group including Sports Direct and Jack Wills.
Last September, it cut the ribbon on one of the stores in Norwich and has opened two more of the stores in Blackpool and Sheffield.
Plus, it has plans to open one of the concept stores in a former John Lewis site at Queensgate Shopping Centre, Peterborough by the end of 2025.
The firm also took on the famous Compton House in Liverpool earlier this year and will reopen the site as its flagship Sports Direct branch.
Frasers Group also snapped up luxury chain Choice in 2022 and has since rebranded some of them as Flannels.
The Sun approached Frasers Group for comment.
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