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Retail news · September 2026

TG Jones store closures: what happens to your Post Office counter, gift card and refunds

Nineteen TG Jones shops are closing during September 2026, part of up to 150 closures the High Court signed off in July. For most shoppers the shutter is the smaller half of the story: 180 of these shops house a Post Office counter, and old WHSmith gift cards stopped working in TG Jones stores on 28 June 2026.

Published 5 September 2026 · Followed up 5 September 2026 · Shopbam reports what other outlets and company filings recorded; we did not attend or audit anything ourselves.

A half closed shop shutter with a Post Office counter sign behind it and a gift card marked as no longer accepted

TG Jones closures: the numbers that affect shoppers

FigureValueWhat it means
Shops closing in September 2026 19 List published by Herald Scotland, 2 September 2026. Two of the 19 (Cardigan and Wells) had no confirmed date at the time.
Total closures planned Up to 150 Retail Gazette, 1 July 2026, reporting the sanctioned restructuring plan.
Size of the estate 451 shops Retail Gazette, July 2026. The trade blog downthetubes put the estate at 480 falling to roughly 302, and TG Jones itself says "over 400". The three do not agree.
Post Office counters inside TG Jones shops 180 Retail Gazette, May 2026, across an estate it then put at about 450 shops.
Post Office counters at risk Up to 60 Retail Gazette and GB News, May 2026. A closure notice period of six months was cut to 56 days for shops losing their leases.
Restructuring plan sanctioned 1 July 2026 High Court, Part 26A plan. This is a restructuring, not an administration: the company keeps trading.
Plan terms run until June 2029 Reported by Retail Gazette and GB News, May 2026.
Last day WHSmith gift cards worked in TG Jones 28 June 2026 TG Jones gift card help page. That date has passed. WHSmith's own terms now list travel stores only.
TG Jones gift card expiry 24 months of non-use TG Jones gift card help page: the balance is deducted after 24 consecutive months without use.
Returns window 30 days TG Jones returns policy: 30 days from purchase in store, or 30 days from the day after delivery online. Refund to the original card, not cash.
Closing-down sale discounts Up to 75 per cent TG Jones wording quoted by Herald Scotland, 2 September 2026: 50 per cent off books, up to 50 per cent off stationery, 20 per cent off LEGO, up to 75 per cent off Christmas. One aggregator reported "up to 30 per cent" instead.

What happened

TG Jones is the former WHSmith high street business. Modella Capital bought it from WHSmith in 2025 and renamed it; the WHSmith brand stayed with the travel shops in airports, railway stations and hospitals. That split is why the two names now behave like separate retailers, and it is the root of most of the confusion below.

On 1 July 2026 the High Court sanctioned a Part 26A restructuring plan for TG Jones High Street Limited. Retail Gazette reported the plan clears the way for up to 150 shops to close out of an estate it put at 451, cuts rents across much of the rest, and unlocks fresh funding from Modella. Six landlords connected to British Land dropped their opposition after being offered better terms, including a share of future profits and deferral rather than write-off of some rent arrears.

The important thing for a shopper is what a restructuring plan is not. This is not an administration. TG Jones is still trading, still selling online, and still liable to its customers. That is a materially better position than the one Claire's Accessories customers were in, and it changes the answer to nearly every question below.

Which shops are closing this month

Herald Scotland published a list of 19 shops closing during September 2026, dated 2 September: Bath (1 September), Redcar and Redhill (5 September), Market Harborough and Uckfield (12 September), Cambridge (14 September), Swindon (15 September), Helston (16 September), Deal (19 September), Basildon (21 September), Rustington (23 September), Clevedon, Greenford, Kenilworth and Southend-on-Sea (all 26 September), Exmouth (28 September) and Frome (30 September). Cardigan was given as the end of September and Wells as still to be confirmed.

The research firm Coresight titled its week 35 tracker "TGJones plans to close 16 stores", published 4 September, so the counts in circulation do not match. The Coresight report is behind a paywall and we could not read the underlying list to reconcile the two numbers. Treat 19 as the September list from a named source and 16 as a differently drawn count of the same programme.

The Post Office counter is the part people miss

Retail Gazette reported in May 2026 that 180 Post Office counters sit inside TG Jones shops, and that Modella had asked the Post Office to cut the notice period for closing one from six months to 56 days where a shop was losing its lease. GB News, covering the same story, put up to 60 of those counters at risk.

Two details matter if you use one of these counters. First, the counter can go before the shop: in Swindon the Post Office closed on 14 September and the shop on the 15th. Second, the replacement is not automatic. The Post Office advertises the vacancy to other local retailers on runapostoffice.co.uk and hopes someone takes it on, which can happen quickly or leave a gap. In Caerphilly the closure was pushed back three weeks while a replacement was found. In York, the Post Office said it was "working to restore a Post Office in this area" and pointed people to Colliergate and Micklegate in the meantime. In Uckfield it pointed to the town's banking hub for banking, and to Ridgewood and Five Ash Down for postal services.

If your counter is the one you use for parcel drop-offs, online returns, passport check and send, or over-the-counter banking, the practical advice is the same in every one of those towns: find the alternative before the closing date rather than after it, and check that the alternative does the specific service you need. Not every branch offers every service.

The gift card trap is a date that has already passed

This is the finding most likely to catch someone out. TG Jones's own gift card help page says a WHSmith gift card or eGift card could be used online at tgjonesonline.co.uk and in TG Jones high street shops "until 28th June 2026". That deadline has gone.

WHSmith's own gift card terms say the card can be used "in UK WHSmith travel stores, e.g hospitals, airports and overground railways stations (excluding concessions and stores located at motorway service stations)". They do not mention the high street or TG Jones at all. So if you are holding a WHSmith card bought before the split, the travel shops are where the terms now point you, and the high street is not.

