Is there late-night shopping in Yarmouth this Christmas?

However, this year there will only be one evening of late-night shopping, which will take place alongside the Christmas light switch-on on Friday, December 2.

Great Yarmouth town centre manager Jonathan Newman said while footfall in the centre is lower than last year, there is still a steady amount of people visiting for their specific retail needs.

Footfall is down but shopping is steady in Great Yarmouth town centre. (Image: James Weeds)

"But, there is no appetite for late-night shopping this year," he said.

"We haven’t had late-night shopping in the town centre since 2019 - except for one night last year - and even then, the footfall on those evenings was in decline against previous years."

Mr Newman said Covid has changed shopping habits, and the cost of living crisis is adding to those changes further.

"People have less money to spend on non-essential items," he added.

"We've seen less amount of people coming to town compared with this time last year, but that's likely because last year saw a bigger resurgence because we were coming out of Covid.

"People who are coming to town now are coming to spend money on specific goods and services, such as using the bank, visiting certain shops or getting a key cut."

Great Yarmouth town centre manager Jonathan Newman. (Image: James Weeds)

Mr Newman said the trend of less footfall in high street areas is being seen across the country.

"People just aren't going out as much," he said.

"Having said that, the occupancy in our town centre is fairly static, and many independent businesses that have opened in the past few years are still open.

"But the pressures are there."

Mr Newman said it is hard to predict how successful this Christmas will be for businesses. But he remained hopeful that the number of shoppers in the centre would remain steady.

"It seems a lot of Christmas shopping has already started," he said.

"We hope it will be a long steady period rather than the busy rush in the last couple of weeks before Christmas.

"We really want to encourage people to come into the town centre to enjoy what's on offer - both in our shops and public events to spread cheer throughout the season."

The Christmas light switch-on begins at 5.30pm on Friday, December 2 and will be the only designated evening for late-night shopping this year.

Families enjoying a visit from Father Christmas at last year's light switch-on event in Great Yarmouth.