Residents queue for Food Warehouse opening in Eastbourne

The shop opened its doors at 8am on Tuesday, April 21, at Lottbridge Retail Park.

A total of 172 customers queued for the grand opening - with the first shopper in the queue arriving at 2am.

Store manager Michael Ginn said: “We’re so pleased to welcome shoppers to our brand new The Food Warehouse store. Everyone was so excited for the grand opening – people started queuing from 2am!”

To celebrate the store opening, The Food Warehouse gave away £1,500 in vouchers to the first 150 customers in the queue.

Every customer in the queue before 7.30am was given a raffle ticket, entering them into a prize draw to take part in a supermarket sweep-style challenge where they could fill their trolley for free for 90 seconds.

Additional winners won Tower air fryers.

An air fryer was also up for grabs for the person who correctly guessed how many sweets were in a jar.

Kristian Barrett, Chief Operating Officer at Iceland Foods, said: “We’re excited to be opening our new store in Eastbourne, bringing more fantastic deals and a brilliant range of frozen, grocery and fresh foods to local shoppers."

The Food Warehouse, which forms part of the Iceland brand was launched in 2014, with around 150 stores open across the country.

Shoppers aged over 60 can take advantage of Iceland’s 10% discount, available every Tuesday.

The new store will be open from 8am to 8pm, Monday to Saturdays and 10am to 4pm on Sundays.