Stores are staying open later (or not closing at all) until Christmas — does that really help you?
Black Friday is no longer the only day you can shop in the wee hours of the morning. How do you feel about extended holiday shopping hours? | Stock photo
Black Friday was just the start of stores opening at crazy hours to compete for sales over the holiday season.
Toys R Us is currently open until midnight Monday through Thursday and until 1 a.m. Friday through Sunday. Macy’s is taking it a step further and plans to be open for 48 hours straight the weekend before Christmas. And those are just a couple examples of the extended holiday hours that you can find.
Now, I’m curious — does that really help you at all? Is it more or less likely to attract your business?
Will you be one of the shoppers browsing Macy’s at 3 a.m. on Dec. 22, or loading up a bike at Toys R Us at 12:45 a.m. this weekend?
Tell me how you feel about these late-night shopping hours in the comments section below. I may be able to use your input in a future column.
December 11, 2012 - 10:19 AM
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I love going to Toys R Us around 8-9 at night. My boys are already asleep and I can shop in peace! That’s the latest that I will shop though.
Later hours (like until 9 or 10 p.m.) help me but I would never shop at 12:45 a.m. at Toys R Us or 3:00 a.m. at Macy’s. I feel bad for the people who work there and have to stay up all night working.
We do the bulk of our shopping later in the day, usually after 9pm. We do that because I would much rather have to shop around the stockers, than hoards of other shoppers. But, the places we typically shop are either already 24-hour or open until 10-midnight anyway, so it doesn;t help us a bit.
Having worked at Lowes and worked there during their experiment with staying open until 10pm (instead of 9pm), it was horrible. We didn’t get any additional customers, and the extra hour kept us from re-stocking using power equipment like lifts, blowers, etc…which meant that most nights, we were there until midnight…and frequently had to be back at 6am the following morning to open the store. Thankfully, they dropped that after 2 months once they realized the sales numbers didn’t justify the expense and employee frustration.
No, I will not go shopping at 3 am. If I want the item I will buy it at 3 pm.
Unless the stores being open later into the night adds money in my checking account, I see no way it would cause me to buy more merchandise.
It sounds like the purchases are down, and the stores are desperate in their grab for more consumer spending. Maybe the karma of opening on Thanksgiving is already coming back to them.
The line of thinking for some stores is that associates will be in the store late at night cleaning up after a hard day of shopping anyway, so they figure why not leave the store open during this time to capture a few more sales. This isn’t the only reason of course, but it is a factor. I will say that working in retail, we do not see many customers in the store outside of normal business hours.
Those hours actually make me want to shop at those stores less. It just shows that they care more about their bottom line than their employees & I don’t care to support companies that exhibit such corporate greed.
Yes! I love that the stores are open past 8 or 9 p.m.! With two children, I like to have them fed and ready for bed before the sitter comes over. This means I’m usually very rushed to drive the 20 to 30 mins. to the stores/mall and get my shopping done before they close. When they are opened later, hubby and I have time to go out to dinner and then shop. I wish they were open later all year!
I agree with Cathy’s perspective on retail operations being more focused on profits than employees. As for Donna’s desire for longer store hours year round, it’s pretty obvious she has not worked in retail during those hours.
A retail store could stay open 24 hours a day, and there would be SOMEONE who ‘just couldn’t get here because of my busy schedule, except at 3:30 a.m.’ That does not equate to profitable business practices, nor to employee satisfaction which DOES have a significant imprint on profitablity, despite not being listed on a balance sheet.
ya its really helpful for me.there is simple reason,in morning hours it is so busy and we can’t make better selection.in late night hours it is free and make better selection for this christmas.
Cathy, more hours equal more jobs, just what we need in this economy. Why shouldn’t stores be focused on profits? They are not in the charity business. Profits equal more jobs. For some people late night work hours better fit their schedule.I would like to see stores open earlier year around. 9am would be good, 10 am and half the day is gone.
This madness of having stores stay open for 24 hours a day from thanksgiving until xmas has got to stop…..
reynold, I hate to hear that you work seven days a week. I mean, you must if the only time you have to shop is not on the weekend, but late at night during the week. It must be extremely difficult for you to schedule routine vehicle maintenance. Finding a mechanic that is open after 10 p.m. is not easy.
It couldn’t be that prioritizing is an issue, could it?
As for RM’s day being ‘half gone’ by 10 a.m., if that is the case, then why worry about stores being open late at night? I mean, 9 a.m. suits you, but 10 a.m. means half the day is gone? That must be ‘new math’.
I’d love for the folks so eager for stores to remain open to their whimsy, I’d love for these folks to work those stores on that shift during the month of December. It wouldn’t take long for the perspective to shift 180 degrees.
I can understand stores holding extended hours, but I’m not quite sold on the 24-hour deal. Of course, if it’s only for a few days a year then maybe it’s worth it. I’m sure some people take advantage of the early morning/late night hours or else stores wouldn’t continue offering them.
Most shoppers don’t seem to have a problem with Walmart and drug stores being open 24/7 throughout the rest of the year.
Extending hours by a few hours is OK. Being open all night is not. That just shows me that these stores don’t care about their employees and I will not support that.
Interesting that you chose to chide the people opposing longer hours for stores to stay open because of their concern for the employees, Rebecca. Too bad the RT blogs don’t adopt the same mindset that so many are cheerleading the stores for doing. Wouldn’t it be nice if most RT blog posts were updated more than just a couple times a day between 9 to 5, and virtually never in the evenings or on weekends?That’s something I’d like to see, and that would cause more people to check into the blogs, thus driving up potential revenue for the RT, and interest in general. Too bad that mindset hasn’t dawned on the editorial board, though.
I wasn’t chiding those readers, I was just surprised by their responses since 24 hour shopping isn’t really a new thing.
I’m sorry that you’re disappointed with the blog activity on the weekends and during evenings, but most of us do check-in on our blogs (as you see) during those hours to the best of our ability. Different jobs have different requirements, and part of working for retail is making it through the busy holiday season.