Shoppers raced to Primarks across the country as they hailed the return to "a way of life how it should be" on Magic Monday.
Bargain-hunters braved freezing conditions as non-essential retail shops opened for the first time in months.
Staff compared the scenes with Christmas shopping as huge queues formed an hour before 7am opening times on Monday.
Desperate trainer-lovers ran and jostled against each other to as JD Sports in Oxford Street, London, flung open its doors at 9am.
Pictures show huge lines of shoppers outside popular stores up and down the country as lockdown rules were eased.
Millie Hallam, 30, started queuing outside Nottingham city centre's Primark at 6.30am.
The nurse from Sherwood told NottinghamshireLive: "I've just come about 10 minutes ago.
"My family needs socks, they all need socks – we need socks and pyjamas.
"(We want) a bargain but Primark is where we always get our socks and pyjamas.
"I knew it opened at 7am, I thought I would be one of the first just because it's cold.
"Everybody's mental health has been suffering. Everybody has needed something small, something normal like Primark to open and other things to open – just to get back to a way of normality.
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"A way of life how it should be. People have lost people, people have been ill. I have seen it first hand, it's not nice."
Mum Kelly Jones, 44, of Hucknall, added: “At 6 I got on the tram, I am going just here – just Primark and then home.
“One of them needs clothes – socks, pants and whatever else we can grab while we are here.
“Normally I come at least probably once or twice a month. We came last time when it reopened. We came here at 20 to 8. The queue was right up to Five Guys when they reopened just before Christmas. By the time we got to the front at about 10 past 8 it was queuing on Market Square. This time it’s not as bad as I thought.
“It’s the first step to normality, isn’t it.”
Primark staff opened their doors early after a queue of more than 30 people formed outside in Truro, Cornwall.
A member of staff walked outside and took a picture of the line before unleashing them into the store at 6.55am.
A Covid marshall told CornwallLive: "This isn’t as busy as Christmas reopening, but we weren’t expecting as much."
Pubs, barbers and non-essential retail have been allowed to open as lockdown rules were eased from April 12.
Millions of Brits are set to enjoy their first pulled pint since before Christmas as forecasters predicted a mini heatwave with five days of sun across much of the UK.
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