Shoppers in Swindon have spoken out over the decision to permanently close the town's John Lewis store.

The Mannington unit has been closed since March due to Covid-19. The company has said it is not financially viable and the closure will put 108 jobs at risk.

But the Outlet store in the Swindon Designer Outlet will reopen on July 30.

Adver readers told of their memories of the store as well as their disappointment of the closure.

Samantha Noble said: "It's a shame. Christmas is lovely, even all lights they make it look like a winter wonderland. They had some nice gifts in there last year at reasonable prices no more dear then Debenhams. We have no decent shops."

Yvonne Parr added: "Pity about the Mannington closure. Quality shops are so hard to find these days. The outlet stores are not always acceptable quality and often outdated lines."

This latest loss follows the closure of Debenhams in the town centre in April.

Peter John said: "First Debenhams, now this on top.

"The traditional department store will soon be extinct in Swindon."

Leader of Swindon Borough Council, David Renard, said the loss of the store is terrible but not surprising considering how many people shop online.

He said: "It's dreadfully bad news for the partners that work at the store and I know John Lewis is working closely with them to help them through this.

"In terms of what this means for Swindon, we're disappointed that John Lewis has made this decision, it's a store that I've visited many times and it always seemed to be quite popular but I imagine they came to the conclusion during covid that it wasn't going to be financially viable for them to continue operating it.

"So it's a commercial decision and I think we're all aware that large numbers of people have moved their shopping online over the past few years.

"Pre-covid a quarter of purchases were done online and because of covid we're now up to a third.

"It is, unfortunately, almost inevitable that we will see further shrinkage on the high street and as a council we can't fight against the inevitable.

"We've got to work with it and help transform the town knowing the economic times we're working with."