Three more Woolies closing

A further three Woolworths stores in the Black Country were trading for their final day as the doomed chain is wound up.

Branches in Stourbridge, Halesowen and West Bromwich are the latest in the region to close their doors for good. The outlets were among 150 nationwide being axed today, with prices slashed by 70 per cent.

Stores in Dudley, Kidderminster, Wednesbury, Walsall and Rugeley were among 200 shut in the first wave of closures just after Christmas on December 27.

A 800 shops are due to close by January 5.

Although many of the shelves were already bare this morning dozens of shoppers were still going around the Woolies in the Ryemarket centre.

One customer Bob Harrison of Perrins Lane, Lye, aged 65, said: "It's just terrible. I always remember wherever I have lived there being a Woolies.

"I suppose it's been a long time coming. It has felt like it has been on the way out for the last few years. I feel sorry for all the people who work for them. Many of them have been here for years."