THOUSANDS of Bournemouth shoppers were out in force to bag the best of the Boxing Day bargains as the post-Christmas sales began.

Queues started building up in the early hours of the morning and snaked around shopping emporiums in the town centre and Castle Point.

Helen Marsh who battled with other shoppers to be one of the first through the doors at Next said: “I was queuing from around 7am and I plan to keep bargain-hunting for most of the day.”

Lauren Rayment who opened up at House of Fraser said: “There were definitely lots of people gathering outside when I helped open the shop at 8am. People were queuing outside lots of shops in the High Street, especially River Island.”

At Castlepoint, they were expecting 30,000 people to visit the shopping centre – with many queuing since 2.30am for the Next sale.

By 8am 1,400 cars had been through the car park, with queues outside Boots and Marks & Spencer.

Peter Matthews, general manager said he expected it to be a better day than last year.

“Monday here was our second busiest day ever”, he said.

“Over 22,000 cars which was only beaten by one day before Christmas in 2004, around the time we opened.

“There were no traffic queues though and we were managing Zebra crossings.

“There were around 50,000 people – shoppers were here throughout the evening and into the night.”

He added: “I think at the end of the day if you went back to the beginning of 2013 we were all very apprehensive and nervous.

“At the end of the year we will feel we have done better than we expected. Hopefully 2014 will carry on that recovery.”