As non-essential stores pull up their shutters following a four-week lockdown, cities such as Leeds and Hull are facing huge queues outside popular stores – with shoppers flocking to high streets this morning to be the first to shop. Dubbed ‘Wild Wednesday’, it’s expected that shops will see massive footfall today as Brits take advantage of a small piece of freedom after being placed on ‘stay at home’ orders throughout November.
With only weeks to go until Christmas, it’s anticipated that December will be busier than ever – with a number of stores being permitted to open for 24 hours a day in the run up – including Primark, who’ll be opening for 24 hours at their White Rose store, Meadowhall and York Monks Cross today only.
Primark, TK Maxx and Debenhams in particular have faced the largest queues across the nation, with Primark at the White Rose shopping centre in Leeds seeing a huge number of shoppers queueing before opening time just this morning.
One person took to Twitter to show the queueing system that the Primark in the Trinity Shopping Centre has put in place in anticipation of huge amounts of customers.
And others have taken to Twitter to voice their annoyance at the huge queues that have formed.
In other areas of Yorkshire, the scene is much different to the first time around. In Hull, the streets remain relatively normal, and people seem to be staying away from the newly opened Primark this morning. Although, the same can’t be said for Hull’s Debenhams – which has seen huge socially distanced queues for their huge up to 70% sale. The sale was launched just yesterday online as a result of their upcoming closure, and saw over 1m users trying to access the website.
West Yorkshire, South Yorkshire and East Riding remain in tier 3 following the national lockdown, with the areas living under the toughest restrictions in the country from today. Pubs will not be able to open under the current tier 3 restrictions.
Read more: Lidl Has Launched Mince Pie Sausages – And They Sound Amazing
