Sadness as Telford BHS store closes for last time

Bargain hunters gathered outside the Telford Shopping Centre department store ahead of its last 9am opening yesterday, hoping to find cut-price clothing, food and DVDs.

Laughter and chanting could be heard from behind the shutters as staff prepared for their final shift.

Thousands of customers visited the store during its last few hours, picking up everything from dresses and suits to pricing guns, printer ink and mannequins.

Identical scenes were seen in Wolverhampton, where the Mander Centre BHS store also closed its shutters for the last time.

Customers spoke about their sadness for the staff, adding that the now empty BHS unit would leave a gap in the town centre.

Leonard Holl, from Telford, said: "If you walk around Telford Town Centre there's half a dozen empty shops or more.

"BHS is a massive store. How are you going to fill that? Change it into smaller stores so they can shut down as well, probably.

"Even next to BHS there's empty stores – where Asda used to be, where Poundland used to be. We always come up on a Wednesday, we haven't come up especially.

"That's partly because the stuff on offer now is still too dear, even with all the money off.

"My wife will get things occasionally. It's a crying shame really, when you see Philip Green swanning around on his yacht.

"It's the staff that we feel sorry for. They will now have to struggle to find other jobs."

Beryl Hawkins, from Telford, added: "There's a lot of very nice clothes in BHS. They wash and wear very well.

"I've supported them for years and years and so I'm very sad to see them go. They do a size eight and a 10, which is my size, and you can never get it anyway, so it was always great for that.

"I've said to the staff how sorry I am that they are going. I hope they manage to sort all the pensioners out as soon as possible too."

The Telford Shopping Centre store is one of 164 shut or set to close around the country. The company, formerly owned by Sir Philip Green, went into administration at the end of April this year, when stores across the country began the painful process of shutting down.

The 11,000 staff employed by the company will lose their jobs as the business continues to wind down, with every store set to close by August 20.