More than 40 Comet stores will be closed with a potential loss of about 800 jobs within a fortnight unless the administrators brought in at the crisis-hit electronics retailer can find a buyer.
As a closing-down sale began at 27 stores on Saturday, the administrators from Deloitte said 41 of the 236 outlets would be shut by the end of November, with "inevitable" redundancies.
Deloitte would not put a number on those in danger of losing their jobs, saying it would try to redeploy some employees. About 800 staff work at the 41 stores on the first closure list.
The administrators are understood still to be in talks with the retail rivals Dixons and Maplin about buying a limited number of the Comet outlets, but closing-down sales at 14 more stores will begin early next week. More generous discounts are to be introduced to products at all the Comet stores in an attempt to drum up business.
"We are very grateful to the company's employees for their professionalism, loyalty and support at this difficult time and all employees will of course continue to be paid for all the work they do while the company is in administration," said Chris Farrington, one of the administrators who was appointed at the start of November.
Farrington and his two partners have already made 330 redundancies, most of them at the head office in Rickmansworth, Herts, and a call centre in Somerset.
The failure of the business came barely a month after the collapse of JJB Sports, and is one of the biggest high street casualties since Woolworths four years ago.
Comet, which was acquired by the private investment group OpCapita for £2 less than 12 months ago, has been hit by poor demand as well as growing competition from online rivals. Its problems will feed growing concerns that high streets shops are going under – partly because of online rivals such as Amazon that do not pay the same overheads or tax.
John Lewis, the supermarket and department store owner, has joined the chorus of voices calling on government to crack down, saying companies based in overseas tax havens will "out-invest and ultimately out-trade" those businesses paying full taxes in the UK.