IT'S been a busy few days for people in Newport city centre with the long awaited £90 million Friars Walk development opening last Thursday.

Thousands of shoppers have visited the city over the last few days and stores in Friars Walk said visitor numbers have exceeded expectations with many stores smashing their sales targets.

A big attraction for many was the opening of Debenhams.

Jennifer Watkins, 55, a civil servant from Malpas, enjoyed a bit of shopping on Saturday.

She said: "Debenhams looked quite nice – the development is great for the regeneration of the town. I haven't shopped for some time in Newport as I would usually go to Cwmbran.

"There are many of the same shops as Cwmbran so to hopefully pull more people here there needs to be a few more shops."

A Debenhams spokesman said visitor numbers have far exceeded expectations.

Ty Edwards, sales director for Debenhams said: “We smashed our sales target on opening day by mid-afternoon and have achieved strong double-digit growth on our sales targets every day since.

“Our full department store product offer is being very well received by shoppers, with fashion and gifting in particular performing extremely well and our new food offers are also incredibly busy considering the great choice within Friars Walk."

He added: “We are thrilled with the feedback received from our customers and are confident sales will continue to be strong this week as customers snap up our great winter offers.”

Jan and Barry Chapman, both 60, from Rogerstone, said they had been to Debenhams and were "very impressed".

Mrs Chapman said: "Hopefully this will encourage other business to come to Newport. When Marks and Spencer went from the centre we stopped coming here to shop."

Many shoppers said the development would bring them back into Newport to shop including Stacey Purnell, 26, from Duffryn, and her boyfriend Kevin Hughes, 29, a security guard.

Ms Purnell, who works for McDonalds, said: "Newport is now back on the map. It's great for the regeneration of the city.

"We came on Friday for a look around and it was heaving."

"I think it's a nice layout – it will look lovely with Christmas decorations in the next few weeks."

Mr Hughes said: "There are lots of poor shops on the high street that nobody wants to go to now there are decent shops here.

"It's definitely an improvement - people are more likely to come here. It's as good as Cwmbran and Cardiff."

They also said they would frequent the new eight screen Cineworld cinema in Friars Walk as it would be more convenient than going to Spytty.

The Pandora store in Friars Walk officially opened on Saturday. The chain has closed its store on Commercial Street and relocated to the development.

Stephen Hughes, the franchise owner, said the store's location on Commercial Street was always going to be temporary as they were waiting for Friars Walk but said it had a successful 18 months.

He said: "I think the demographic of Newport has changed. People who were going to Cardiff to shop now don't have to.

"We're in it for the long term in Newport. This is the start of Newport's re-birth really."

He added: "I've always thought Newport was a city with a lot of character, the developers have been sympathetic to Newport in how they've put this development together.

"With coming up to Christmas our concern now is will there be enough stock?"

Topshop store manager Rae Tyler, said the past few days have been 'phenomenal.'

She said: "It has been such a positive vibe in store. It's great to see investment in Newport.

"We've done very well in the first two days as we hit our targets for the three days. We've had really busy evenings with office workers coming in after 5pm.

"I think the busy period will continue throughout the Christmas period."

She said she hopes the centre will boost footfall for the whole city after a three year decline in people shopping in Newport.

Mothercare has returned to the city centre after the previous store closed in 2012. Rachel Thomas, store manager of Mothercare, said the development was an opportunity for the company to get back into Newport.

The Friars Walk store now employs 25 people.

Ms Thomas said: "It has been fantastic. The first few days have been unbelievable.

"There were so many people who turned up at 10am for the opening – many more than I expected."

She added: "We've smashed our sales budgets. I think it’s going to be a fantastic store to be honest."

Restaurants in the development have also enjoyed the first dew days of roaring trade as people were queuing outside Nandos at the weekend and hundreds of people enjoyed dining at French restaurant Le Bistrot Pierre.

Stores not in the Friars Walk development said they saw an increase in footfall since the centre opened.

Jan Preece, store manager of The Entertainer, said the shop opened a week before the development but said in the last few days they have noticed a big change in the number of customers.

He said: "It's gone very well for us in the last few days because of this we've extended our opening hours to 9am until 8pm from 9am to 5.30pm.

"We've employed a couple more staff and existing staff have had their hours extended."

He added: "There was works going on outside our store for the first few days we were open. The centre opening has made a big impact on us.

"Since Debenhams opened we've have seen a big change as people are walking down this way."

Stores in Friars Walk said the only teething problem they had were issues with the WI-Fi.

The card machines at the Friars Walk underground car park were also out of order for part of the weekend.