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Old 09-20-2012, 05:36 PM
 
9,008 posts, read 13,970,554 times
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The 24 hour thread got me thinking....

It seems like as a society, we have gone backwards on closing times. I remember when I was a kid, if a store closed at 10pm, that meant they locked the front door at 10pm and didn't allow any new customers in. If people were still in the store, they were generally allowed to keep shopping for a bit and not pressured to leave until close to 10:30p. Nowadays, they shut off the registers and lights promptly at closing time.

The reason I'm asking this question is because the other day I went to a shopping mall at 10am. It was a ghost town. Deserted. Some of the stores hadn't even opened yet. The reverse is true at night, these same stores are kicking people out, closing gates, and shutting off lights.

So that got me thinking. Why are stores opening up at a time when nobody wants them and nobody is using them, and then kicking out customers who might stay and spend more money at the end of the day?

Instead of opening at 10am and closing at 9pm, wouldn't it make more sense for malls to open at 11:30am and close at 10:30pm?

What about big box retailers? Target closes at 10pm. When was the last time you were at a Target and there were no people there that needed to be kicked out? I don't understand why a store would ever kick a customer out.

I've got to assume that these stores have done their research and some calculation has shown that the additional revenue gained after 10p doesn't make the overhead of salaries and lighting worthwhile to pay. But what if that's an outdated notion that nobody has bothered to update? What if it was created as an aggregate for a national scale (since every Target in America closes at 10p), but doesn't necessarily make sense for a city like Atlanta? Don't you think Lenox mall could support healthy business until at least 11pm most nights?

Maybe Atlanta isn't ready to be a true 24 hour city yet. But haven't we at least graduated beyond being a 9pm city? I know a handful of places stay open later (believe me, I know them all), but wouldn't Best Buy sell a lot of TVs and computers between 9p and 11p? Doesn't it make sense for Home Depot to not start closing at 9p instead of 10p when we set the clocks back in the fall? When did we become such late night pansies in this country?

If you really think about it, most people aren't out of work until around 6pm, maybe 5pm for people who have really traditional hours. Even if people could instantly warp to stores and get there at 5pm, that still only leaves 4 hours of shopping time until closing at 9pm. Realistically, most people can't even get anywhere before 6:30p, which only leaves 2.5 hours to shop, and they have to eat dinner in there, too, so most traditional stores are only really open for about 1.5 hours of real shopping opportunity for most regular people. Maybe the old way made sense when one spouse could afford to not work, but haven't we reached a point where retail needs to keep up with the needs of the public at large? I just don't get it.
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Old 09-20-2012, 05:56 PM
 
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Why not?
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Old 09-20-2012, 06:38 PM
 
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I think you are overestimating the amount of shoppers who'd be out past 9pm to justify a lot of stores staying open past then. Those big stores you're talking about cost a fortune to staff, light, and heat/cool and there has to be a substantial number of staff on hand when the doors are unlocked just for security reasons unless you run a company that serves shoplifters and doesn't intend to be in business very long. There really aren't that many people out looking for TVs at 10:30 on a weeknight(Besides maybe college students who can't really afford many tvs). Many more people work from 5,6,7,8,9am up until 5pm than work odd shifts. I used to work odd shifts and I know how frustrating dealing with early closing times can be but I dealt with it pretty well.

Even in NYC, hardly any electronics and clothing stores(outside of Times Square) stay open past 8 or 9. A lot of places may have cut back later hours due to the economy. I can imagine those later hours may also draw in more n'er-do-wells.
Now that I usually work a normal day shift, normal closing times aren't all that inconvenient. I just wish the freaking bank and post office would stay open until 6 or 7pm.

I will say that I was disappointed when I discovered that the Howell Mill Wal Mart actually closed at night.
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Old 09-20-2012, 06:43 PM
 
Location: East Point
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i honestly think you're right— especially on thursday, friday and saturday.
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Old 09-20-2012, 06:46 PM
 
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I believe Home Depot experimented with extended hours a few years ago. It might have been 24 hours. That quickly went bust.

