Several Morrisons Daily convenience stores are to shut for the last time today.
The giant retailer announced it was closing 52 of its in-store cafes and 17 small outlets.
It would also be shutting down several of its hot food and meat counters, as well as florists and pharmacies.
Morrisons has blamed the Labour government’s increase in National Insurance as well as the rise in minimum wage.
As previously reported, two thirds of major retailers will hike prices and more than half will cut working hours as a result of the hike in NI contributions.
Morrisons Daily locations operate as convenience stores, with extended opening hours.
As a result of this, 365 jobs are at risk.
It comes as the retailer said it was costing the business more to run services than it was making from customer spending.
In March this year, Morrison announced it would be closing 52 cafés, all 18 Market Kitchens, 17 convenience stores, 13 florists, 35 meat counters, 35 fish counters and four pharmacies will close for good in the next few months.
The supermarket previously said: ‘Morrisons has made the difficult decision to close some Morrisons Daily stores, some of which contain Post Offices.
Lowestoft Road, Gorleston
3-5 Old Town, Peebles
214 Hutton Road, Shenfield
Waterloo Estate, Poole
Higham Lane Estate, Tonbridge
The Cornmarket, Romsey
Lainshaw Street, Stewarton
Featherbed Lane, Selsdon
Queslett Road, Great Barr
Oakfield Road, Whickham
Queensway, Worle
Strand Parade, Goring-By-Sea
Westfield Road, Woking
40 Peach Street, Wokingham
51 Sidwell Street, Exeter
Moorland Road, Bath
‘We fully recognise the inconvenience this will cause for our customers and apologise for the short notification as these branches close between 9 April and 14 May.’
Announcing the closures last month, Baitiéh said: ‘The changes we are announcing today are a necessary part of our plans to renew and reinvigorate Morrisons and enable us to focus our investment into the areas that customers really value and that can play a full part in our growth.’
Despite it costing the business more to keep services running compared to what it makes from revenues, CEO Rami Baitiéh insisted Morrisons and its cafes have a ‘bright future’.
Mr Baitiéh – an ex air force colonel, dubbed ‘Mr Fixit’ – said: ‘The changes we are announcing today are a necessary part of our plans to renew and reinvigorate Morrisons and enable us to focus our investment into the areas that customers really value and that can play a full part in our growth.
‘Morrisons Cafés are rightly famous for their great quality well-priced food, their place in the local community and their appealing mix of traditional favourites alongside exciting new dishes.
‘In most locations the Morrisons Café has a bright future, but a minority have specific local challenges and in those locations, regrettably, closure and re-allocation of the space is the only sensible option.
‘Market Street is a beacon of differentiation for Morrisons and we remain committed to it. But as we modernise we are making some necessary changes to the areas of the model which are simply uneconomic.
‘In some stores where we are closing counters or Cafés, we plan to work with third parties to provide a relevant specialist offer.
‘Although these changes are relatively small in the context of the overall scale of the Morrisons business, we do not take lightly the disruption and uncertainty they will cause to some of our colleagues.
‘We will of course take particular care to look after all of them well through the coming changes.’
Mr Baitiéh has been trying to save Morrisons after he took over the business in November 2023.
In March that year, it was reported the company was hemorrhaging cash, racking up £1.5billion of losses.
Mr Baitiéh then informed staff that the two most important groups in Morrisons are buyers and store managers and more autonomy needs to be granted to them.
The Frenchman, born in Lebanon and previously CEO of Carrefour, began daily unannounced store visits and left his own email address in the complaints section of the supermarket’s website for customers to contact him directly.