please empty your brain below

It's all very sad. Never thought I'd see the day.
In Cornwall the first of 10 stores closed on Saturday. I was in Plymouth and everyone was stripping the remains from the shelves.

Very sad.

It's interesting to see how different the stock left is in branches around the country, and the different prices being asked.

"twenty plastic wallets for £1.18"

I got 400 for £1.56 in last day of Small Local Town yesterday.

Everything was 70\\% off. But there was very little left.

I resisted the witches' hats at 40p minus 70\\%. But only because they were the wrong colour.

It is perhaps worth noting that Woolworths has been closing stores for some time. There was a huge branch of Woolies in Cambridge, spread over two floors, and I remember as a teenager going on day trips and buying sweets, posters and stationery there. Alas, the Cambridge store closed around 2005, and is now a branch of Next. I'm also familiar with Norwich, though not with the particular Woolworths that you describe as I tend to stick to the city centre.

The BBC has published a PDF file listing the final closing dates for each Woolworths store. According to this, the Enfield Town branch is due to close on the 30th December. Meanwhile, the Hertford and Waltham Cross branches closed yesterday, and the stores in St Albans and Watford will close for good on the 2nd January.

I just hope I get one last chance to shop in Woolies before it disappears for good.

What's so sad is those massive cream 'art deco' stores which are going to the wall. In Woolies ownership some have survived but once sold I guess demolition will loom with just an anonymous box as a replacement. Oh for the days when chain stores had confidence enough to build in their own style (Burton's being the most obvious).

@Bowroaduk... I know what you mean, but some chain stores still do.. just in a different style and maybe not so extensively, because of developments in building materials, but it still happens.. and I'm thinking of LIDL here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/isa...pool-
674058@N20

(irony on) Perhaps in seventy years, these stores will become icons too? (Irony off)

Purely for the record, what insolvency accountants generally tend to do - when it's a plain fact that a full Closing Down is an inevitability - is to keep a very close watch on the sales figures for each outlet, and to funnel the final remnants of stock into the stores which have been producing the best turnover.
It's a given that pretty much the first thing they'd have done would be to check which store units might've had their rent (etc) pre-paid, and for how long.
None the less, it's always sad to see long-established names coming to an end, and to have a sense of how difficult it must be for the employees. A trip to the store at Eltham just before Christmas showed them braving it out pretty well, all things considered.

One of the problems with that (otherwise quite useful) little 'retail park' is that it exits on to a particularly congested part of the ring road. Most of the time, it's quite impossible to turn right, away from the city centre, as the traffic doesn't start to move before the lights turn red again.

Last time I was in there, in September, it looked tired and overpriced for the tat it sold. I went in keenly, credit card in hand, wanting to buy clothes and toys for my grandchildren and stationery for myself. I didn't buy much.

I haven't felt able to go into Woolworth recently because I don't want to face the staff. Poor buggers. I feel no nostalgia for the chain, but immense sympathy for the staff.

You were in Norwich and you didn't say hi. What a shame.

We can do a swap. I'm in London tomorrow and you can stay here in Norfolk and even things out.

Everything rises and has to fall to the ashes. But there are some iconic stores like the Harold's and also Woolworths. Seeing it end like this makes you feel helpless.

I too made my way on the day and everything was 70\\% off. But as you would believe there was very little left.











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