Covid: 'Very excited' customers queue in Birmingham for reopened shops

Hundreds of people have queued outside the world's largest Primark as it reopened on Monday following the easing of lockdown restrictions.

The store in Birmingham city centre reopened its doors at 07:00 BST.

Antonietta Sagoe, from Smethwick, said she was "very, very excited" to be in the queue for the reopening.

"We have been planning to come here since last week so I think a lot of people have had the same idea as mine," she said.

Ally Mitchell, from Sutton Coldfield, was another one of those queuing and said it had been "very hard" for the younger generation.

"We have missed out on everything so we need to experience our summer to be honest," she said.

Her friend Ellie Lloyd said she was after some festival clothes and felt positive that events would happen in the summer.

"We just want normality back, just going here is like being back to normal, it is just nice," she added.

All non-essential shops in England could reopen from Monday as Covid-19 rules were further relaxed.

Primark's flagship store in Birmingham opened in April 2019 and covers 161,000 sq ft (14,957 sq m) over five floors.

The firm said it would limit the number of customers in store at any one time and urged them to follow social distancing measures while shopping.

Queues also formed outside several other stores in the city centre including Zara and Debenhams, which reopened to sell off stock before it will close for good.

Diana Littlejohn, from Rugby, said she planned to go to several stores in Birmingham and it "feels wonderful to be back out".

The owners of a hair salon in Birmingham said they would be "absolutely full to the rafters" with customers all this week as they reopened.

Co-owner of Strand and Lock, Danny Law, said it felt like it was the third launch for the business which was set up in November 2019 but they were glad to be open.

"It is a mixture [of feelings], there is a little anxiety from the general change of seeing no-one to seeing people again," he said.

"But with work we're just really, really pumped, we're really excited to start."

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