Queues at dawn as millions of bargain hunters are set to hit the stores again today for the traditional Boxing Day sales…and online shoppers will spend £519,000 a minute
- Eager shoppers queued through the night at stores across the country to make the most of Boxing Day sales
- Hundreds waited outside Next stores in Cheltenham and Newcastle with numbered tickets and plastic bags
- In London queues were formed around Selfridges, Harrods and Liberty at dawn, hours before the stores open
- House of Fraser and Marks & Spencer are slashing have slashed furniture prices by up to 60 per cent
- Online bargain hunters will spend more than £500,000 every minute with Amazon and eBay both slashing prices
- It comes after millions flooded retailers’ websites on Christmas day spending an estimated £236million
- Sales will not surpass those of Black Friday however when around £1billion was spent over a single weekend
Snaking queues of shoppers were already formed at dawn this morning as millions turned out early for the traditional Boxing Day sales.
Eager bargain hunters wrapped themselves in blankets and scarves as they waited in the crisp winter weather for doors to open at High Street giants across the UK.
While millions will be spent in shops across the country, online shoppers are expected to splash out even more, with £519,000 being spent every minute.
It comes after scores flocked to online retailers yesterday, spending an estimated £236million throughout Christmas Day.
In store, luxury retailers Selfridges, Harrods and Liberty are all offering cut price goods after opening at 9am, 10am and noon respectively.
Scroll down for video
Customers run through the doors of Next in Cardiff to get their hands on cut priced clothing and homeware after the store’s 6am opening
Children and women run through the doors of Selfridges at the Trafford Centre in Manchester this morning to get their hands on bargains
A woman falls over while running through the doors of Selfridges at the Trafford Centre in Manchester this morning
Shoppers wait impatiently outside the Bullring Shopping Centre in Birmingham this morning for the traditional Boxing Day sales
Hundreds queued outside Next stores across Britain, including those at the shopping centre in Birmingham. The High Street retailer is offering at least half price on all items today
Orange barricades were put up outside the Next store at the Birmingham Shopping Centre which does not open until 10am
Eager bargain hunters waited outside Next in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, armed with plastic bags before the store’s opening at 6am
Special security teams employed for the day distributed numbered tickets to the shoppers to avoid overcrowding in the Cheltenham store
A woman tries to keep warm in a fleece blanket in Cheltenham as she waits outside the Next store where shoppers queued over night
Excited shoppers wait outside Next in Cardiff where the doors opened at 6am. Extra security was laid on this morning to help control crowds
Railings were put up outside Selfridges with security standing guard as the first shoppers began queuing overnight and this morning
Among the most eager shoppers were those who arrived at Next in Cardiff at 1am to begin queuing. The store, which is offering half price or less on all of its items, opened at 6am.
More than 2,000 shoppers waited in the bitter cold to enter the store in the Welsh capital.
But after the raucous crowds of Black Friday, some stores have heightened security to avoid any violence.
Last month police were called to 14 different stores in the UK as shoppers fought over discounted televisions and coffee machines.
Tesco said it had ‘learnt necessary lessons’ from the stampede of shoppers on Black Friday, with one woman left injured by a television which fell on her head, and had taken extra measures to avoid similar situations today.
Despite the popularity of Black Friday, retailers said Boxing Day still pulled in huge bargain hunting crowds.
Westfield director Myf Ryan said Boxing Day remained a ‘huge attraction’ for shoppers.
Leave a Reply