Boxing day shoppers queuing before 3am

Shoppers were queuing outside stores in Scotland from the early hours to ensure they got in first for the Boxing Day sales.

Queues were seen outside Next shops, which opened at 6am, while Lush also attracted lines of shoppers.

However, early indications suggested high streets across Scotland were less busy than previous years, despite hefty discounts.

At Glasgow’s St Enoch’s Centre, stores were offering discounts of up to 70% off and around 70,000 shoppers were expected through the doors.

Meanwhile, at intu Braehead shopping centre in Renfrew bargain hunters arrived at 2.45am.

The centre’s marketing manager David Lyon said: “Shoppers who got up before dawn to head out to intu Braehead were boxing clever as they bagged a bargain or three.

“Our Boxing Day sales are as popular as ever and as early as 2.45am the first shoppers arrived to wait for Next to open their doors at 6am.

“By the time the store did open, there were more than 200 people queuing outside the store.

“Fortunately the weather was quite mild for this time of year, although some of the shoppers did have flasks of tea and coffee with them.”

He added: “When the centre officially opened at 9am there were huge queues at Lush and people were still waiting in line well into the mid-morning.”

He said the Boxing Day sales is expected to the one of the centre’s busiest shopping days of the year and extra staff were brought in to direct traffic in the car parks.

Next at Silverburn shopping centre in Glasgow also proved a big draw.

General manager David Pierotti said: “Attracted by the thrill and discounts available, Scots are continuing to take the sales seriously with early birds queuing outside Next from 3am this morning, with Zara also proving to be incredibly popular with our shoppers today.”

Elsewhere, at Aberdeen’s Union Square shopping centre the sales were in competition with new cinema releases.

General manager Ryan Manson said: “There’s a lot of demand for our cinema and restaurants today, as consumers look for a day out after spending most of yesterday at home.

“There’s been several big new film releases recently, including Mary Poppins Returns, Aquaman, and Spiderman into the Spider-Verse, which are proving a major draw. ”