No longer the wonder of Woolies in Stoke-on-Trent (or South Cheshire)

Picking over the embers of a dying empire left me with a sour taste in my mouth. What drove me to walk inside good old Woolworths, in Sandbach, I'll never know.
Maybe it was a sense of something unusual going on inside. In fact, what was unusual for this high street legend was that it was packed to the rafters with shoppers
You couldn't move inside. But this once glorious shop now resembled at best a jumble sale, that is the start of a jumble sale, when traders push innocent punters aside to get their hands on the best of what's on offer.
As I stood taking in the atmosphere, all I could smell was death of an institution. But this did not concern shoppers who eyed a bargain.
It was like attending a wake, when cold-blooded relatives pocket something valuable from the house of the deceased before anyone notices that it has disappeared.
Across Stoke-on-Trent I'm sure the same scenario was acted out. It all seemed so desperate. Desperate for the 30,000 Woolies staff who face an uncertain future and desperate for the shoppers to grab a bargain before they become the victims of the credit crunch.
And just a short distance down the road the death toll was loud and clear for that other retail giant MFI.
White vans queued up outside the store in Stoke-on-Trent like hearses destined for the cemetery. Brightly-coloured signs gleefully screamed 'Closing Down Sale, Everything Must Go', but there was no glee in the faces of shoppers or staff.
Indeed, there was a certain furtiveness about the shoppers, a feeling that they didn't want to be seen making profit while there was so much loss.
Like children in the sweet shop, they didn't want to be seen stealing the penny chews.
Should you wish to read more on life in North Staffordshire and South Cheshire pop along to The Sentinel...