Sadness as Brownhills Wilko among first to close

Shoppers spoke of their sadness at a town's Wilko branch closing for good on Tuesday after the collapsed retail chain failed to find a buyer.

They were speaking over the demise of the Brownhills store in the West Midlands - one of 24 shutting on the same day.

All 400 of the discount chain's shops are set to close by October and about 12,500 staff are likely to lose their jobs.

Fifteen people worked in Brownhills.

One of 22 to shut in the West Midlands, the store's windows are filled with closing banners and it has been offering 30% off Halloween items and 50% off Christmas products.

Daz Pugh works opposite Wilko, at butcher's shop A E Poxon & Sons.

He said: "It'll be a shame because it's another empty shop, shame for the people who work there as well.. a big loss to the high street."

Asked whether it made him worried over the butchers shop and if Wilko customers also went there, he replied: "No, we're OK like that... a totally different sort of clientele.

"But again it's just another empty unit and... the high street seems to be dying slowly."

The Brownhills high street connects people to the motorway and parts of the area.

Nuala, who was brought up in the town and later moved back here, said if you looked down the road, "you'll see many [shops] are closed and boarded up and graffitied".

She added: "We've got cafes, hairdressers and betting shops. It's about it really.

"So you have to venture out to what they call the malls, the outlets, now.

"Wilko had a good variety of everything. If you couldn't get it, you went to Wilko."

Jan Davies, who has run a community centre in Brownhills for 27 years and used to be involved in the town centre partnership, said over the last "five, six years" there had been lots of shop closures.

But she added: "[The high street] is well used, I mean if you come to Brownhills any time of the day.

"People want to shop local. They don't want to have to go to your town centre to get things."

The Wilko branch in Stafford also closed for good on Tuesday and staff and shoppers told BBC News it was an emotional day.

The closure would be "awful" for the area, said customer Neil Andrews who added "this end of town is absolutely terrible, it's dead".

Shopper Steve Barton said: "We're old enough to remember Woolworths and Woolworths was a big shock when it went and Wilkos...what's happening to the high street?"

In Stoke-on-Trent, which includes the Hanley branch, shoppers said they were sad over the news.

"I'm very upset about it really, because it's been going years and I do shop here quite frequent," said one.

Another woman stated: "This shop, their price is [lower] than the other shops and their stuff's quality."

Back in Brownhills, one customer, Amy said: "The staff that are in there, they're all really good, absolutely amazing and it's a shame for them more than anything else.

"Wilkos was the cheapest place, so…. I guess it'll just have to be B&M.

"There's going to be less traffic coming through here... and it will be a shame to not see as many people …but that's the way everywhere's going isn't it?"

Local Conservative councillor John Murray said: "I'm really worried that people are going to start to drift out to out-of-town centres, with the loss of Wilko and everything that Wilko of course has always sold."

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