Forster franchisee John Loadsman said the store is independent of the company outside of using its name and continues to trade.

“The message I think a lot of people want to hear is that their local franchise is doing ok,” Mr Loadsman said on Friday.

“There are issues with company owned stores but for us it’s business as usual.”

The receivership of Borders and Angus and Robertson puts in doubt more than 2500 jobs in Australia and New Zealand.

Pricing pressure from internet sites, large staffing numbers and massive overheads forced the hand of the chain’s owners REDgroup, which is believed to owe $46 million.

However Mr Loadsman said his customer trends don’t suggest a swing to the internet.

“The internet is not the single cause. It’s a good vehicle to research books and most of our customers will use it and then come in and say ‘I’m looking for so and so book can you get it for me?’,” he said.

“The most clicked button on the A and R website is the store finder.”

When the collapse was announced on Friday Mr Loadsman, who himself had been alerted by the company’s national franchise manager the night before, said at least 30 concerned customers visited in the space of a few hours.

“Retail is tight all round but did we see it coming? No we didn’t.”

“It’s obviously a shock, it’s a big shock to the system, to everyone but I suppose the good part is that it was a voluntary call which the new board has decided upon.”

“As far as franchisees we’re not sure what’s going to happen now, we’ll just have to wait and see over the next few weeks.”

The first meeting of creditors is expected to take place in the first week of March, when the future of the stores and their employees will be discussed.