QUEUES of bargain hunters have built up at the Borders store in York after signs went up saying it was closing down.

But administrators who were called in last week by the struggling bookshop chain said today the shop would not be closing, at least for the time being, as they continued to seek a buyer for individual stores or the entire group.

“It’s a stock clearance sale as opposed to a store closure,” said a spokesman for MCR.

He also said there were no plans for redundancies at the moment at any store, and some stores would actually be taking on temporary staff.

The store closure signs in the windows of the store in Davygate advertise discounts of up to 50 per cent, with other items cut by 20 per cent.

Shoppers have reacted by turning up en masse to pick up pre-Christmas bargains, although many customers have also approached staff to express their sadness at Borders’ demise and sympathy for staff at the store, which employs between 40 and 50 people.

The MCR spokesman said the clearance sale was intended to raise as much money as possible to ensure creditors got as much out of the business as they could.

He said at the same time, the administrators were talking to a “lot of interested parties” about the possibility of them buying the entire group or individual stores.

“There is a tremendous amount of interest in this,” he said.

He defended the administrators’ position on the use of the store’s gift vouchers after one customer complained to The Press.

Malcolm Lee, of The Groves, said customers who had spent money buying a voucher were having to spend more money to redeem it.

“To me it’s wrong, it’s a matter of principle,” he said.

The spokesman said customers with vouchers were unsecured creditors.

He said when other stores had brought in administrators, such customers had lost out completely.

At Borders, they simply had to match their voucher with the same amount in cash to buy something which had been reduced in price.