Hundreds queue for electrical bargains

Shoppers queued through the night to grab various bargains at a re-launched Black Country technology store.

Around 300 people were waiting outside PC World in Wednesbury this morning for the revamped superstore to open its doors at 6am, kicking off a four-day sale.

A handful of people started queueing from 3pm yesterday afternoon, with more arriving throughout the night, but there was no repeat of the traffic chaos which greeted a similar sale at Currys last year, opposite PC World on the Gallagher Retail Park.

Vouchers were handed out to people who had arrived early to guarantee them the item they had come for, without the need for rushing around once they got inside. The store, which reopened last Thursday, is now the biggest PC World in the country.

There were 150 vouchers given out for each of the biggest bargains, which included a 37 inch LG LCD television reduced by £250 to £329, Snooper satellite navigation systems cut from £199.99 to £49.99 and Toshiba laptops reduced by £100 to £299.

One of the first in the queue was Luke Regan, aged 20, a trainee civil engineer from Ocker Hill in Tipton. Mr Regan started queuing at 10.30pm last night, before getting his hands on a television and a sat-nav when the doors opened.

He said: "I managed to doze for about 10 minutes while I waited and brought my hat and gloves. It was worth it, but now I've got to go to work for seven hours."

Lorry driver Mark Hateley, 39, of Copse Crescent in Pelsall, was sixth in the queue at 9.45pm last night and also picked up an LG television and sat-nav.

He said: "It was a good atmosphere in the queue."

Father-of-three Alan O'Neill, 43, travelled from Heath Hayes in Cannock this morning and only arrived at 5.30am, but still managed to get one of the special offer televisions.

He said: "I've been looking for about six weeks and waiting for a bargain to come up. I only started queueing at about 5.30am and I was in there for 10 minutes, so it was fantastic really."

IT worker Richard MacGuire, aged 34, also from Heath Hayes, said: "I was going to buy a TV this weekend and then something arrived through the door about this."