Whanganui residents queued with blankets and chairs on Saturday in anticipation of the grand opening of retail store Cotton On.
The in-store DJ, lolly scrabbles, gift vouchers and goodie bags pulled in the crowd, with over 800 transactions on day one alone.
Whanganui's Cotton On assistant manger, Holly Udy, said there would have been more than 1000 people through the doors and majority were local.
And it's all thanks to the chain's national retail manager, Ange Mana-Pupara, who was born and raised in Whanganui and saw the potential to bring the chain to her home town.
Ms Udy said a lot of the push to get the store to Whanganui came from Ange.