AS Cooper has announced they will be closing their Front Street Harbourside store in February, another victim of Bermuda’s struggling economy.This news comes on the heels of a string of recent Hamilton closures, including veteran retailer All Wrapped Up, Carole Holding store and Foreign Cargo.Managing director of AS Cooper, Somers Cooper informed staff of the decision yesterday citing the Island’s sustained poor retail sector.“Regretfully, the prolonged weak economy has forced us to re-evaluate all of our lines of business and the locations they occupy,” he said. “This difficult decision was necessary to facilitate the long-term success of the AS Cooper group of stores.”Cooper’s will consolidate most of the product lines represented at Harbourside back into their main store on Front Street and will endeavour to place sales staff within the framework of the company. It is expected that the closure, effective February 1, 2013, will result in one redundancy.Mr Cooper added: “Business at that location was always a challenge due to it being the only shop on that side of Front Street. While it provided a positive contribution for many years, sales have eroded over the last 12 to 18 months. These conditions, along with the departure of the Veendam, sealed our fate. Our landlord, the Corporation of Hamilton has been a helpful and interested partner during our tenure there and I would like to publicly thank them for their support.”Harbourside will continue to sell plus size fashions, accessories and home decor items through the Christmas season. They also plan to open their popular Christmas shop at Harbourside later this month.Harbourside will become Cooper’s clearance outlet in January and the company expects local customers will enjoy attractive sale prices on a myriad of goods and products for the month prior to closing.