Sheffield shops: JD Sports opening in old Wilko store at St James Retail Park this week with DJ and £50 prizes

The sports and fashion giant, which brands itself the ‘King of Trainers’, is opening at St James Retail Park, off the A6102 Bochum Parkway in Jordanthorpe, from Thursday, September 5.

During the opening weekend, this Saturday, September 7, and Sunday, September 8, there will be in-store DJs, and shoppers will be invited to play a Giant Labyrinth game in which they must guide a ball through a huge maze.

The customer achieving the fastest time each day will win a £50 JD voucher.

The 6,000 sq ft JD Sports store will be the chain’s fourth in Sheffield and its 410th in the UK. It will stock brands including Nike, Adidas, The North Face, and EA7. The company said 12 new jobs had been created there.

The new store will be open from 9am-8pm Monday to Friday, 9am-7pm on Saturdays, and 10am-4pm on Sundays.

JD sports will join other shops including Aldi, Shoe Zone, M&S, T.K Maxx, Costa Coffee and Greggs in the retail park. The unit had been empty since the Wilko there closed after the discount retail chain collapsed in 2023. A B&M discount store opened last month in the former Wilko at Crystal Peaks.

Poundland took over the old Wilko unit in Hillsborough, only to close earlier this year.

The former Wilko on Haymarket, in the Castlegate area of the city centre, remains vacant.

In May, The Star reported how bosses at Meadowhall said they were ‘in conversations’ to fill the empty unit there which had been occupied by Wilko.