About 6,800 Woolworths staff will be receiving an extra day's pay after the administrators of the collapsed store chain decided to postpone the closure of its final 200 outlets by 24 hours next week.

Deloitte has put back the remaining stores' final day of operation from Monday to Tuesday to give them time to sell every last item from their shelves, transport it from the premises and lock up the buildings.

Deloitte was appointed administrator after Woolworths collapsed in November with debts of £385 million. It tried, but failed, to sell the group as a going concern and has since worked frantically to sell the business in tranches to various buyers.

At least 150 of the retailer's 807 outlets held their last day of trading on December 30, with everything, including fixtures and fittings, on sale at discount prices. About 27,000 people are losing their jobs as a result of closure.

A spokesman for Deloitte said: “There are two main reasons for delaying the closures. One, stock levels - there's still some stock remaining. Two, workload - it's a big logistical exercise. The remaining dates were delayed to allow time for the final arrangements to be made.”

Woolworths set up in Britain in 1909 when its parent group in the United States - which collapsed about ten years ago - opened a branch in Liverpool. At the shop, all items of stock cost either threepence or sixpence, making it an instant hit, and the group expanded rapidly.

Retail analysts said that even before the credit crunch kicked in, the Woolworths chain had been struggling, making persistent losses and burdened with heavy debts, and that the economic downturn proved to be the final nail in the coffin.

The retailer had a recognisable brand and a significant presence in the retail market for confectionery, toys and children's clothes but no longer catered effectively to consumers' tastes, the analysts said.

When there was an economic environment of low interest rates and an expansion of consumer and business credit, Woolworths was able to borrow and survive. However, as the credit crunch started to bite, the availability of credit shrank and sales fell, forcing Woolworths to dig into its own cash reserves to pay suppliers for Christmas stock.

In doing so, it came up against the limits of its £385 million borrowing capacity and its lenders decided not to extend further lines of credit.

The original Woolworths in the US was founded in 1879 by Frank Winfield Woolworth, who came up with the original “nickel and dime” concept, whereby all lines of stock cost either five cents or ten cents. When he set up shop in Liverpool, he used the same concept.

In 1931, 22 years after opening the Merseyside store, Woolworths floated on the London Stock Exchange as a company in its own right. The company, which lifted the 6d price limit in 1942, carried on expanding into the 1970s, when the number of UK outlets peaked at 1,144.

The administration of Woolworths includes its shops and EUK, a DVD distribution business. A joint venture with the BBC, called 2Entertain, which sells DVDs of programmes produced by the broadcaster, is not in administration.

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