Grand opening: Shoppers descend on H&M store

POSSIBLY the only building in the country where a procession of people waiting in line did not signify a dole queue, Cork’s newest retail store threw open its glass doors yesterday to the city’s starving fashionistas.

Bang on 11am, store manager Linda Barrett from Limerick gave a businesslike snip to a giant red ribbon and Swedish clothing giant H&M launched itself on the pockets of hundreds of clothes-crazed women.

Outside, the hard hats of a hundred Bowen Construction builders clapped out a celebration as cameras rolled; inside Fay Rennocks, H&M area manager, pepped up her staff before the crowds came in.