Go! Smell the Open Hours!
January 11th, 2008 by Purple13Half Day Closing – a thing of the past?
Well wouldn’t you just know it! The very day your’s truly drives into town to visit the Iron-mongers emporium and collect fresh supplies of reliable fasteners for making the photo tea trays and dinner trays, they are on half-day closing! (and I’d even paid to park).
No wonder more and more people are switching to shopping online.
Luckily, shoppers of photo gifts will find Fabulous Photo Gifts open 24/7 and very often, we’re available to answer the phone and your emails late into the night too.
How nice is that?
SOrry folks - its one of those days even after watching the tutorial on adding youtube to wordpress!!!!!! grrrrrrr gnash gnash.
Here’s the link I was trying to make appear at the top of the post.
It will all make sense!
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=mgJlmaGP3kE
LOL ARKWRIGHT!
Half day IS a thing of the past if businesses are going to survive and a tip for you purple13 / Jonathan - link where you mention fab photo gifts so we can click and see…
I know of you here but have never been to your website - yet.
Just a thought.
This one I can fix!!
http://www.fabulousphotogifts.co.uk
Thanks Sarah.
(P.S Thanks for sorting clip coding Jim - do tell how!)
How to embed youtube in wordpress…
Trick is to follow this an dalways ‘SAVE’ any changes so when you post you’ll either be in youtube mode OR normal text & picture mode..
Here you go…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NopuJ_OYjsk
No worries on the you tube Jim (n Em) Fixed it for you as per the post…..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5wwPeSDCCAs
Oh and e-biz is 24 x 7…
The flowers here never have ot go on the station forecourt and back in from their white buckets at midnight!
Flowers all year round, anywhere, sometimes freeeeeeeeeeeeeee.
I left half day closing behind 20 years ago….
then I moved here…
the hardware shop closes at 2.00 on Saturday everyone knows it is 3.00 when you need it most… but they dont ope on Sundays…
The banks close for lunch 12 - 1 pm
the shoe shop closes for lunch as well and shuts their doors at 12.30 pm on Saturday….
As does one of the servos…. however there are 2 service stations so they alternate as to who stays open….
The TAkeaways also alternate who stays open late…. Newsagent shuts at 12.30pm on weekends…
So it is plain we are living 20 years in the past….. you have no idea how frustrating it can be….
AC
You’ve been tagged.
http://sahmiam77.blogspot.com/2008/01/birthday-meme.html
I’ve never heard of 1/2 days for businesses.
24/7 opening is ridiculous. I can’t see how it leads to increased revenue. I have X pounds per month and thats all I can spend. Shops opening longer never gives me more to spend. To be honest I think its got to increase prices and also increase energy usage.
If you are a reasonable human being with half a brain you should be able to plan out what you need and buy it at the prescribed time, not 3am on Tuesday. Shicft workers and so on can also do this easily, I did when worked a 3 shift system.
When I lived in Cologne it was great, the shops opened until about 8.30pm Monday to Friday and then closed at 2pm on Saturday. What this did was allowed families to spend a lot of time together and clear out the town before the beer brigade came out.
24/7 opening leads to increased business because it provides the oppportunity to purchase. it works in all retail environments but particularly well for grocery stores large and small.
eg you have run out of milk its late at night, you nip out to the store purchase said milk, likely make some other impulse purchase you had not planned and begin to consume these products immediately. if the store was not open the sale would not have taken place, you would have had to buy your product the following morning and would not have started consuming it until then, so your consumption would be less than buying it the night before and your next purchase of the consumable is delayed as a consequence.
the same principal applies to any retail product not just basic groceries. the more opportunities to purchase you provide the more you will sell. retail fact. delay the opportunity to purchase and you dont just miss the sale at that point in time, potentially you miss it period by giving your customer the opportunity to change their mind, or go elsewhere.
i work in retail management and can tell you that like any other major industry, and it is a major industry, it is highly researched and analysed. trust me if the business was not sufficient to warrant opening it is highly unlikely the outlet would.
But you have X pounds. Longer hours don’t give you X+1 pounds.
Of course if you’re a moron and don’t shop well or plan things and buy crap you don’t need then sure - hmm hang on, you’re probably right, most of the people in the UK are pretty stupid.
