Closing day tears at BHS
Sad day for staff and customers
THE doors close today on a number of key Scottish BHS branches, to widespread anger from workers and shoppers alike.
The department store has been a permanent fixture in Scottish life for more than half a century.
But today – in common with Woolworths – it reaches an ignominious ending amid widespread ill-feeling.
The plug has been pulled on most of Scotland’s outlying branches, with just a handful of the chain’s bigger department stores in city centres allowed to limp on for a few more days.
The closures in Scotland’s satellite towns have infuriated hardworking staff and angered loyal shoppers, who fear its closure will signal the death knell for many regional shopping centres, which are increasingly being taken over by empty units and charity shops.
Yesterday, customers flocked to the closing BHS shops for knockdown bargains.
With gallows humour, staff joked about how more Saturdays like these could have saved the business. But it was too little, too late. Among the savvy shoppers there was also regret that this once-great High Street institution – founded by a group of American entrepreneurs – was shutting for good.
But it will be another entrepreneur, Sir Philip Green, who will be forever linked with BHS’ demise.
Last week, he was spotted on his palatial £100 million superyacht as hundreds of BHS staff watched their livelihoods sink without a trace.
A repor t by the House of Commons’ Work and Pensions Committee had earlier criticised the billionaire and said he and his family “extracted hundreds of millions of pounds” from the chain during his 14 years.
The blistering report also criticised his role in the pension fund deficit, amid mounting calls for him to be stripped of his knighthood.
Green is believed to be thousands of miles away on his giant yacht, Lionheart, off Greece. But despite this distance, he wasn’t far from people’s minds yesterday.
One worker said: “He might not have switched off BHS’ life support machine but his actions put it in intensive care.”
Cheryl McCool, 36, visited the BHS in Ayr yesterday where she bought a throw for a chair she has in her caravan.
She saved 50%, but the bargain failed to lift her mood – or her anger – which she directed at Sir Philip.
“It just makes me so angry to see people like Sir Philip Green,” she said. “Businessmen like him seem to take, take and take until there is nothing left.”
Fellow BHS shopper AnneMarie Hunter, 44, and Jean Connor, 58, said pictures of Green on his yacht last week made them “terribly angry”.
Anne- Marie said: “It’s like an institution in the town and the staff are like friends. “Today is a very sad day for Ayr.” Many staff are leaving the Ayr branch – in tears – without any sort of redundancy package.
One of them is Jennifer Balmer, 22, who has worked for the firm for five years.
It was her first job, helping her to earn some money while studying at Paisley University to become a primary school teacher.
“Gutted” the store was shutting, she said: “We’ve been like a family. We couldn’t believe it when it went into administration. We always hoped it would be saved.”
It was announced in April that BHS would enter administration.
Then-owner Dominic Chappell, whose Retail Acquisitions had bought BHS for £1 in 2015 from Sir Philip’s Arcadia group, said the group had “no option” amid mounting debt and a growing pension deficit.
By June, administrators Duff and Phelps said the rescue attempts had failed and the doors would shut forever.
Jennifer added: “It was actually a customer who told us BHS was shutting forever.
“That’s the sort of management we’ve been dealing with – learning our fate via customers.”
Jennifer missed out on redundancy payments because she left the company for six weeks to go on holiday last year. She said: “When you see Sir Philip G re e n and his pals swanning about it makes your blood boil at the way they’ve treated staff.”
Rachel Reid, 18, worked alongside Jennifer and has missed out on qualifying for a redundancy payment by a matter of weeks.
She said: “The people working here in BHS really made the job special. You probably can’t publish what I think of the people who ran it. The way BHS treated their staff is disgusting.”
Elaine Wallace, 38, worked for the firm for nearly five years.
Although she had another job lined up, she was angry about her colleagues being chucked on the “scrapheap”.
She said: “Our store boss has been really supportive.
“But it’s been a very upsetting time.”
In nearby Kilmarnock, the shelves are nearly em p t y. Everything had to go by today – including shopping baskets being sold for 50p – and full female mannequins for £20.
Businessman Scott Murphy, 44, came to kit out his new garage business, Scotts, in the town with some cabinets and shelves that had been used to display BHS’s wares.
He said: “I’m getting a bargain but the BHS staff certainly haven’t. They’ve been treated shoddily.”
In Hamilton, Lanarkshire, the High Street is suffering dropping footfall due to competition from out- of- town shopping complexes which offer free parking. Besides
It’s like an institution in the town – the staff are like friends
I’ve got a bargain but staff have been treated shoddily
Marks & Spencer, BHS had traditionally been a major draw for shoppers in Hamilton.
But today it will disappear forever.
Shoppers Corinna Sala and Jimena Scollante say BHS failed to keep up with customer demand.
But the pair said they felt “really sorry” for the staff.
“No one deserves to be treated like that,” Corinna said.
One worker fought back tears, admitting she felt that, like the store, her prospects were also doomed forever.
She said: “I’m 62. Who is going to employ me now? No one.”
Labour’s Lothians MSP Neil Findlay described the BHS debacle as the “unacceptable face of capitalism”.
He said: “The main concern here is the futures of the staff who have lost their jobs, while Mr Green luxuriates on his yacht.
“There will be no Mediterranean trips for the workers who gave many loyal years of service.”
Dave Gill, of shopworkers’ union Usdaw, said: “The writing was on the wall when Philip Green handed over BHS for £1 to people who were totally out of their depth.”
The final five Scottish stores to be closed as the administrators wind down BHS by August 20 are in Aberdeen ( Union Street), Dundee ( Wellgate Centre), East Kilbride, ( The Plaza), Edinburgh ( Princes Street) and Glasgow (Sauchiehall Street).
No one deserves to be treated like that