LONDON BRIEFING:WANTED: CHIEF executive of ailing retail icon with annual sales of £3 billion. The successful candidate must formulate a strategy to ensure the company's survival. Ability to deal with disgruntled shareholders a plus. An answer to the question: 'What is Woolworths for?' essential, writes Fiona Walsh.

One of the most poisonous chalices in the British high street is up for grabs again after the surprise ousting last week of Woolworth chief executive Trevor Bish-Jones, who had been in the hot seat for just over six years.

Accompanying news of his exit were figures showing another fall in sales at the 800-store retail chain which, assuming it struggles on long enough, will next year celebrate the centenary of its arrival in Britain.

When its American founder, Frank Winfield Woolworth, opened his first store in Britain in 1909, it changed the face of retailing for ever.

For the first time, instead of being served by an assistant behind a counter, shoppers in the new Liverpool store were able to select goods from the shelves themselves. They went on a wild spending frenzy, and by the end of the first day not a single item was left on the shelves.

Scroll forward to 2008 and there are still Woolworths stores with empty shelves, although that says more about the stockroom problems at the company than about the customers' enthusiasm for making purchases there.

The perennial question - What is Woolworths for? - is no easier to answer today than it was in 2002 when Bish-Jones gave up his job at electrical goods retailer Dixons and took over as chief executive.

During his time at the helm he introduced a number of initiatives aimed at putting the wonder back into Woolies, but the sprawling stores chain still makes virtually no profit, despite annual sales of £1.7 billion.

When full, Woolworths' shelves boast a bewildering array of products, from paint and pans, to tights, televisions, children's clothing, car accessories and pick-and-mix sweets counters.

To its fans it is a much-loved retail treasure trove; to its critics it is little more than a jumble sale - only not as stylish. Why go to Woolworths when you can go to Tesco or Asda instead?

The ousting of Bish-Jones, and the renewed concerns over the company's future, sparked a torrent of comment on the message boards and blogs last week, with many recalling its glory days in decades past.

"It always had the prettiest shop assistants," mused one misty-eyed pensioner.

"We spent our pocket money there every Saturday morning," recalled another.

But nostalgia does nothing for the bottom line - and there were also angry comments from current and former staff members. One unnamed former manager spoke of the impossible task of attempting to sell a £499 television to Woolworth customers who popped into the store simply to buy a can of coke or birthday card.

He also told of spending his lunchtimes trawling the company's in-store ordering system (one of the Bish-Jones multi-media innovations) for items he could afford to buy himself in a desperate attempt to avoid a blast from head office.

"I can think of several managers who probably have 20 or so copies of Stuart Little 2 up in their attics as a result of not wanting to be the man who reports a nil figure at the end of the day," he said.

Staff morale is just one of the problems facing the next manager who will run the ailing chain.

Making profitable sales remains the biggest challenge, however, and the task has not been made any easier by the slowdown in consumer spending.

Woolworths' most recent initiative - its "Price Drop" campaign - succeeded in bringing more shoppers into the stores, but any benefit from the increased footfall was offset by the damage done to profit margins by the price cuts. The new chief executive will have to come up with a much bigger idea than that.

At the time of its demerger from Kingfisher in 2001, Woolworths shares were trading at 25p each. After last week's dismal trading update and the news of the chief executive's departure they are now worth less than 10p.

If there is an answer to the eternal question about Woolworths - what is it for? - the candidate brave enough to take on the toughest job in the high street will need to come up with it in double-quick time.

Fiona Walsh writes for theGuardian newspaper in London