SHOPPERS swooped for bargains with guilty pleasure as the Borders store closed on Tuesday after nine years of trading.

The entire 45-strong chain has closed with the loss of 1,150 jobs, including around 30 at the branch in Bournemouth Square, plus around 25 more staff from the instore concessions.

People bagged basketfuls of Christmas bargains at prices of up to 90 per cent off.

Victoria Kittle, 25, and Kenton Wallace, 25, from Southbourne had 14 books and five CDs.

Victoria said: “It’s upsetting when you look around and it looks like a graveyard.

“You feel guilty about the staff when you go to the tills – but it’s got to be bought.”

Dan James, 23, from Parkstone in Poole, estimated his basketful of books on education and psychology had saved him around £100.

He said: “It’s sad to see all the books in the wrong places, and it’s a shame it’s closing. But a lot of people are making the most of it at the same time.”

Last year’s Mayor, Cllr Stephen Chappell, had a stack of paperbacks a foot high as he joined the back of a queue that wound around the aisles then stretched to the back of the magazine section.

The bookshelves were either mostly empty and jumbled up and the floors were scattered with torn-up “closing down” posters – but all six serving points were busy.

The escalators were turned off although the downstairs was still open and the shelves and chairs were being sold off.

The Bournemouth store was the eighth in the UK.

The guest celebrity at the opening on April 20, 2000, was Arabella Weir from The Fast Show, signings copies of Does My Bum Look Big in This?’ The store stocked around 100,000 books and tens of thousands more CDs and DVDs and visting stars over the years included Jordan, Sir David Attenborough, Sir Terry Wogan and Jacqueline Wilson.

The Paperchase and Games concessions were also wound up, while the Starbucks coffee shop staff were trying to keep their spirits up doing their bit with Santa hats and reindeer antlers.

One said: “We can have two months temporary work at another franchise to give us time to look for work but after that we get made redundant.

“We are just trying to have as much fun as we can today.”