Preston’s Comet store, one of the last remaining of the doomed chain, closes it’s doors for the final time this coming week.

The electrical store is offering discounts of up to 50% and sometimes more, try haggling. I popped in to have a look the other day. It was extremely busy, there wasn’t much left on the shelves but there were are still some big items available. Possibly some great last minute Christmas bargains.

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I also picked up this interesting story with a decidely anti-festive feel.

I heard that sympathetic customers had been donating cash in stores to staff facing redundancy. A great gesture to make employees feel a little better over the festive period. Unfortunately, they have been told they cannot keep any of the money.

The Administrator Deloitte has said any money donated should instead go to charity.

Deloitte said a number of stores set-up informal collection boxes at tills. The donations would have to be subject to PAYE and NICs the same as tips.

As a result, they felt that the money should be donated to the company’s charity (and will not form part of the returns to any creditors). This has frustrated many people who stuck money in the pots hoping it would go towards the unfortunate staff.

Comet’s charity is believed to be SportsAid.

A very sad end for around 5,000-odd Comet employees and not really in the spirit of Christmas.

The loss-making chain had been sold to private investment firm OpCapita for a token £2. OpCapita failed to revive Comet’s fortunes and only a year after taking it on called in the administrators.