A FEW eyebrows were raised in Northallerton when the town's Tesco supermarket announced it was opening 24 hours a day.

Just over a week into the new hours, the D&S Times made a late-night visit to find out who was shopping there in the dead of night.

Mr Nigel Lowe, of Stokesley Road, Northallerton, is no stranger to late-night shopping trips, and is a big fan of the new opening hours. "It makes shopping a lot easier because there's nobody here and I can get round a lot quicker," he said. "I come and do the shopping, so the wife can stay at home with the little one."

A shift worker at the Eden Vale dairy in Romanby Road, Northallerton, Mr Lowe prefers shopping at quiet times so much that he was prepared to make a 70-mile round trip for it. "Sometimes I would finish work at ten o'clock at night, then travel through to the Tesco's at York to get the shopping. Then I started going to the Catterick one when that went 24-hour."

Mechanic Mr Robert Brigginshaw, aged 29, of Dexter Way, Northallerton, said he was shopping late for the first time. "I am never in a fixed routine, so I just shop when I can be bothered," he said. "I've just been to see some friends so I thought I would come down, seeing as I was in the car, and it would save my arms carrying the bags home."

The store looks open for business as usual and shoppers can buy anything apart from alcohol, which under UK law cannot be sold between 10.55pm and 8am.

The supermarket's out-of-hours manager is Mr Mike Walker, aged 23, of Bullamoor Road. "The staff are getting used to it," he said, "but the people who work nights are night people anyway."

The new opening times have meant a welcome return to the North for two night workers from the company's outlet in Winchester, who are originally from Bedale.

Store manager Mr Terry Colley said: "This is our first full week open 24 hours and it has been very successful. We are optimistic that it will really take off. The people who are benefiting are taxi drivers, and shift workers such as people from the Friarage hospital."

The store is also providing a service for a very specific niche market, according to Mr Colley. "We get the odd pregnant mother in who is craving something," he said. "And we get a lot of mothers with babies having trouble getting them to go to sleep, so they bring them in for a walk around!"