Bargain hunters in early siege at shops

Tens of thousands of bargain hunters queued from dawn today as shops across the West Midlands embarked on major post-Christmas cost-cutting.

A combination of poor November sales figures and the 2.5 per cent increase in VAT, which comes into effect on New Year's Day, means shops are offering the lowest prices while they still can.

At Birmingham's Bullring, bosses said an incredible 4,000 early birds were inside the Next store by 7.30am. Staff ended up having to close the doors on safety grounds as the shoppers flooded in.

At Selfridges, queues spiralled around the Bullring on all three floors ahead of its opening at 8am.

The centre opened at 5am so people could wait outside their first choice shops and make sure they were among the first bargain-hunters through the doors.

Louise Hamer-Brown, marketing controller for the Bullring, said the centre was even busier than last year.

She said: "People started queuing for Next from 4am, and the store had to close its doors to allow some people out.

"The designer bags in Selfridges are always popular but today they were gone within 10 minutes. At River Island, people were waiting outside before 8am."

At Dudley's Merry Hill centre, about 200 early birds queued before 7am for Debenhams and Next.

In Wolverhampton, a small group of dedicated bargain hunters waited outside the Victoria Street entrance of Beatties, which opened at 8.30am.

Tesco opened 249 stores - an increase on the 189 last year due to Boxing Day falling on a Saturday - and Sainsbury's had 94 supermarkets open. Currys, PC World, Argos and Comet, which have branches throughout the region, opened all their stores to catch the Boxing Day shoppers.

Marks & Spencer, Waitrose and Morrisons staff had an extra day off as they were opening their stores tomorrow.

Bargains on offer included Sony Blu-Ray home cinema systems down from £399.97 to £299.97 in Tesco.

A Dyson DC25 vacuum cleaner was on sale in Comet for £197, a big reduction from its original price of £329. Debenhams was offering a long red winter coat for £149, less than half the price it would have sold for two days ago. A number of chains, including Tesco, Asda and Sainsbury's, as well as Halfords, Comet and John Lewis also stole a march by cutting on-line prices before Christmas.

By Daniel Wainwright