Downtown merchants will be offering extended shopping hours beginning Thursday.

“We are just trying to get more people to come shop. We know a lot of people are working, and we want to be available to them past 5 o’clock,” Bobbie Marascalco said. Marascalco is the owner of Peterson’s Art & Antiques, which is at 1400 Washington St.

“We decided to stay open later on Thursdays since we have done most of our other events like Hit the Bricks on Thursdays, and Thursdays just sounded like a good night” she said.

The merchants will keep their doors open until 7 p.m., which will also offering tourist who are just getting into the city time to shop, Marascalco said.

“We are excited merchants have finally decided to extend their shopping hours,” Kim Hopkins, said.

Hopkins is texecutive director of the Vicksburg Main Street program. She said each week more and more of the downtown merchants are jumping on board to be open for the extended shopping hours.

“We have always wanted the merchants to stay open a little bit later for the tourist,” Hopkins said, but added she understands when you are a “mom and pop” store, extending the shopping hours can be challenging.

Marascalco said the merchant’s goal is to offer the extended hours on Thursday all the time, but it will depend on the response.

“We will try it for a few weeks and see if it works,” said Mary Helen Welch.

Welch is the owner of Paper Plus, which is at 1318 Washington St.

Both Marascalco and Welch said sales would have to merit the extended hours to defray the added expenses of utilities and staff.

Hopkins said the Main Street program is considering offering music during the extended downtown hours, but right now she just wanted to focus attention on the merchants.

“We don’t want to take away anything from them,” she said.