Bittersweet farewell to the pic'n'mix

Published on Saturday 27 December 2008 18:51

EVEN as they prepared to sell the final bag of pic'n'mix, hang up their red corporate shirts and collect their P45s, Woolworths' workforce, it seems, could not be stripped of their sense of humour.

In the doomed chain's one-time flagship store in Glasgow city centre, the sardonic sounds of the Manic Street Preachers album Everything Must Go echoed around the shell of the once-proud shop.

The death throes of the Argyle Street outlet will drag on slightly longer, but yesterday marked the final day's trading for hundreds of Woolworths branches around the UK. In Scotland the axe fell on long-established stores from Kirkwall to Berwick-upon-Tweed.

In Glasgow, pensioner Elizabeth Middleton was left shell-shocked by the imminent demise of a brand that had been with her all her life.

Struggling with bags packed with cut-price Christmas cards, the retired dinner lady was reluctant to leave the shop without delivering a lament for its passing.

"I've been shopping in Woolies since I was a little girl. I really don't know what I will do without it. The staff are all so friendly and I feel so sorry for them."

But others are angered by the fact that a British high-street giant is being allowed to disappear into history.

Oneworker said: "

What really gets me is that Gordon Brown bends over backwards to bail out the banks and Jaguar to make sure they don't go under.

"Why is he prepared to do so much to help fat cats and posh car manufacturers, yet not lift a finger to save nearly 30,000 jobs at Woolworths?"

Upbeat signs in garish colours inform customers that it is 'Woolworths Greatest Ever Sale!', but smaller notices revealing that all fixtures and fittings are up for grabs tell the real story.

The empty shelves look like they have been stripped by locusts or looters.

But goods that remain in healthy supply, even at this late hour, include deterrent 'dummy' CCTV cameras, office desk fans and copies of the novelty book Wit For Old Gits.

Administrators Deloitte earmarked around 200 of the chain's 800-plus stores for closure yesterday.

Sites including the Aberdeen, Leith and Glasgow Dunbarton Road branches

were among the first wave of closures. Woolworths will cease trading on January 5 unless a last-minute buyer is found.