BARGAIN hunters swamped Chester’s sales starting on Boxing Day and helped lift traders’ pre-Christmas blues.

A queue stretching to the Cathedral greeted staff who opened the doors to Next’s sale at dawn yesterday – a scene repeated outside their Sealand Road store.

Retailers in city centre stores had barely started counting the cost of a slow pre-Christmas period when they were swamped with shoppers braving dismal weather to make the most of massive reductions with some items at less than a third of the price.

Full story in Friday’s Chronicle.