Shoppers roll up for record

More than 10,000 customers went through the checkouts of Netto in New Road last Thursday - an opening day record for the company which operates 880 stores in Denmark, Germany, Poland, Sweden and the UK.

Queues grew outside the store in the early hours of Thursday morning, snaking around three sides of the building before the doors opened at 8.30am.

Interest was so great that traffic stretched on to the ring road as shoppers waited for the chance to get an early glimpse of the store which has created 15 new jobs on the site of the former Somerfield shop which closed earlier this year.

The new Netto was opened by Rock couple, Carol and Stan Knight, who were first there at 7am - an hour-and-a-half before the doors were due to open.

Housewife, Mrs Knight,said: "We expected a lot of people to be there but the traffic was backed up everywhere as the day went on."

Netto's policy is to ask the first people in the queue to officially open its new stores and Mrs Knight and her husband, who runs a motorcycle dealership in Kidderminster's Horsefair, got the ribbon-cutting job before dashing inside to do their shopping.

Mrs Knight said their main aim was to buy a TV for their 17-year-old son, but admitted "we spent a lot" on other items on the way round the store.

She added: "We used to shop at the Somerfield store because we prefer a smaller shop and we like Netto because we have been to one of their stores on holiday in Spain."

Thousands of entries have been received for the competition to win a Smart Car, worth £8,000, in an exclusive competition involving Netto and the Shuttle/Times and News.

Readers and shoppers have until Saturday to guess how many packets of Walkers crisps were packed inside the car at the store opening.

Entries must be posted in the competition box at the new store before closing time on Saturday.

The winner will receive a Smart Car and there will be £50 Netto vouchers for the 20 runners-up.