THE Evening Press campaign to save the Odeon has earned the support of a York supermarket.

Greeters at Asda's Monks Cross store are asking customers if they would like to sign the petition, which calls for the cinema in Blossom Street, York, to stay open after a sensitive refurbishment. The message is also going out over the store's public address system. Four hundred customers have already signed up - and that was before the store stepped the campaign up a gear this weekend.

"The response has been fantastic, not just from older people but many young people as well," said events coordinator Maree Edgar.

She said the store's involvement with the campaign was part of its drive to be involved in the local community.

The latest batch of petition forms, coupled with those collected at newsagents across the city, takes the total number of signatures raised past 8,000 in little more than a month.

Updated: 09:30 Saturday, February 21, 2004