SAD DAY: a last look as shoppers bid farewell to Wigan's Wilko store

The Standishgate premises said farewell to tearful staff and its last customers on the afternoon of Thursday September 21, one of a number of the budget chain’s outlets to wind up that day after the parent company fell into administration.

The writing was on the wall last week after a hoped-for rescue deal involving the owners of HMV fell through.

The Leigh outlet, however, has been more fortunate after it was one of several to be saved by Poundland’s owners.

With a large Poundland already in the Grand Arcade though, there was no chance of the Wigan outlet being snatched up, and now the town centre has been left with yet another huge, empty space on its principal shopping street.

Only a few doors up are both the former M&S premises and what used to be the home WHSmith, neither of whose vacated units have since been filled since their exodus.

And Wilko (Wilkinsons as was) also occupied the original base of another major brand gone west: Debenhams.

Shopper Mary Bright from Standish said: “It’s another sad day for Wigan. When you think how busy and bustling the place used to be, even on a weekday, it breaks your heart to see what it has come to now.

"I really don’t know what the authorities can do. If people want to shop online or at retail parks then there’s not a great hope for shops in town centres. But as long as these shops are here, I’m going to keep coming.”

Wilko is not the only recent retail casualty in Wigan. Earlier this month The Perfume Shop in the Grand Arcade put up its shutters after deciding not to renew its lease.

However there have been new retail arrivals, including the Grand Arcade’s former Debenham’s store being turned into the UK’s biggest charity shop by Rebuild with Hope. More new retailers have also been promised at the mall soon.

Wigan Council has recognised the national decline of retail and the particular problems of the town by trying to lean more towards hospitality, leisure and accommodation with the building of the Galleries25 project.

But that is still two years off and folk fear what else might go before then.