Probably explains why half the UK are hocked up on credit and the forecast is for 10000 bankruptcies a month.
the only reason for 24/7 trading is shift workers and alike..
the corner store here opens at 5.00am and closes at 10.00 pm…..
but yeh I like 1/2 day trading although there are some places that should check there hours better like the hardware store….
but you find the 24/7 mostly in high density areas…..
it isnt so much that people spend more its the convenience for people that wouldnt normally make it the shop on their way home cleaners, miners, nurses etc… people whose hours dont allow for a trip to the shops….
As stated I did shift work when I was younger, opening hours were no problem. Its a matter of organisation and not exhibiting all the common traits of a f*ck wit.
Unfortunately many can’t.
if you are organised, congratulations, however it is not about the organisational skills of the masses, but it genuinely is about convenience and the extra business that generates.
and also do not forget that many shoppers actually plan to shop late nights as they usually do not have to put up with the daytime crowds, nor have to deal with the increased madness created by forcing people to shop in a limited time frame.
Hey Gareth I hope I wasnt included in the last part of your comment…..
However I do agree that many cant organise themselves out of a brown paper bag with a map….
But others do prefer the late night thing …
Go figure…
I like my shops closing at 7pm m-f and 6pm sat and sun… you know they do so thats that….
ac, with respect 24/7 trading is not just for shift workers, though they are an integral part of the shopper make up.
smart retailers do get their customers to buy more, whether they planned it, can afford it or not. the longer you are open the greater your chance to max out on these opportunities.
I think that we would likely all agree that the objective of any business is to seize all opportunities to increase revenues and profit. no?
For sure… unfortunatly some business do take advantage of those shoppers who have nothing betterto do with their evening than shop, and are tired or stressed….
But when it is ok to stay open and people will comein and shop then there is not much to be done…
right or wrong it wont change until people stop going
and that is the entire crux of the matter, until people stop going. the only reason shops open late is to take advantage of the opportunity that exists.
basic economics - supply & demand
Surely the longer the business is open, the more stock and the more business is done? Right?
correct
Surely a lot of the half day closings with the smaller retailers is due to slow trade?
one of the good things about a decent hangover is that it totally f#
dont know what happend to my reply but only part of it appeared, here goes again….
LIB the half day originates from before modern retail times when towns ghad the butcher the baker and the etc shops. as small retail outlets usualyy one or 2 man bands they compromised their weekends by workjing saturdays this being a good trade day when everyone else was off. sundays of course everyone in those days went to church and and god said, apparently, take the day off lad.
thgis meant that retailers didnt have enough time as all other working folk to do their domestic stuff, so in small communities as these reatilers were, they would agree a day when they would all close for half a day. Better to do it en masse because you then quickly educate the shoppers when you are closed.
modern retailers ie supermrkets, department stores etc now often have replaced these traditional retailetrs offereing everything under one roof. they have the infrastructure to allow them to be open 24/7 if they want and often they do.
half day closing is not about the pace of the trade available, its about the size of business you have, your manpower, and is a reflection of traditional retailing
sortry still badly hungover hope that made sense
All sense to us and thanks for sharing JD!
All great points, well made/
However lets look at the social impact.
1. People are in ever greater mountains of debt with store cards and credit cards. This is not a healthy situation and can lead to undue stresses on parents and families in general.
2. Family life is being eroded to the point of not existing, latch key kids etc. due to mum working stupid hours in a shop or shopping in them.
3. Hobbies, how many people actually have them these days? Not many as they are either working in some shop or shopping in them. I went out with a girl who did nothing but wander aimlessly in shops - no sport, reading or anything else (dumped pretty quick though).
4. Our high streets and retail parks are now clones as the independant operator can not compete. As such choice is actually diminished. Towns and cities in the UK are almost becoming McTowns - that is clones of each other. The same is true in many countries.
5. Centralising or corporatising our retail gives rise to corporate bullying. Tescos and the likes controlling disproportionate areas of the market and therefore bullying the supply chain.
Now I’m not against a successful business but when choice is eroded and monoplolies established then we don’t have a healthy situation.
I guess I’m not ever going to agree with it as I am a bloke and as such all my shopping can be done in a 5 minute window once a month.
AC,
Of course you weren’t being referred to, perish the thought petal.