TILLS at the country’s "cheapest sweet shop" are constantly ringing with customers snapping up last-moment Christmas stocking fillers for less than a tenner.

Everyone looking for a bargain, from kids to grandparents, have been flocking to Goodies in the university market town of Loughborough, Leicestershire, for tasty treats to give as gifts.

When The Sun Online visited days before Christmas the store – full of bargain sweets, drinks, biscuits, savoury snacks, plus cuddly toys, calendars and books – was chockablock.

The owner’s run-off-his-feet teen stepson Alex Rogers said: “It’s crazy! There’s barely a second a customer’s not in here. People are stocking up on bits and pieces for the stocking and most spending less than £10.

“The average spend is a fiver but some are splashing out a bit more.

“Times are tough with the cost-of-living crisis so a bargain shop like ours really helps people out, and this week it’s the last minute rush before the big day."

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Assistant Alex, 16, grinned: “We’re super cheap and that’s why we’re always busy.

"We’ve had loads of people in today, it’s non stop."

He is enjoying the sweet taste of success at the discount store in shopping mall Carillon Court.

It was opened a year ago by his stepdad Bez Norbury, 32, who prides himself on being a bit of a wheeler-dealer Del Boy.

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Goodies fan Carl Batterham said: “It’s great value and I've come in for all my stocking bits and bobs"

The dad-of-two, 40, whose excited kids are 10-year-old Kales and his younger sister Millie, eight, spent £10.50 on his quick festive shop of sweets and toiletries.

The supermarket worker is a regular at the store because it’s “brilliant for a bargain” and “filling up on treats” and has different products to the chain he works at.

Brothers Leighton Welham, 12, and nine-year-old Riley were busy shopping for gifts for the family and each other.

They had a £20 spend each, which they had being given as an early gift by their auntie.

Riley said: “We’re using our money to buy other people presents. There’s lots to choose from.”

Picking up a brown soft toy bear Riley told his big bro how much he would like it, encouraging him to purchase the non-surprise pressie.

Leighton said he enjoyed buying for others, saying it was “sometimes more fun than receiving".

Mum-of-two Bex Elcock popped into the store – which undercuts supermarket chains and independents and claims to be Britain’s “cheapest sweet shop” – to buy sweets for her husband.

The dental practice manager, 30, told how she wisely limited her kids’ sweets, saying: “They would love all the stuff in here but they would be off their rocker if they ate it – far to much sugar and e numbers (food additives).”

She told our team: “They are allowed sweets in small doses but I’m here buying stocking fillers for my F1 engineer husband Ross.

“I’ve spent £9.50 and I’ve bought him sweets, yes he is allowed them, and his favourite Takis chilli and lime snacks. He’ll be happy."

'BEST KETTLE I'VE HAD'

Regular Roberta Henry, 64, was shopping with her sister Fiona McLaughlin and said: “We come in here all the time for cheap everyday stuff.”

The mum-of-three added: “The kids are grown up so we’re not buying for them just us!

“It’s basic stuff like tea, coffee and of course sweets and crisps.

“I come in once a week and always spend around a tenner. One time I even bought a kettle for 10 quid and it’s the best kettle I’ve had."

Her pensioner elder sister Fiona, 69, told how she treated herself to “cheap sweets and crisps” too, and recently bought two new posh-make pillows for £6 a pair she describes as “lovely".

Alex, who is a university student but works as a cashier part-time, said the shop “needs to keep items cheap to sell".

He said: “If they are priced too high no one will buy. We’re doing it right because we are always rammed and the same customers are coming back again and again.

“The cost of living has really worried people and they are always checking and double checking the prices, they are being cautious and need to be on top on their money.”

Alex, working single-handedly while Bez went out to buy more stock, said: “We’ve been struggling to re-stock but somehow we are managing it. The shelves can never be empty so we keep filling up, and up.

“We use different wholesalers and we get the cheapest we can to pass the price onto our customers."

He said the best deals on items were the two and three for £1 and “people were really buying lots now because it’s Christmas".

The American drinks have been proving popular – two cans for £1.50 and the vast sweet selection, including favourite chocolate Galaxy and Dairy Milk, and festive choccie coins and reindeers.

SUGAR RUSH

Alex said the most a customer has recently spent is £32 but that was “a one-off".

He added: “Our stock is constantly changing so we always have new products on offer and out customers range from kids to pensioners. Everyone comes in to pick up a bargain."

New parents Andrew Rhys-Knightly, 26, and girlfriend Georgia Gordin, 22, were "out shopping for stocking fillers".

Green-haired Georgia said: “Our budget of £5-£10 but you can get a lot for that money. We come here often and have never spend more than £20.”

Selecting some American strawberry gummies “Sour Patch Kids” as a treat for her partner.

The couple have newborn baby son Noah but he's “too young for treats here”, his mum grinned.

Chef Andrew, 26, added: “It’’s surprising how much you can get for your money here and it suits our pockets.

“We’re focusing on buying presents for people, sweets and biscuits are a favourite.

“We saw the shop’s post on Facebook when it opened and we come here every time we’re in town, and they are always changing their stock.

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“I never fail to spend more than a fiver here."

Our Sun Online photographer Terry couldn't resist a bargain and after taking his snaps of happy chaps and chapesses he bought four cans of root beer for £3 – two for £1.50 – which he later said when back home were “tasty".

Full list of prices:

• Two cans of US pop root beer for £1.50 or 12 cans for £7
• Two bars of Green & Black’s chocolate for £1.50 and selling elsewhere for £2 per bar
• Mix and match sweets two for £1 – choice of Dairy Milk Oreo chocolate, Galaxy, Bonds strawberry bon bons and Gummy eyeballs, Haribo, amongst many
• Mix and match sweets three for £1 – honey toffee comb, Sainsbury’s pin and while vanilla marshmallow
• Hot water bottle – labelled "Hottie £1 wow!”
• Two pillows branded John Lewis and Debenhams for £6
• Kettle £10
• Advent calendars now £1, down from £4 and selling elsewhere for £14.99

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