Wal-Mart's summer romance is abruptly over in Roanoke.

The world's largest retailer has canceled the weekly matchmaking event called "Singles Shopping" at the Wal-Mart store on Franklin Road (U.S. 220), a Wal-Mart spokeswoman said Friday.

The shopping event, which has gained popularity in other parts of the world, gave an unattached shopper a chance to meet a potential significant other while picking up items such as dog food, chocolates, milk and motor oil.

Singles Shopping was introduced in the Roanoke area in June. Single shoppers who visited the store on Friday nights were invited to tie a red bow onto their carts before going on the hunt for love and household essentials.

Karen Burk, corporate spokeswoman for Wal-Mart's U.S. operations, said, "We're not doing it anymore. We were happy we were able to do it for a couple of times."

The local version was the first Singles Shopping event at a Wal-Mart store in the United States and was largely based on a concept started at stores in Germany. After its start, Singles Shopping in Roanoke gained national publicity and even became the punch line for one of Jay Leno's jokes on "The Tonight Show."

Burk said Wal-Mart doesn't plan to officially inform interested singles that the Friday night event is over. Instead, she said, the retailer would rely on word-of-mouth. She said Wal-Mart doesn't plan to flirt with Singles Shopping in any other continental U.S. stores.

Wal-Mart's decision didn't stop a few hopeful singles from showing up at the Roanoke store Friday. Two men drove two hours from Danville only to be told by store employees that the event was canceled. After wandering the store, they left.

Meanwhile, another hopeful single, Dale Firebaugh, 63, of Roanoke, did the next best thing: He paid 26 cents for red ribbon and tied it around his wrist. He stood at the entrance to the store hoping a potential love would find him.

"Is Roanoke going to stay in the sticks forever?" said Firebaugh, who met a woman at Wal-Mart during last week's Singles Shopping event. "Are they going to help single people? Where else you going to go if you don't drink or smoke and you want to meet a nice lady?"

He planned to stay at the store until 8 p.m. If nothing worked out, he said he would try his luck at a singles event over the weekend.

"I was hoping to see her again," he said about the woman he met. "Or make a new conquest. But now how's that going to happen?"

Burk declined to elaborate on why Wal-Mart had a change of heart with Roanoke. "It seems like the customers enjoyed it for a couple of nights," she said.

The retailing giant isn't completely giving up on matchmaking, however. It has begun a Singles Shopping event at a Wal-Mart store in South Korea.

Amy Wyatt, a spokeswoman for Wal-Mart's international operations, said Wal-Mart is doing other Singles Shopping events in Germany, Puerto Rico and the United Kingdom.