Late night shopping has been a resounding flop for some York retailers, who have already reverted back to normal closing times on Thursdays.

But many other shops have confirmed that they will be sticking with the late night shopping scheme, at least until January, so they can take advantage of the early Christmas shoppers.

Derek Gedman, general manager of Littlewoods in Parliament Street, said that on some Thursday nights the store had no customers at all.

He said: "There were times when it seemed to go quite well but most of the time we were unable to sustain the level of business that early indications showed us we would be getting.

"We have returned to 5.30pm closure, but going into Christmas we will consider it again. Frankly it is quite disappointing.

"We know that other businesses have done well, such as Marks and Spencer, because of their particular range. But our customers tend to be older and they just don't shop on late nights."

John Myers, team manager at Boots in Coney Street, said he had heard that many smaller stores had stopped opening late.

He said: "We have found that the customers have tailed off from 6.45pm.

"Up until 6.30pm it's definitely worthwhile but until 7.30pm it's a struggle and after that it's really quiet. However we are taking quite a bit of money that we otherwise would not have.

"We will definitely be staying open late until Christmas and we will probably continue after that but maybe only until 7.30pm."

Kelly Maud, department manager at BHS in Coney Street, said Thursday nights "have not taken off massively" but she said it was still worth extending staff hours to open late.

She said: "We did quite well while the children were off school. It's just the end of the back to school period and we don't know if sales will drop back down.

"The focus now will be late night Christmas shopping when we would've been opening late anyway."

A spokeswoman for Debenhams said the store was continuing with the late night shopping.

Neville Hoyle, manager of Woolworths in Spurriergate, said he was still supportive of the scheme and would continue to open for at least the rest of the year.

Updated: 10:45 Monday, September 08, 2003