Foodies queue from 4am to be among first to grace new Iceland store in Hemel Hempstead

Foodies queued from 4am to be among the first shoppers in Iceland Foods’ brand new store in Hemel Hempstead.

The food giant welcomed customers for the first time to The Food Warehouse store in London Road Retail Park on Tuesday.

According to staff, 103 customers were waiting in line from 4am to receive £1,000 worth of store vouchers – on offer to the first 100 customers in the queue. All was not lost for the three who missed out, since the store was also giving away a 1.2kg tub of Jellybeans to the first 200 shoppers at the checkout.

Meanwhile, other early birds received raffle tickets for kitchen items while three lucky shoppers won a 90 second supermarket sweep-style trolley dash around the empty store, filling their trolleys for free.

Sore manager Daryl Cruickshank said: “We’re so pleased to welcome Hemel Hempstead shoppers to our brand new The Food Warehouse store. Everyone was so excited for the grand opening – people were even in the queue from 4:00am in the morning!”

Founded in 2014, The Food Warehouse now has over 150 large-format stores across Britain in retail parks and larger shopping districts.

The new store will provide around 25 additional jobs to the community.

Residents interested in applying for a role at the new Hemel Hempstead store should visit the supermarket’s careers website.

The store will be open Monday to Saturday from 8am to 10pm, and Sunday, 10am to 4pm.