Shoppers stampede in Antrim
Published: 05 November, 2007
The police had to be called after shoppers at Junction One's grand opening of fashion store Clockwork Orange got out of hand. Over 5,000 customers queued to get their hands on discounted designer brands at the fashion outlet in Antrim, and one man was arrested for disorderly behaviour.
The trendy retailer offered bargain hunters a 'beat the clock' initiative - shoppers arriving at 5am were charged just £5 for every single item of stock in the store. The price went up every hour, on the hour, with those arriving at 6am paying £6 and at 7am shoppers paying £7 per item. By 8am customers were handing over £8. As a result, people queued for hours and some shoppers ripped clothes off shop mannequins to get a bargain.
Product manager Will McCooke said: "We had beautiful girls with designer handbags and designer sunglasses on their hands and knees grabbing clothes. It was completely primeval - as if they were hunter-gatherers. Within half an hour of the store opening the windows had been ransacked by people coming in and ripping the clothes off the dummies and just leaving the mannequins on the ground.
"They were literally tearing the mannequins apart to get the clothes. We actually had to close the fitting rooms because of the volume of people coming through. People weren't trying things on, they were just grabbing handfuls of clothes and running to the cash desk."
Now that calm has been restored, Junction One's new Clockwork Orange store will offer a full range of cutting edge brands for men and women at up to 50 per cent off RRP. Labels include Diesel, Italian giant Replay, Miss Sixty, Hilfiger Denim and Firetrap.
Sam Morrison, managing director of Ballymena-based SVM Textiles, which is the owner of the Clockwork Orange chain of stores, said: "This was the first time Clockwork Orange had undertaken such an initiative and customer reaction was phenomenal.
"This was undoubtedly our best ever store opening during 10 years of retailing and we're delighted with the progress our new Junction One store is making."
