What: another department store chain closing.

Why it is important: department stores have been struggling for your to keep up with newcomers and the pandemic, forcing all stores to close for months, has just been accelerating the most declining ones. Now UK chain Debenhams is closing.

Debenhams filed for administration last April, and couldn’t find a bidder to save it. The department store is now set to enter liquidation, putting 12,000 jobs at risk. Debenhams has been struggling financially since before the financial crisis, but successive restructurings have failed to find a solution to save it.

The news comes just after UK retail group Arcadia Group fell into administration too, which was the largest concession holder at Debenhams, stocking the shop floors with clothing brands such as Wallis, Burton and Dorothy Perkins.

Shoppers will be able to buy items in stores and online, until all the stock is sold. The closures will not impact Magasin du Nord in Denmark, which continues to operate independently.

Debenhams: the rise and fall of a British retail institution