SURPRISED shoppers at a York store were told they could pay what they wanted for their goods.

Every till at the Asda store at Monks Cross went down for two-and-a-half hours due to an electrical fault in the computer system, caused by a storm on Friday night.

Rather than let frozen foods melt in trolleys as staff and customers waited for the power to come back on, check-out assistants asked shoppers how much they thought was in their trolley or basket and how much they would usually spend on food.

The gesture sparked a shopping bonanza as customers got on their mobile phones to tell their friends and relatives to get into the store.

One shopper said he paid only £30 for a full week's shopping.

He said: "It was great. We guessed we had about £40 of stuff in there and they just said to give them £30.

"I don't think anyone was complaining."

Store manager Colin Storey said about 15 tills were down between 9pm and 11.30pm. New customers were allowed through the doors even after word had got around the city.

"Customers were on their mobile phones telling their friends and family to get down to Asda," said Mr Storey.

"We advertise as being open 24 hours and just because we've got computer problems doesn't mean customers shouldn't be able to do their shopping as normal.

"It is standard procedure for things to carry on. People come to an agreement with the checkout staff about how much they should pay."

Mr Storey said any financial loss would have been minimal.

"It was worth it to keep things moving and to keep our customers happy," he said. "It's not their fault that we had a computer failure."

"We're normally quite quiet after ten, but we definitely had more customers in to do their shopping on Friday."

Updated: 10:33 Monday, August 02, 2004