The window is the whole problem
Retail clearance is rarely constrained by volume. A typical high street unit is half to three quarters of a lorry load, which is a couple of hours of work. What constrains it is when the lorry is allowed to be there, and where it can stand while it is loaded.
Pedestrianised high streets across Scotland have restricted vehicle access hours, usually early morning and evening. Shopping centres run booked delivery slots through a service yard and will not simply let a vehicle turn up. Retail parks are the easiest of the three, and even they have tenant agreements about out-of-hours noise.
So the sequence runs backwards from access. Establish the permitted window first, then plan the strip-out into it. A clearance booked for a Tuesday afternoon on a pedestrianised street will not happen, however good the price was.
- Most units clear overnight or on a Sunday
- High streets have restricted loading hours
- Shopping centres require slot bookings
- Trading days lost cost more than the clearance
- Sequence strip-out before fit-out arrives
- Book access before you book the lorry
Sequencing strip-out and fit-out
The expensive failure mode in retail is the shopfitters arriving to a unit that is not empty. Their programme is fixed, their crew is booked, and a day lost at the front pushes the opening date. That is why we quote fit-out clearances against a handover time rather than a date.
For a straightforward unit that means one overnight visit: gondolas and wall bays out, counter and till point out, changing rooms and display units out, back shop and stockroom emptied, floor swept. For a larger store it can be two or three phases, sequenced so the shopfitters can start at the front while the back is still being cleared.
Anything fixed to the structure — suspended ceilings, partitions, cabling, floor coverings — is a soft strip out rather than a clearance, and wants planning as its own phase because it produces a different mix of waste.
What to segregate, and why it pays
Shopfitting waste separates well, which means it should. Metal — racking, gondola frames, rails and brackets — has recovery value and comes off the price through scrap metal collection. Timber from counters and display joinery is recoverable. Cardboard and film from a fit-out delivery is enormous in volume and trivial to bale.
Plasterboard has to be kept separate whether you want to or not, because gypsum (the mineral inside plasterboard) cannot go to landfill with biodegradable waste. Suspended ceiling tiles and partition board from a strip-out will produce a lot of it, and it needs its own route — see plasterboard disposal.
Lighting is the stream people forget. Fluorescent tubes and older lamps are recycled under WEEE (anything with a plug or a battery) and should be flagged when booking so the crew brings the right containment rather than putting them in with general waste.
Strip-out and clearance in one go?
Send photos of the shopfront and stockroom and we will price the whole thing as one job.
Branded stock, signage and the reputational bit
Every retailer we work with asks the same question, usually late: what happens to the branded material? Dead stock, damaged goods, signage, lightboxes and point-of-sale carry your name, and none of it should turn up on a market stall or an auction site three weeks later.
Our position is straightforward. Branded stock and signage are destroyed rather than resold, and we will confirm that in writing if you need it for a brand protection policy. Unbranded fixtures in usable condition are a different matter and are offered for re-use, which is both cheaper and better than landfilling a perfectly good gondola bay.
For the units themselves, shop and retail clearance is priced by volume like everything else — from £100 + VAT for a small back-shop clear to £550 + VAT for a full store closure. Multi-site closure programmes are quoted per unit with one point of contact, which is usually what a rolling estate rationalisation needs. Businesses new to us should start at commercial waste and clearance.
What it costs, and what drives the number
Retail clearance pricing is driven by three things: volume, access and timing. Volume is the obvious one and the easiest to estimate from photographs. Access is the one that moves the number most — a unit with a loading bay behind it is a straightforward job, and the same unit on a pedestrianised street with a sixty-metre carry to the nearest legal parking is not.
Timing is the third. Overnight and Sunday working is standard for us rather than a premium, but a job that has to happen in a four-hour window between a store closing and shopfitters arriving needs more crew to hit it, and that shows up in the price.
As a rough guide, a small unit's fittings and back-shop clutter is around a half load at £290 + VAT, a full shopfit strip is three quarters at £390, and a complete store closure is a full load at £550. Sending photographs of the shopfront, the stockroom and the access route gets you a fixed number rather than a range — the full price list has the rest.
