Fury of staff as final stores close doors

BARGAIN hunters besieged BHS shops yesterday to snap up goods reduced by 90 per cent as staff prepare to close the remaining 22 stores.

Shoppers filled trolleys and baskets with cut-priced items as the 88-year- old chain prepares to permanently leave the high street tomorrow.

Lorries containing the final stock were unloaded and quickly sold at a fraction of their full price. Stores even put their mannequins, clothes rails, security barriers, staff pigeon holes and other fixtures up for sale.

Mannequins were sold for £25, women’s tops were going for £2 and men’s shirts were on at just £1.

Meanwhile, defiant staff used their final shifts to mock former owner Sir Philip Green by wearing home-made signs saying: ‘ No more Green.’

Others wore signs which said ‘ Next job chauffeur’ – a dig at Dominic Chappell, who worked as a driver before he bought BHS for £1 from Sir Philip.

Steve Britten, manager of the Swansea store, said his staff created the slogans to keep morale up during ‘tough times’.

‘You can read what you like into that “No more Green” thing,’ he said. ‘We have read it all in the Press and seen it all – everyone has their thoughts.

‘[The staff] have kept their chins up and have been positive to the end. There’s been lots of tears but not of sorrow.

‘We had four lorries in the car park and the staff pushed the items all in within an hour.’

The chain’s administrators, Duff & Phelps and FRP Advisory, have closed 140 stores since April, including BHS’s flagship Oxford Street store and its branches in Wolverhampton, Walsall, Telford and Birmingham city centre. Another 13 stores closed on Tuesday and the final 22 stores will close tomorrow afternoon.

At the Northampton store, staff are being forced to return to the shop on Bank Holiday Monday to clean the floors, windows and toilets with no offer of extra pay.

One female shop assistant, who has worked for the company for 16 years, said she was furious that Sir Philip – dubbed Sir Shifty – was taking a holiday while BHS closed.

She said: ‘I hope he falls off the side of that yacht into the sea. There are so many people who have lost their jobs and pensions, and he is on holiday.’

Assistant manager Max Dennison, 23, said it had been a difficult time for staff. He added: ‘ The staff have just been fantastic throughout this whole time which has been really rough going. We have known about it for a few months now and my feelings towards it are quite mixed. Everyone has worked so hard and have kept their attitude up which is a credit to them.’

The shop’s loyal customers also expressed their frustration. Elaine Smith, 60, from Moulton, Northamptonshire, said: ‘It’s been here such a long time so it really is a shame to see it how it looks today.

‘We get all of our household stuff from here too as you can’t get it from town.’

Her partner Andy Dann, 58, said it was an ‘absolute disaster’. He added: ‘Now we just have another empty shop on the street. With Philip Green, it just shows how money talks and how he’s getting away with it.

‘He’s off down the river enjoying his holiday and his staff have just been abandoned.’

‘I hope he falls off the side of that yacht’