Hundreds queue in Telford for 6am sale

Huge queues of bargain hunters formed outside Next in Telford Shopping Centre before 6am today. Their arrival signalled the beginning of the annual Boxing Day sales.

Hundreds of shoppers arrived before the doors to the ever-popular Next sale opened at 6am.

Millions of people are expected to hit Britain's high streets today.

Argos, John Lewis and Marks & Spencer were among stores which started their sales online as early as Christmas Eve and many people are predicted to spend Boxing Day shopping on the internet.

Jayne Mackey, part-time store manager at Next in Telford Shopping Centre, said: "We had about 245 people in our queue this morning. We are absolutely rammed. We had to stop them coming into the store at 6.10am and we have been filtering people in. In our first half-an-hour we took about £4,000."

Tracy Hadley, marketing and events manager at the shopping centre said: "We envisage the sales to be extremely busy."

Russell Hall, operations manager for the Darwin, Pride Hill and Riverside Shopping Centres in Shrewsbury, said: "Last year on Boxing Day we attracted over 15,000 shoppers to the Darwin and Pride Hill Centres and indications this year are that that figure could be exceeded.

"A number of stores have opened and there are plenty of bargains to be had."