Hundreds of eager shoppers have been spotted queueing up outside Sports Direct as the chain announces a 50 per cent discount for NHS workers.
The sportswear chain is reopening 374 stores as of today - including those across Greater Manchester - as the government allows non-essential shops to restart trading following almost three months of lockdown.
In Stockport, the queue snaked from the entrance on Warren Street up the hill on Vernon Street and around the corner onto Turner Street and Shawcross Fold, with about 300 people waiting in line at 10am.
While in Bolton, where many major shops have opened their doors once again, MEN reporter Tom Molloy says the town’s biggest shopping queue is at Sports Direct.
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He tweeted, along with a video: “By far the largest outdoor queue I have seen in Bolton town centre so far is Sports Direct which stretches all the way round the corner onto Deansgate past the Slaters Menswear entrance.”
In Sunderland city centre queues are so long that they have had to be split off from the store itself and fed down onto High Street West, out of the way of other shoppers.
One tweeted: “A bit of queue management has taken place outside Sports Direct.
“People have been asked to wait in the middle of High St West, away from the doors of other shops so people can still get into other stores.”
“Monster queues” have also been reported outside Sports Direct in Salisbury and Liverpool, while in Taunton hundreds of shoppers have been spotted queueing down the middle of the road.
The sports chain announced the half price offer to health care staff as a way to say thank you for their front line work during the coronavirus crisis.
NHS workers are able to claim 50 per cent off menswear, womenswear, kids clothes as long as they have a valid ID card.
In a statement on its website, the company said: "As sport returns, one team gets all our support.
“Thank you team NHS from everyone at Sports Direct."
