People lining up for recent retail offerings in Birmingham and Hampshire are just part of a long tradition, say experts

In the early hours of Wednesday inside the Bullring shopping centre in Birmingham there were scenes reminiscent of a political sit-in, or perhaps an emergency shelter. Clips shared on social media show hundreds of people sitting or lying quietly on the floor, tightly packed together. “Regretting life decisions at the moment,” wrote one TikTok poster. “Currently 5.12am… Glad to be here but vvv sleep deprived someone send help.”

Happily, that young woman revealed, she was number 259, meaning that in a few hours she would be given some beauty products for her trouble. This was the overnight queue for the opening of a branch of the cosmetics retailer Sephora, with hundreds sleeping on the shopping centre floor for the opportunity to visit the new store and, for the lucky first 500, receive a gift bag. Numbered tickets had gone well before midnight.