Furious Sheffield shoppers hit out at John Lewis over 'insensitive' Twitter advert

Non-essential shops have been welcoming customers back this morning as they reopen under Boris Johnson’s roadmap out of lockdown.

Shoppers have queued outside Debenhams on the Moor and have flocked to Meadowhall as they enjoy their favourite stores reopening once again.

But, sadly they will not be able to pop into John Lewis after the company announced it was closing its Sheffield store last month, putting 299 jobs at risk.

The company announced it could no longer ‘profitably sustain’ the shop on Barker’s Pool and it was not planning to reopen it after lockdown.

A spokeswoman said: “We will enter into consultation with the 299 affected Sheffield Partners about our proposals. Should we proceed, we will seek to find alternative roles in the Partnership for as many partners as possible.”

Sheffield shoppers were even more outraged as the council spent £3.4m buying the building and leasing it back to the company on much cheaper terms last summer. It also offered to pay for a revamp of the five-storey building.

A John Lewis spokeswoman said: “We appreciate that this news comes closely after we signed a new lease in August 2020.

“We had believed that through investment in the shop, we could have played a key role in the Heart of the City regeneration.

“However, the effects of the pandemic, including three successive lockdowns and the acceleration of the switch to online shopping, has meant the impact on the store’s future viability is too great.”

Despite closing eight stores, John Lewis took to Twitter this morning to excitedly welcome back shoppers to those that would be remaining open.

They tweeted: “Come on in, our doors are open. We’re so excited to share our shop with you again. Rediscover the joy of shopping Our Partners are here to help you celebrate Summer and enjoy the good times ahead!"

The tweet did not go down too well with Sheffield shoppers, furious that their store would not be reopening.

Simon Key tweeted: “Not in Sheffield! Even with the financial support the company has received!”

James Wood tweeted: "Not really the best tweet when you have just shut loads of stores! The people of Sheffield will not forget!”