Counting the cost of COVID: Blackwell’s St Andrews Closing
Blackwell's St Andrews is confirmed to be one of five campus stores closing.
Blackwell’s St Andrews is amongst the five campus branches of the iconic bookshop chain which are closing as a consequence of the coronavirus crisis. This was reported in the trade publication The Bookseller.
The shop, located in the Student’s Union Building at 22 St Marys Pl, is amongst four other campus branches that are closing. Consequently, the chain will be left with 23 shops. Additionally, they are carrying out redundancies in their Oxford office. The other campus branches closing are Belfast, Bradford, Keele, and Leeds.
Blackwell’s stated, as seen in The Bookseller, that the closures were to “protect the future health” of the business. It is unlikely that the closure of Blackwell’s will be the only loss in St Andrews as a consequence of COVID related financial strains. The town’s economy is highly reliant on currently absent students, and tourism which contributes £110m a year.
The Saint contacted Blackwell’s for comment. They kindly declined to make a statement at this stage as they are still in conversation with staff regarding the closure.