Stores often don't mind the slow period in the morning because there are quite a few tasks they take care of to get the store ready for the day. So even if there are not a great deal of customers that does not mean the employees don't have things to do in the am.
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Old 09-20-2012, 06:51 PM
 
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Quote:
I believe Home Depot experimented with extended hours a few years ago. It might have been 24 hours. That quickly went bust.
I always heard about the 24 hour Home Depot, but never went. I think it was either the one on Clairmont or the one on Sidney Marcus.

I know not every Home Depot needs to stay open late, but I think at least one 24 hour Home Depot would be great. I've done a lot of projects that have gone into the night where I needed a specific tool or material, but it was too late to get. I'm the kind of person who would rather hop in the car and drive 30 minutes to a 24 hour Home Depot to get the job done instead of having to go to bed with it unfinished.

This might be a total myth, but I heard that they stopped the 24 hour operating hours because they had a huge problem with gay men hooking up in the bathroom late at night. I can't imagine that's the real reason.
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Old 09-20-2012, 06:59 PM
 
Location: East Point
4,790 posts, read 6,822,495 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ATLTJL View Post
This might be a total myth, but I heard that they stopped the 24 hour operating hours because they had a huge problem with gay men hooking up in the bathroom late at night. I can't imagine that's the real reason.

ew. yeah, that does sound like a myth. i've seen the bathroom be a meeting place for some presumably not-out-of-the-closet gays looking to find a quick fix, but i've never actually heard of them using the bathroom to do it in.
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Old 09-20-2012, 07:28 PM
 
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ATLTJL View Post
I always heard about the 24 hour Home Depot, but never went. I think it was either the one on Clairmont or the one on Sidney Marcus.
There were more than just a couple. I think the Vinings one near me was one of them. I remember when it was first announced I loved the idea and thought it would come in handy.

I never went.

At a store like HD, late night shoppers are there to pick up last minute and very likely low cost, low margin items. No one is shopping for appliances, carpet or counter tops at that time.

Don't forget you now have the trouble of staffing these stores. I can't imagine you are going to get the best service for the few employees that have to staff a huge store.

I think this is an idea that we love for convenience, but the numbers don't add up for the company.
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Old 09-20-2012, 09:05 PM
 
Location: Atlanta
858 posts, read 1,379,430 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ATLTJL View Post
I've got to assume that these stores have done their research and some calculation has shown that the additional revenue gained after 10p doesn't make the overhead of salaries and lighting worthwhile to pay.
Bingo.

Quote:
Originally Posted by ATLTJL View Post
But what if that's an outdated notion that nobody has bothered to update?
Rest assured, there are plenty of people who make careers out of analyzing things like this, and (no offense to you) their decisions are far more grounded than your gut feelings and armchair analysis. Retailers employ entire teams of people who do nothing except design shelf layouts... believe me, they know what hours they need to be open.

Quote:
Originally Posted by lorilove View Post
At a store like HD, late night shoppers are there to pick up last minute and very likely low cost, low margin items. No one is shopping for appliances, carpet or counter tops at that time.
Don't confuse low prices with low margins. They probably make less selling a washing machine than the water lines that go with it. Big ticket items that people comparison shop for are usually sold at or near cost, or even at a loss if there's a sale. It's things like hoses and screws that are marked up as much as 1000%. That number is no joke, when I put my time in at an office retailer we were paying $2 for USB cables and selling them for $30... that's $28 profit... a $1000 computer could net us half that if it was a hot item.

Retail is a funny business, and (like most things) a hell of a lot more complicated than people realize
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Old 09-20-2012, 09:07 PM
 
Location: ATL
4,688 posts, read 7,984,549 times
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All Im thinking about at 5am in the morning is food, sleep or sex. Im not thinking about buying a car, going to the library, picking cotton, going shopping, etc at 5am
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