CUSTOMERS queued round York's Coppergate Centre today as stores reopened their doors for the first time since lockdown was imposed in March.

The biggest queue was for Primark but a smaller number of customers also queued outside Fenwick department store.

Joining the queue were Verity Webb, 28, of South Bank, and her boyfriend Joe Sanderson.

They said they were primarily shopping so Joe, a joiner, could buy some more work clothes, but Verity said there was another reason: "It's cheap!"

Primark said in an online message to its customers: "We’ve no doubt you’ve missed shopping in your local Primark store, and we’ve missed you too, so we’re very happy we can open our doors to you once again.

"We know that life is going to look a little different for a while for all of us and things are not going to be easy. 

"We can’t be the exact Primark which you know and love, but we hope you understand that our priority right now is making sure that our stores are safe for our customers and our employees. 

"We are delighted to be back and able to provide you with the quality, affordable Primark products which you may have missed or needed in recent months."

There were also queues in Coney Street by late morning, notably outside the Sports Direct and TXMaxx stores.

The streets were a far cry from the strangely deserted scenes in the weeks after the lockdown was imposed to tackle the coronavirus crisis, but nor were they yet back to their bustling norm.