A year after Argos closed its doors on the Marshall Way retail park in Ripon, it is to re-open in the city centre.
The former café in Sainsbury’s, which shut last year, is being transformed in readiness for the relocation.
Signs at the supermarket say Argos will be opening in March – 12 months after the first covid lockdown saw the last customers served in the Marshall Way premises.
The former Argos standalone store in Marshall Way, Ripon
Ripon is following a strategy adopted by the company in towns and cities across the UK, including Harrogate, where standalone stores have been closed and moved to share floorspace within Sainsbury’s supermarkets.
A spokesperson for Argos confirmed the company’s employees, who previously worked at Marshall Way and were temporarily redeployed to other parts of the business, will be employed at the new Ripon store.
The spokesperson added:
“We announced last year that any standalone Argos store which has not reopened since March will remain closed permanently.
“We have also shared plans to open 350 more Argos stores in Sainsbury’s and Argos collection points in supermarkets and convenience stores by March 2024.
Last June, following the first lockdown, the catalogue company re-opened 145 standalone stores across the UK – but Ripon was not among them.
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In a statement at the time, Argos chief executive Simon Roberts said:
“Our business has changed enormously.
“We want to be very careful as we move to the next phase.”
‘Dangerous’ highchair recalled two years late, says Bilton grandma
A grandmother from Bilton has raised concerns after the “dangerous” highchair she returned to Argos two years ago has only just been recalled.
Liz Carnell bought the Cuggl Plum Deluxe highchair from Argos in Sainsbury’s on Wetherby Road, Harrogate, in July 2018.
One day when her grand-daughter was sitting in the chair, the back of it collapsed. Liz said:
“One Sunday lunchtime the baby was in the highchair when there was a loud ping and a spring shot across the floor as the back of the chair collapsed. If she had been on her own, she would have fallen out.”
The grandmother has accused the retailer of being aware of the danger for nearly two years but failing to act. She returned it in January 2019 to the Harrogate store and was assured a hazard form would be filled out.
She received another chair from the same range, the Little Sheep model, in exchange.
These three models have been recalled from Argos after testing showed they “could fail”.
Not only has that model now been recalled, but the one which Liz reported to be dangerous two years ago has only just been recalled as well.
Argos recalled three Cuggl models – Plum, Little Sheep and Pumpkin Deluxe – last month, saying “in some cases the back of the highchair could fail, resulting in a child falling from the highchair.”
Liz added:
“I’d like to know why Argos didn’t act on this problem much sooner and what happened to the hazard form I was told would be completed?
“I was lucky that as the original buyer of the highchair I received the recall notice, but there may be many families out there who bought them second hand who won’t know of the danger.”
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Argos said it received a small number of reports regarding the design of the back of the product but only within the 2020 batch of chairs. The design was the same as the one purchased by Liz in 2018 so it was recalled as well.
A spokesperson for Argos said:
“The safety of our products is our highest priority and we have processes in place to ensure any issues with an item are immediately investigated. Unfortunately in this case our product safety team has no record of this customer’s experience and we are looking into this.”