New look Home Bargains store opens in Breightmet, Bolton

The new look store in Breightmet launched at 8am, boasting a cafe, a bakery and a much-increased footprint. 

It has seen the discount giant expand from a smaller store that shared the building with Morrisons. 

The people of Bolton and beyond came out in their droves to see the new shop. When The Bolton News arrived at 10am, the car park was already mostly full and there were plenty of people inside the shop. 

Store manager Brandon Hill (Image: Newsquest) Store manager, Brandon Hill, said the reaction had been great from the public so far today - with queues running the length of the shop before it had even opened. 

He said: "It is Saturday, people do want a bit of a lie in, but we had a queue all the way down the front of the shop when we opened at 8am. 

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"There were people with trolleys, you can't argue with that. People have been absolutely loving it, everyone's buzzing. 

"We offer a variety of stock, like the Christmas lines in, but we even carry the essentials. You can do a full week of shopping, we've got it all now." 

The new cafe offers hot drinks, paninis, cakes, donuts and more. 

Home Bargains (Image: Newsquest) Brandon added: "We have been preparing this for a few months now. We strategised behind the scenes, planning where things are going to go, how many staff we need, and then in the last week we filled it. 

"Everything has built up to today. It is a decent size, we have got the cafe which especially for the local community, it's a way for us to give back. 

"Regular customers can come in, do their shop, have a brew and a barm, it makes it more of a shopping experience. 

"There are not many bakeries in this area but we have that, this is the newest and one of the largest ones you'll see." 

The cafe (Image: Newsquest) Customer Duncan Stone came from Radcliffe with his wife to see the new shop. 

He said: "It is a good set up, I like it. We are moving to Darcy Lever, my wife is going to be in here every day!" 

He added that he thought the cafe would "pull people in", adding that the £1 hot drinks are a "very fair price". 

This comes after the Breightmet Morrisons store closed last year, which enabled Home Bargains to take over the whole building. 

The supermarket giant said it did not believe the store's performance to be "sustainable".