After a month spent under England’s second national lockdown, some shoppers queued through the night to be the first through the doors of Primark as it reopened on Wednesday.
The clothing chain, which was closed for four weeks with other non-essential stores, opened nine of its stores overnight and will keep them open for 24 hours, including branches in Leeds, Manchester, Birmingham and Gateshead.
Pictures and video on social media showed shoppers queueing in the early hours of Thursday morning to make the most of the novelty.
Student Katie Eames, who went to the White Rose branch in Leeds, told the PA news agency she and her housemate wanted to go for the novelty value.
She said: "We decided we would just go at midnight because we thought it's never going to happen again that you can go at midnight to Primark."
The 24-year-old arrived at the store at around midnight and queued for about an hour to get in.
She said it "wasn't too busy" and was "completely normal inside".
"By the time we left at two there was no queue at all, so I think we must have come when everyone else was starting to come," she added.
She said despite the weather being "very cold", most people in the queue were in good spirits, and that she ended up buying "a few bits and pieces".
Also making the most of the new opening hours was TV star Stacey Solomon.
"I woke up at 4am and went for a late night early morning nose," she wrote on her Instagram Story. "It was so empty and peaceful I just walked around for ages."
Along with non-essential retail stores, the lifting of England’s second lockdown also saw the reopening of salons, gyms and pubs.