Both companies apply the same expiry rule: the balance is deducted after 24 consecutive months without use. A card sitting in a drawer since the demerger is closer to that line than most people think.

TG Jones-branded gift cards are a different matter. The help page says they can be used as full or part payment in UK TG Jones shops and on tgjonesonline.co.uk. Because the company is trading rather than in administration, there is no insolvency reason for a card to stop working when one shop shuts. We could not find any TG Jones statement confirming how the closing shops handle cards on their final days, so if your local one is on the September list, spend it there before it closes or spend it online.

Returns, refunds and the closing-down sale

TG Jones's published policy is 30 days from purchase in store, or 30 days from the day after delivery for an online order, with refunds going back to the card that paid rather than as cash. Online orders can be taken to any TG Jones high street shop with the order confirmation, except orders of £150 and over, which need a reference number from customer services first. Magazines and periodicals, unsealed CDs, DVDs and software, perishables, digital downloads and gift cards are excluded unless faulty.

A closing-down sale does not remove your rights over faulty goods. Section 22 of the Consumer Rights Act 2015 gives a short-term right to reject faulty goods within "the end of 30 days beginning with the first day after" you take ownership and delivery. A discount sticker does not change that, and neither does a sign saying sold as seen. What it does change is the practical difficulty: on a shop's last day there may be nobody left to argue with. If you buy in a closing shop, check the item there and then, and keep the receipt somewhere you can find it, because your claim after the door shuts is against a company that still exists but no longer has a branch on that high street.

How it unfolded

DateWhat happened
2025Modella Capital buys WHSmith's high street business and rebrands it TG Jones. The WHSmith name stays on the travel shops in airports, stations and hospitals.
May 2026Modella asks the Post Office to cut the closure notice period on counters inside the shops from six months to 56 days. Retail Gazette reports 180 counters in the estate and up to 60 at risk.
3 June 2026Creditors vote on the restructuring plan.
28 June 2026Last day a WHSmith gift card or eGift card could be spent in a TG Jones shop or on tgjonesonline.co.uk, according to the TG Jones help page.
1 July 2026The High Court sanctions the Part 26A restructuring plan after landlords are offered improved terms. Up to 150 shops to close.
8 August 2026Caerphilly Post Office closes with the TG Jones shop, three weeks later than first planned while a replacement was sought.
1 to 30 September 2026Nineteen shops close, starting with Bath on 1 September and ending with Frome on 30 September.
14 September 2026Swindon Post Office closes, one day before the shop it sits in.
14 October 2026York's main Post Office on Coney Street closes.
June 2029The restructuring plan terms run out.

What this means if you shop there

  • An old WHSmith gift card will not work in a TG Jones shop. TG Jones's help page gave 28 June 2026 as the last day, and that has passed. WHSmith's terms now point to WHSmith travel stores in hospitals, airports and railway stations, not motorway services or concessions. Both cards expire after 24 months of non-use.
  • A TG Jones gift card should still be good, but do not sit on it. The company is trading under a court-sanctioned restructuring, not in administration, so there is no insolvency reason for cards to stop. We could not get a company statement on the closing shops specifically. If your shop is on the September list, spend the card before its last day or spend it online.
  • Check the Post Office counter separately from the shop. It can close first, as it did in Swindon. Find your alternative branch now and confirm it does the service you actually need, whether that is parcel returns, banking or passport check and send.
  • Returns still work, just somewhere else. The 30-day policy is company-wide and online orders can go back to any TG Jones shop, so a closure does not strand you. Refunds go to the original card, not as cash.
  • Sale prices do not cancel your rights on faulty goods. The Consumer Rights Act's 30-day right to reject applies to a clearance buy as much as a full-price one. Check what you buy before you leave, and keep the receipt.
  • If you have a click and collect order at a closing shop, chase it. TG Jones's delivery page does not say what happens to an order held at a shop that shuts before you collect. We could not confirm it either. Collect it or contact customer services rather than assuming it will be moved.

Checked on 5 September 2026. A story this recent moves — we update this box rather than leaving it to rot.

Where this came from

What we could not check

  • Whether a TG Jones gift card is accepted in a closing shop on its final trading days. The company is trading, not in administration, so there is no insolvency reason for it to be refused, but we found no TG Jones statement on the point. Ask in the shop.
  • What happens to a click and collect order held at a shop that closes before you collect it. The TG Jones delivery page does not cover it and we could not confirm it.
  • Whether closing shops will handle faulty-goods returns and refunds in their last week, and where those returns are meant to go afterwards. Your rights against the company do not end, but no process has been published.
  • The size of the estate. Retail Gazette says 451 shops, downthetubes says 480 falling to about 302, and TG Jones has been quoted as "over 400". We could not find one authoritative figure.
  • Why Coresight counted 16 September closures where Herald Scotland listed 19. The Coresight report is paywalled and we could not read the list behind the headline.
  • The closing-down discounts. Herald Scotland quotes TG Jones offering 50 per cent off books and up to 75 per cent off Christmas; one aggregator site reported "up to 30 per cent". We could not verify which applies in which shop, and sale terms usually vary by store and by week.
  • Confirmed closure dates for Cardigan and Wells, which were unconfirmed on the published list.
  • Which of the 19 September shops contain a Post Office counter. We confirmed Swindon, Uckfield and Redhill individually from local press; the others we did not check one by one.
  • Whether every closed Post Office counter is replaced locally, and how long any gap lasts. The Post Office advertises the vacancy and hopes a local retailer takes it, which is not a guarantee.
  • How many shops have closed to date against the up-to-150 target. No source we found publishes a running total we could stand behind.

Company figures are as reported by the businesses themselves or their administrators. Where two sources disagree, this page says so rather than picking one.