One is a discount store selling bargains and the other is Britain’s best-known upmarket department store – but today staff at QD in Ipswich got a taste of real sale frenzy!

Bargain-hunters were queuing for up to 90 minutes just to get into the Carr Street store – and once inside it was taking them more than an hour to get around and a further hour and a half queuing for a till.

“It’s just like Harrods!” said one staff member who came out to check on the length of the queue snaking past Argos and the Salutation pub.

Caroline Bree, from Maidenhall in Ipswich, got out of QD at about 11.15am. She had arrived shortly before it opened at 9am.

“I’m lucky. I didn’t have to queue outside, but in there it is terrible. You get so hot in there. But there are some real bargains – I’m really pleased with what I’ve managed to pick up.

“There’s still quite a lot in there, but I don’t think it will last that long – I think they’ll be running short by about 3 this afternoon.”

A spokesman for QD said the crowds showed people loved a bargain – and liked shopping at the store.

He said: “We’ve always known that people love to get good value. We knew that before and this has proved that they like shopping with us.

“We are sad that we have not had the lease extended on that store, but we do see this as a sign that people like shopping with the company.”

The town’s other QD store in Ipswich – at St Matthew’s Street on the other side of the town centre – will continue to operate and is expecting to be busier following the closure of the Carr Street store.

The spokesman said he had not heard anything about fights breaking out among shoppers – but knew patience could sometimes wear thin among people queuing.

“I haven’t heard any reports about problems from staff – that must mean they are doing well to organise the shoppers,” he added.