Countdown to The Great British Queue Off

New research conducted by online retailer Onbuy.com has revealed the average queuing times per city expected this Black Friday.

With just under four weeks to go until Christmas Day, frantic shoppers will be looking to secure their bargain purchases on Black Friday tomorrow (November 25) with a U.K average queuing time of 37 minutes.

Studying 19 major cities outside London, the research rounds up the average time Brits will be expected to be queuing, based on where they shop.

Those shopping in Southampton can expect to wait the longest – with 58 minutes at each store – followed closely by Nottingham and Cambridge, where keen bargain hunters can expect to wait 55 and 53 minutes respectively. The fourth worst queue time is Sheffield at 48 minutes. Bringing up the rear is Swansea at 47 minutes.

At the other end of the shopping spectrum, Glasgow has the best queuing time with an average of only 16 minutes. Despite the Bullring rush, Birmingham shoppers have the second shortest queuing times at 18 minutes.  Next is Bristol at 19 minutes, followed by London at 23 minutes and Edinburgh at 24 minutes.

The data was collected by surveying 120 households in each of the respective cities to understand how long they have tended to wait in a queue on Black Friday in the past two years.

onbuy.com  will be hosting sales online throughout the Black Friday and Cyber Monday weekend and wanted to explore the lengths that Brits would go to for a good bargain.

Managing director Cas Paton said: “The British love a good queue, and as a patient nation, most of us can cope with long waits – especially ones that end in a good bargain.

“This time of the year is the busiest for us retailers and Black Friday allows us to put on some great offers. The mad rush of the stores is part of the fun, but for those who don’t have the patience, online shopping could be a better fit. We encourage everyone to shop safely and hope these average times can help with expectations so you can plan ahead.”