ONLY a year after it opened its doors, Morrisons has announced that it will be closing its Headington shop on November 28.

Morrisons made the announcement in a note to customers attached to the branch’s front door.

The firm was the first major supermarket chain to open a metro-style convenience store in London Road in October 2013.

The M Local store replaced the Blockbusters and when it opened nearby businesses feared it would have an impact on their trade.

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Shortly after the store opened in 2013, Sainsbury’s moved to a site directly opposite Morrisons and Tesco opened on London Road earlier this summer.

Previously there were concerns that the number of big-chain supermarkets in Headington would be unsustainable.

Sales manager at the London Road branch of Breckon & Breckon Andrew Topping said: “I think the closure of Morrisons just proves the point that it was never going to work. When you’ve got three big name supermarkets, alongside Waitrose and the Co-op, they can’t all compete with one another.

“What we need now is some smaller, independent stores.”

Morrisons refused to comment why it was closing its London Road shop, but added: “All our colleagues are moving to our nearby store in Cowley Road or our other convenience stores locally.”

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