Express & Star

VIDEO and PICTURES: Crowds pour in to Merry Hill's BHS for the very last time

[gallery] Everything that could be moved had to go - including the fixtures and fittings - as the last BHS store in the West Midlands closed today.

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Scores of people were queuing outside when the branch in Dudley's Merry Hill shopping centre to opened for business for the last time. Within minutes it was packed with men, women and children grabbing bargains by the armful.

Every item of clothing and electrical goods like toasters - cost £2. DVDs and CDs were ten for £1 but if you wanted the dishwashers from the cafe you were out of luck. They had already been snapped up along with the sinks, tables and freezers.

Tom Jones, the store's 35-year-old operations manager who had been in the business for 12 years, said: "I just feel very sad for all the 11,000 employees who have lost their job. It should never have been allowed to happen."

The shop had 160 staff but was down to 95 on its final day because the others had already managed to find work elsewhere.

Mr Jones, who lives near the store, is still looking and confessed: "I have got nothing in the pipeline. I am struggling but I have kept plodding on. My partner is devastated over what has happened to us."

He continued: "It will be terrible to walk past the shop tomorrow and see the inside completely bare. We have had a lot of support from the local community, especially other businesses in Merry Hill who have done their best to offer jobs to our staff who stayed loyal to the end."

Jo Cook a 45-year-old mother of two from Tipton is among the eight employees who had worked at the branch since it opened 26 years ago.

The sales assistant revealed: "I burst into tears as I drove home last night when it finally hit me that today would be my last at BHS. I have loved working here. I regarded it as my second family. It was far more than just a job.

"What makes it worse is that this store has always made a profit but the management of the company just wanted to make money out of the business for themselves. As a result of that we have all lost our job. I saw Dominic Chappell who bought the company for a £1 at the store conference last September. He was just full of false promises. I feel hurt by it all. It feels like he along with Sir Philip Green and his wife have just trampled all over us."

Grace Redding aged 22, from Stourbridge and an employee for over four years, looked at some of the shoppers and said: "This are behaving as if it was a jumble sale and acting like a lot of vultures."

Patricia Attwell aged 58 from Wall Heath and married with three children and five grandchildren, said: "I feel very sorry for the staff. I have been shopping at this store for the past 20 years. I only had to take one item back - and that was my fault.

"The last day of business is a complete free for all but I am in no position to complain. I am here on the look out for bargains just like everybody else."

Merry Hill and 21 other branches that closed their doors for the final time today were the last of the BHS 164 shop chain to close following the collapse of the company in April, bringing to an end 88 years of British retail history.

Duff & Phelps and FRP Advisory have already overseen 141 closures over recent weeks, including BHS's flagship Oxford Street store in London's West End.

The department store's collapse in April has affected 11,000 jobs, 22,000 pensions, sparked a lengthy parliamentary inquiry and left its high-profile former owners potentially facing a criminal investigation.

Retail billionaire Sir Philip Green has borne the brunt of the public fallout, having been branded the "unacceptable face of capitalism" by furious MPs.

Sir Philip owned BHS for 15 years before selling it to serial bankrupt Dominic Chappell for £1 in 2015.

Sir Philip has come under fire for taking more than £400 million in dividends from the chain, leaving it with a £571 million pension deficit and for selling it to a man with no retail experience.

Veteran Labour MP Frank Field has asked the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) to launch a formal investigation into the pair to ascertain if any criminal wrongdoing occurred during the sale of the chain and throughout their respective ownerships.

It has also emerged that Mr Field is probing Sir Philip's Arcadia retail empire, which includes Topshop.

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