The Argos store at Greenbridge Retail Park will be closing its doors to customers on September 7.

Signs were put up outside the branch earlier this week informing customers that it would be closing at Greenbridge and relocating to a new home inside the Sainsbury’s supermarket on Oxford Road.

It will be open and ready to use in its new home from September 8 and initial reports suggest that it will be located where the cafe used to be.

Sheila Taggart, 61, from Nythe, was picking up some toys for a birthday present and saw the sign.

“Oh that’s a shame,” she said. “There’ll be nothing left here at this rate”

A spokesperson from Sainsbury’s said it was a positive move for customers.

“To make shopping more convenient and to help us invest where it matters most to customers, we are relocating many of our Argos standalone stores to Sainsbury’s.

“This includes our Argos Greenbridge store, which will reopen inside Sainsbury’s Stratton next month.

“By bringing these much-loved brands under one roof, customers will be able to enjoy the convenience of being able to shop for thousands of technology, home and toy products while picking up their groceries.

“We understand this will be an unsettling time for those affected and colleagues will be offered the opportunity to redeploy to other roles within Sainsbury’s.”

The move is part of Sainsbury’s’ national strategy which was released last year and revealed plans to combine hundreds of Argos and Sainsbury’s stores.

The Greenbridge branch is one of 150 Argos standalone stores that are being transferred into Sainsbury’s supermarkets in a move that will reduce operating costs by £105 million.

According to the plans the company hopes to have moved all of these stores over the next three years and will be left with 100 standalone Argos stores remaining by March 2024.

There are a number of empty units already at Greenbridge Retail Park with Argos’ adjacent units previously owned by Carpet Right and Mothercare sitting empty since the companies closed them. The PC World and Laura Ashley stores around the back also remain unused.

Last month Lidl opened a new supermarket in the former home of Homebase.

There is no news yet if anything will be replacing Argos in that unit.