Calendar An icon of a desk calendar. Cancel An icon of a circle with a diagonal line across. Caret An icon of a block arrow pointing to the right. Email An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of the Facebook "f" mark. Google An icon of the Google "G" mark. Linked In An icon of the Linked In "in" mark. Logout An icon representing logout. Profile An icon that resembles human head and shoulders. Telephone An icon of a traditional telephone receiver. Tick An icon of a tick mark. Is Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes. Is Not Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes with a diagonal line through it. Pause Icon A two-lined pause icon for stopping interactions. Quote Mark A opening quote mark. Quote Mark A closing quote mark. Arrow An icon of an arrow. Folder An icon of a paper folder. Breaking An icon of an exclamation mark on a circular background. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Caret An icon of a caret arrow. Clock An icon of a clock face. Close An icon of the an X shape. Close Icon An icon used to represent where to interact to collapse or dismiss a component Comment An icon of a speech bubble. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Ellipsis An icon of 3 horizontal dots. Envelope An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Home An icon of a house. Instagram An icon of the Instagram logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. Magnifying Glass An icon of a magnifying glass. Search Icon A magnifying glass icon that is used to represent the function of searching. Menu An icon of 3 horizontal lines. Hamburger Menu Icon An icon used to represent a collapsed menu. Next An icon of an arrow pointing to the right. Notice An explanation mark centred inside a circle. Previous An icon of an arrow pointing to the left. Rating An icon of a star. Tag An icon of a tag. Twitter An icon of the Twitter logo. Video Camera An icon of a video camera shape. Speech Bubble Icon A icon displaying a speech bubble WhatsApp An icon of the WhatsApp logo. Information An icon of an information logo. Plus A mathematical 'plus' symbol. Duration An icon indicating Time. Success Tick An icon of a green tick. Success Tick Timeout An icon of a greyed out success tick. Loading Spinner An icon of a loading spinner. Facebook Messenger An icon of the facebook messenger app logo. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Facebook Messenger An icon of the Twitter app logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. WhatsApp Messenger An icon of the Whatsapp messenger app logo. Email An icon of an mail envelope. Copy link A decentered black square over a white square.

Shoppers queue from early hours to snap up bargains

Shoppers queue from early hours to snap up bargains

Hundreds of shoppers queued outside shops in Inverness from the early hours yesterday to bag some bargains at the Boxing Day sales.

Some stores in the city’s Eastgate Shopping Centre and local retail parks opened early, with Next proving a big draw.

There were lines of people outside the Eastgate centre from 4am, while about 280 people queued outside Next at Inverness Retail Park, which was due to open at 6am.

However, the store was forced to open 10 minutes earlier than planned to cope with the growing crowds outside the doors.

The newly extended store also took on 30 extra staff to deal with the increased demand.

Sales manager Jessica Clayton said: “There was a massive queue, it’s the biggest I’ve seen on Boxing Day and I’ve been working here for seven years.

“We had about 280 people waiting. We opened 5.50am because of the amount of people.”

She said that, despite the high numbers of people waiting in the queue, there were no problems.

The record numbers were attributed by staff to the store’s recent refit and extension.

Eastgate manager Jackie Cuddy said crowds also turned up early in the city centre.

She said: “People were queuing outside the centre at the High Street entrance from 4am.

“When the doors were opened at 6am, the queue for Next was past Game.

“Debenhams, Topshop and Marks & Spencer were open at 7am because of Next being open.

“I think a lot of people have gone for gift vouchers or money for Christmas presents so people can get the benefit of the sales.”

The Superdry store in the centre also opened an hour earlier than usual to take advantage of the crowds.

Manager Dave Hutchison said: “There was extra footfall in the centre from the Next sale so we decided to open an hour earlier.

“We normally open at nine but we opened at eight. It’s been pretty busy since then.”

Comment, Page 28