A NEW department store has been hailed as the future of shopping after attracting massive crowds over its first weekend.

About 40,000 people passed through the doors of the Big W store, in Stockton, over its first three days.

The shop, on the site of the former Dickens DIY store on Portrack Lane, has about 53,000 different product lines, from CD players to dog food, cosmetics to pillow cases.

And a report out yesterday suggested expanding the range of items on sale may be the future for superstore retailing.

The Stockton Big W is the fifth of its type opened by the Kingfisher group, which owns Woolworths.

Manager Nigel Driver said: "We had a really good opening weekend. The aisles were packed and the car park was full all day. We're still recovering.

"In a shopping mall, you go from one shop to the next, whereas here you can do all your shopping, go to the checkout and go home."

The 100,000sq ft store had 4,500 customers in the first hour and its three day total of 40,000 was the equivalent of about half the Metro Centre's average Saturday visitors.

A Big W spokesman said they sold just under 2,000 pick'n'mix 100g bags, ten Sharp camcorders at £296, just under 400 glass chess sets at £9.99 and 400 pairs of pillow cases at £2.99 each.

A study by consumer analysts Verdict Research published yesterday suggested that superstores would have to widen their range to be able to compete.

Tesco and Asda had the highest growth rates in the supermarket sector, with both expanding their range of electronic goods, homewares and health and beauty.

Sainsbury, which has been concentrating on food, saw its profits fall by a record 27 per cent last year.

The report said: "There is not a single product category that a superstore operator would not fancy a crack at.