THE shelves are virtually bare at the High Wycombe branch of Woolworths as shoppers flocked to the shop to take advantage of its closing down sale.

The store will open its doors for the final time on Tuesday.

Fixtures and fittings are now being sold off to try to recoup as much money as possible to cover the chain's reported £385m of debt.

Among items being sold off are a safe for £300, and even staff lockers at £30 a piece.

More than half of the company’s 807 stores across the country have already closed for the last time.

Woolworths, which opened its first UK store in Liverpool in 1909, has been the biggest High Street name to fall foul of the credit crisis.