'Biggest sales rush in history': Boxing Day shoppers race to grab bargains as record numbers of stores open and slash prices by up to 80%

By SEAN POULTER



It's mine! Shoppers crowd at the tills in Selfridges, on Oxford Street, central London, as the department store opens its doors for the Boxing Day sale



Shoppers have been racing through the doors as they try to snatch up armfuls of bargains in the Boxing Day sales.

Across the country customers have been ransacking the rails as they seek out the slashed prices.

Staff at Selfridges' in London were greeted by excitable consumers who burst through the door and raced up the elevators, eager to claim reduced-price designer goods.

Despite the cold weather people started to queue at 10.30pm on Christmas Day, and when the Oxford Street opened its doors for trade at 9am, there were over 2,000 people waiting outside, manned by over 250 security guards and police.

In the first hour of trading today the shop experienced their biggest hour of trade in history and is on course to break a new record for sales across all four Selfridges’ stores in England.



Let us in! These desperate shoppers burst through the doors of the department store to snap up bargains



Every shopper for themselves! The shoppers swarmed Selfridges and dashed to the shelves to spend their money



A record number of stores are open today promising to slash prices by up to 80 per cent in what is a bloody battle for survival.

Marks & Spencer opened 98 of its larger stores for the first time while Next opened more than 400 outlets to eager shoppers from 6am.

Over 700 people queued at 6.30am this morning at the Westfield shopping centre in Stratford, east London.

The Sun reported that consumers will spend £22.8billion by the third week of January - £338million more than last year.

Shoppers snaked around the corners of shops in London's busy Oxford Street, with queues of 200 people impatiently waiting outside clothes store Zara.



Boxing Day blur: The shoppers crammed themselves in as businesses slashed their prices



Why me? It all becomes a bit too much for one upset shopper in Selfridges, on Oxford Street, London



Sales rush: Shoppers flood into the Next store at the Silverlink Retail Patrk, North Tyneside at 6am this morning as the doors open



Despite tube drivers striking in the capital, bargain hunters are determined to seek out goods that have been slashed in price.



An estimated 5.6 million drivers will take to the roads in search of a bargain, according to Green Flag breakdown.

All the major supermarkets are also opening more outlets today as December 26 becomes more like a normal shopping day than ever before.

Even Tesco’s online grocery shopping and delivery service is back up and running today, despite the fact that the nation will have stocked up on food before Christmas.

At Cabot Circus shopping centre in Bristol, some shoppers had queued from 5am in the hunt for a bargain.



Early rush: A huge queue of shoppers builds up as Next prepare to open their doors at 6am at the Silverlink Retail Park



Centre director Kevin Duffy said: 'Cabot Circus has performed well over the festive season and it has been consistently strong - in the week leading up to Christmas we saw a 19% increase in shoppers visiting the centre compared to the same period last year.

'Here in the South West we're experiencing a very positive uptake.

'Shoppers arrived at Cabot Circus as early as 5am this morning, in anticipation of the Next and Harvey Nichols sales beginning.



Bargains: Stores, like this Next outlet in North Tyneside, are slashing prices by up to 80 per cent to tempt hard-up shoppers into parting with their cash



'It's looking very busy out there as shoppers look to bag the best bargains.'

The move to open more stores comes against the background of a high street crisis, with warnings that some retailers will not survive beyond January.

Richard Dodd of the British Retail Consortium said: ‘We are on a rising trend of more stores opening on Boxing Day every year. It is vital for retailers that they are in a position to make sales on a day when customers want to go shopping.’



Test of endurance: One shopper looks thoroughly fed-up as he guards his shopping outside the Next Kids Boxing Day Sale at the Trafford Centre in Manchester



Let the sales begin! Shoppers dashed to grab bargains at the Next Kids Boxing Day Sale at the Trafford Centre in Manchester







source: dailymail