Hunstanton: New QD store opens up on the High Street

The Norwich-based chain took over the former M&Co building at Hunstanton last month after the clothing chain closed down. 

Since then it has given the town's biggest store premises a complete refit ready to welcome customers.

One of the first in the line awaiting the official opening by Mike Ruston, the town's mayor, was care assistant Emma Wordsworth, 53, from Heacham.

"I'm glad QD's here," she said. "I've shopped in QD in King's Lynn and Wisbech and I'm glad they're opening up here."

Window cleaner Simon Hayes, 58, said: "I've just come to have a look round and see what offers they've got."

Shoppers queue waiting for the new QD store in Hunstanton to open (Image: Chris Bishop)

Operations manager Chris Meale was putting the finishing touches to displays before the doors opened.

"It's nice that all the hard work over the last few weeks has paid off," he said.

Mr Ruston did the honours, with the help of Sidney the Seal from the nearby Searles Leisure Resort and a new pair of scissors from the hardware section.

Hunstanton mayor Mike Ruston (third from right) with staff at the new QD store (Image: Chris Bishop)

"Gloom fell over the town when M&Co decided to close," he said. "And that deepened as the months went by.

"Then up popped QD and it's a wonderful set-up, the amount of time they've put in and what they've achieved in such a short space of time in transforming this place is amazing."

Some of the first shoppers inside the new QD store at Hunstanton (Image: Chris Bishop)

Some 19 jobs have been created in the new branch.

The building housed the town's Woolworths from 1953 to 2008 and was briefly a Warehouse Clearance Shop before M&Co moved in and opened in 2010.

Sidney the Seal from Searles Leisure Resort at the opening of the new QD store in Hunstanton (Image: Chris Bishop)

QD was founded in 1985 in Norwich and has around 30 stores across the region.