BHS in Mansfield to close today

Mansfield's BHS store is set to shut for the final time today '“ with up to 27 employees facing redundancy.

The department store is one of 114 BHS branches across the country facing the axe – along with 5,000 workers – after the high street company was put into administration.

More than 50 stores have already shut after selling out of stock.

Posters have been placed in the windows of the Mansfield store, on West Gate, offering huge reductions to items, claiming “everything must go”.

The upper floor of the shop has since been cleared, with all stock brought down to the ground level.

Queues for the tills could be seen snaking around the store this week as shoppers grabbed themselves a last-minute bargain.

Workers said they were unable to comment on the situation, but shoppers expressed their sadness at the impending closure.

Barbara Vernon, from Mansfield, said: “I’ve always come here to have a look around and they’ve got some good offers in there now, but it’s a sad day, definitely.

“There are not many places like this in Mansfield. It’s been here as long as I can remember.

“Mansfield has dropped off, it’s all to do with money.”

Diane Ryder, also from Mansfield, said: “I wouldn’t say I was in there regularly, but it is a shame and is bound to affect the town centre.

“I try to get everything from the shops or the market, rather than get it online, but this is the way it’s going.

“We lost Woolworths a few years ago and that was a blow.

“It makes you wonder what will happen next – Mansfield could become a ghost town the way things are.”

In the final days of the sale, even mannequins shelves and cabinets, clothes rails were on sale.

On Saturday for £45 a full mannequin was on sale, with an armless body for £30 and a child size for £20.