It is 9.30am and Sandra, assistant manager of Woolworths in the Wiltshire market town of Devizes, is in tears beneath her red-and-white Santa hat.

All around her there is chaos. This is the start of Woolworths’ “closing down” sale, only no one told the staff.

By opening time at 9am there were 100 people queueing at the front and more at the back, worked up into a bargain-hunting frenzy by reports on the radio and television that led them to expect the sale of the century.

Sandra barely managed to get out of the way in time to avoid being trampled. No sooner had the first customers barged past her than the grumbling started.

“This is a big swizz,” one woman complained. “The prices are the same as they were yesterday.” In fact staff had not had the chance to mark things down. A further 10 to 20 per cent was being taken off at the till.

By 9.05 Sandra’s walkie-talkie was crackling frantically. The store had no advance warning and only four staff are on duty, with the rest not due in until 10am. One cashier threatens to walk out unless someone brings her some change. Another is already out of £1 coins and 20p pieces and has only £20 notes.

By 9.30 Sandra is wiping away a tear as she tells a customer who has come over to comfort her: “What’s got to me are all the nice things the customers are saying. One even gave me a cuddle.” An elegant, grey-haired woman takes her e-mail address and begs her: “You aren’t going to vanish from my life, are you?”

The disappearance of Woolworths, if it happens, will leave a big hole in Devizes, and not just in the Brittox, the pedestrianised shopping street.

Dave Guest, sporting a 1970s-style motorcycle jacket and matching moustache, said: “It’s the only decent shop left in Devizes since they turned Iceland into Marks & Spencer. The rest of them are all private and very pricey. No one will be able to afford to come shopping here now.” Jill Fowle, a regular since 1965, said: “It’s very sad. You always know you can get what you want in Woolies and they seem to have reasonable prices. There isn’t anywhere else that sells such a big range of items in the town centre. I don’t know where I’ll go now.”

The Devizes branch, which employs 30 staff, is one of the most profitable in the Woolworths chain. A member of staff said bitterly: “It isn’t the trading that’s the problem, it’s the mismanagement.”

At Woolworths in Cardiff, David Green, 28, who was recently made redundant from a steelworks, said: “Manners just went out the window. I was barged out the way by other customers searching the shelves.

“I’ve brought presents for my nieces and nephews and a paper shredder. I spent about £35 and I think I saved about £30 on my shopping.”

In Royston, Hertfordshire, where the store was due to be celebrating its centenary next year, Mark Doran, 45, a writer who popped in to buy light-bulbs, videos and tapes, said that the closure of Woolworths could signal the end of shopping in the town centre. He said: “This will gut the town completely. Royston is in terrible trouble anyway – shopping in the town is dying.”

More than 60 people queued down the street outside the large Woolworths in Streatham, South London, before yesterday’s opening. First in the queue was Barbara Laing, 52, a shop assistant from nearby Thornton Heath, who said: “I shop here a lot. When I was a little girl I used to love coming in for pick’n’mix. My favourites used to be the liquorice and the chewy strawberries.”

The large red letters of the Woolworths sign have been a fixture on high streets around the country for as long as anyone can remember – solid, reliable and, yes, rather unexciting. A bit like Britain’s traditional view of itself. If Woolies can have a closing down sale, how long before they start shutting up Great Britain plc?

Times Recommends

• Lies and cover-up at MG Rover exposed by report
• High oil prices push manufacturing costs up
• Primark founder steps down as chief executive