The doors closed for the last time at Woolworth’s store in Dover.

A closing down sale, with massive discounts, resulted in hundreds of shoppers making a last-minute bid for bargains, and there were long queues at the tills at the front and back of the shop, meeting in the middle!

It was a result of the company going into administration, yet another victim of the recession which has claimed an increasing number of businesses.

More than 20 staff at Woolworth’s have started the New Year without jobs. Representatives from the Job Centre and the district council met with the staff in the run-up to the closure to help them with information about possible vacancies and their entitlements.

Some of the staff had worked at the store since it opened nine years ago. Woolworth had previously had a presence in the town, slightly further down Biggin Street, stretching from Worthington Street to Priory Street.

That store closed, and Dover was without Woolworths for a while, Then the new store was built and opened on the site of the former General Post Office and telephone exchange at the junction of Biggin Street and Priory Street.