Booths at Lane Ends Pic: Jackie Mulgrew

A supermarket in Ashton-on-Ribble is to close down in early January,

Booths at Lane Ends is to stop trading on Monday 4 January.

All staff at the store in Woodplumpton Road are to be redeployed to the Sharoe Green Lane or Penwortham stores.

A spokeswoman for the supermarket chain said: “Booths would like to thank all their loyal customers at Lane Ends and we look forward to welcoming them to the nearby stores at Fulwood, Penwortham, and Longridge.”

Related: When are Preston supermarkets open during Christmas?

Users of the Preston Past and Present Facebook group have been reacting to the news.

Tony Worrall said: “Since the Tesco Express opened nearby I think the writing was on the wall for this outlet. Shame as Booths source locally – unlike Tesco. But Booths have been good to Preston over the years, with their central office here as well as a distribution centre on Bluebell Way and a huge manufacturing unit at Riversway (where much of their meat is butchered and packaged)”

Joanne Elizabeth said: “It’s always busy and is really well used by locals. It will be a real loss to our community. I’m guessing it doesn’t fit their business model any longer, they are moving to larger stores.”

Earlier in December, Booths announced it was reviewing its portfolio of stores and was looking to sell a number of them as going concerns including the Lane Ends store.

Do you use the shop? What do you think of the closure? Let us know in the comments below