A NEW place to shop in Taunton opened today, with “hundreds waiting” to get in the new shop.

Toys ‘R’ Us opened inside WHSmiths today with goody bags available for the first 50 children who visited the launch event on August 31.

In attendance was Geoffrey the Giraffe who joined the WHSmith team for an official ribbon cutting in the morning and handed out lots of hugs and high-fives to the children.

Commenting on the new shop opening, one of the workers inside WHSmith said: “It’s fantastic to have a Toys ‘R’ Us in Taunton!

“We don’t really have anything like this in our town centre that specialises in providing something for kids so it’s great to have it here.

“With so many shops closing down, I was really surprised to see hundreds of kids and parents this morning.

“It’s great to see.”

Queues for the grand opening stretched from the WHSmith store at 47 - 50 Fore Street back as far as Nationwide in Taunton, with many kids eager to look at the new toys in Taunton.

Taunton is one of 30 WHSmith High Street stores set to open a new shop-in-shop from Toys'R'Us this year, following an initial launch of nine stores in 2023.

Further openings this summer have included Brighton, Edinburgh and Nottingham.

Ian Sanders, Group Commercial Development Director, WHSmith said: "We’re really excited to be opening Toys“R” Us in Taunton.

"WHSmith is known for being the Hub of the High Street by providing customers with a range of great products and services.

"Partnering with Toys R Us gives us a leading toys and games range in our stores and means customers have even more reasons to shop with us.

"We look forward to welcoming many more customers into our store."