What the Brits are queuing for now...

Hot off the press in London right now:

Londoners seem to have taken their love of the queue to new levels. While Brits have always been up for unquestioningly joining the end of a nice long line, the act of queuing seems to have taken on frantic proportions with thousands of people lining up for a £5 bag that's claim to fame is not being plastic. Umm....

It's interesting that I saw this article today, actually. Talking to my Mum on the way to work she said that Brits in general are much better off financially than they have been in a long time.

Proof that a left-leaning government works? Or just proof that it causes acute, obsessive-compulsive queuing disorder?

I'll let you decide.

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Face Cream Frenzy on Oxford Street


Hundreds of women have turned out on Oxford street today to get their hands on an anti ageing face cream, which has been scientifically proven to work.

When it first went on sale in Boots, there was no real fuss and no big queues for the No7 Protect and Perfect beauty serum.

But then in March it featured in TV documentary Horizon, which said it really did improve the appearance of the skin. The day after the programme was shown, women (and some men) completely cleared the product from shop shelves up and down the country.

Since then 50,000 British women have signed up to a waiting list for it, with new names being added at a rate of 200 an hour. Boots says it's the company's fastest selling product ever. And labs have been working "around the clock" since March, to hit a target of 24,000 bottles a day, with the serum coming off the production line at a rate of 1,000 bottles an hour.

Today four flagship Boots stores across the country - including the one near Bond Street tube - opened 2 hours early at 7am as the cream went back on sale for the first time.

It's the latest in a long line of high profile product launches in London.

On Monday night, more than a thousand women queued down Oxford Street as Top Shop previewed its new Kate Moss's clothing line. Last week shoppers went crazy in the aisles at Sainsburys which was selling the much sought after Anya Hindmarch "I'm Not A Plastic Bag" bag. Within hours of stores opening the £5 bag was going for hundreds on eBay.

In previous weeks and months we've also seen stampededs as the new Primark store opened in Central London, 36 hour waits and overnight camping in the basement of HMV for the PS3 games console, and more queues of women outside H&M stores for Madonna's stab at designing a clothing range.

And it doesn't end with today's frenzy. Next week London's own Lilly Allen unveils her fashion line to the world at New Look.

It seems to be a case of "you name it, we'll queue for it...."