LOYAL staff and customers gave each other consoling hugs and wept as Scotland’s last BHS store closed its doors for the final time.

More than 50 workers at the St Enoch shopping centre store in Glasgow were comforted by customers and former staff from some of the other 15 Scottish branches, who turned up for the closing down final countdown “party”.

All morning a DJ played happy tunes as staff danced with customers and tried their best to keep smiling as their future with BHS came to a sad end at 1.30pm yesterday after almost 90 years on the high street.

Once the doors were closed, BHS past and present workers, who described themselves as “like a family”, joined together to commiserate and vowed to remain close friends despite being forced to seek new jobs.

After the tears and hugs were over, they all headed out together for a late lunch and a few drinks to ponder their future.

One worker said: “It’s been such a sad day. We all been trying not to cry in front of the customers and making a real effort to keep upbeat.

“It’s been difficult because a lot of the customers have been coming up to us in tears and giving us hugs saying they can’t believe this has happened and how much they will miss the store and staff.

“We will all miss each other because we are like a family. It will be very strange not coming here to work here any more. It will take a long time to get used to it.”

Another worker said all the managers had turned up for the St Enoch store closure because it was “the end of an era”.

She said: “One of the managers has just worked 57 days straight, going around Scotland closing all the stores.

“We do feel angry that we’ve lost our jobs and it’s not because we weren’t good at our jobs or there were no customers because we are all very loyal and so are the customers. It’s just a real shame it turned out like this.

“We have all promised to keep in touch even though we are all going off in different directions.”

Some of the customers wiped away their tears as they left the St Enoch store for the last time.

Pensioner Margaret Dewar, 69, from Edinburgh, said she had been shopping at BHS most of her life and was “devastated” at the closure.

She was a regular at the capital’s flagship store before it closed last week.

Dewar said: “I came through to Glasgow with friends just to say good-bye to the staff here because it is the last one in Scotland to close down. It was very emotional and the shop assistants were crying. I feel so sorry for them, they were always very good and very polite. I’ll miss BHS a lot. It had everything really.”

Mum-of-two Alice McGowan, 33, from Glasgow, said she had been buying clothes for her children from the St Enoch store for years.

She said: “Everything was such good quality and reasonably priced. It will leave a huge gap in the town. I feel really sorry for the staff as it’s not their fault.

“I went to the last day. I suppose it was to show my support for the staff, because I didn’t go to buy anything.

“There were only a few rails of clothes and boxes of CDs and things like picture frames left. It was pretty sad to see the store empty like that.”

Teenager Colin Dunn, also from Glasgow, said he was just passing through out of curiosity but did admit that BHS was where he bought most of his grandparents’ Christmas and birthday presents.

He said: “It’s a shame it’s closing because it was handy and pretty cheap. I suppose I’ll need to go to M&S now but they are more expensive.”

BHS went into administration after attempts to find a buyer failed, leading to the loss of 11,000 jobs.

MPs on a Commons committee have been scathing about the collapse of the retail giant and the way in which it was run by former owner Sir Philip Green.

Meanwhile, the family of the billionaire could face legal action from the pensions watchdog as he continues to press for a settlement over the scandal. The Pensions Regulator is considering taking action to formally demand that Green and his wife, Tina, make a contribution towards the £571 million shortfall in the BHS pension fund.