Four-hour queues and police step in for backup as cult cookware brand goes on sale

Shoppers queued for hours and police stepped in to assist when a cult cookware brand went on sale in a UK town.

Countless bargain hunters waited in their cars and joined lines that snaked around the streets of Andover to nab a deal at the Le Creuset sale held in the Hampshire district over the weekend.

The French-Belgian cookware brand is a fan-favourite, known for selling aesthetic cookware items in a range of colours.

It is also known for boasting lofty price tags, so when the brand announced a warehouse sale the turnout was expected to be high, but few could have guessed just how high it would be.

Watch the video above.

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Le Creuset fans found themselves in line for up to four hours in the chilly autumn air outside the Andover warehouse to get their hands on heavily discounted casserole pots, pans and more, with the brand offering deals of up to 50 per cent off.

The turnout was so large local police officers were called in to assist with crowd control.

"We attended London Road and the A3093 in Andover [on] Saturday morning following reports of heavy congestion in the area," a spokesperson for Hampshire constabulary told the Telegraph.

"We began receiving reports at 9.45am and we attended to assist with traffic control. Traffic had eased by around 11.15am and we left the area shortly afterwards."

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One couple, who waited in line for four hours, shared a TikTok detailing their experience at the sale.

"The queue went on for miles and yes we were mad enough to join the end of it," they captioned a video of the queue.

Then they filmed inside the warehouse, which was even busier as shoppers with trolleys dodged each other and rummaged through sale items.

"What a shambles it was when we got inside but it was worth it," they wrote.

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Another TikTok user said she drove two hours and then waited 40 minutes to attend the sale and said it was "quite possibly the most disorganised warehouse sale ever."

"There was one worker when we arrived and he was doing his absolute best to try and form an orderly queue and sort out a system for us to get inside," she explained.

Despite the chaos, she sad that "all the staff were super helpful and [they] did get a free chocolate at the till when paying".

This was the second Le Creuset warehouse sale in Andover this year with another taking place back in March.

Writing about the event on its website, the company called the warehouse sale its "largest in-person event" allowing attendees to "shop a selection of premium cookware, including limited-edition colours, rare shapes and other unique styles at special prices."

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