Who Are Your Hours For?
Headed to the library this weekend with my daughter. She was ready to go at 9 and chomping at the bit. I told her we’d get breakfast and take our time, since the library doesn’t open on Saturdays until 10 am.
Why aren’t they open now?” she asks. I said they probably thought the folks who work there deserve a little break on the weekend. “Why aren’t they open when the people who use them want to go?”
I pointed out that to accommodate everybody, their hours would probably have to be much later at night and earlier in the morning, more like a college library, since people have all different hours at which they are wishing for that one book or video, or a quiet, well-lit place to get some work done.
We went at 10, stayed a while, then came back at 5:30 pm when my daughter developed a desperate need for a Pokémon video to watch for movie night. Guess what? Closed again. Unbeknownst to me, they close early on Saturday.
The funny thing is, the very next day I’m sitting outside the library writing this post at 12:30 pm, having mistakenly thought they opened at noon (don’t weep for me, they’ll be open in another half hour).
I’m going to leave aside issues of public funding and possible declining interest in libraries, which are very real but not the subject of this post. In fact library hours are not what all this has got me thinking of, since I’ve rarely found myself here when they were not open.
Guess the Crazy Schedule and Win a Prize
This happens a lot at smaller shops and restaurants I try to purchase from. Days they aren’t open, hours when I can’t get to them—one shop near me has different hours for every day of the week!
Do you think anyone will memorize those hours, or will folks find the one hour that’s covered on all the days, and either go at 2:30 pm or skip the visit for fear of wasting the gas? Skip it.
Will some customers stop coming? Yes.
Customers will not do the work of figuring out your crazy schedule. Boom, the dollars go elsewhere.
Who are your hours for? Me (the customer). Not you (the owner). Sorry.
Why aren’t they open when the people who use them want to go?”
For people living in small towns, the headache is even more familiar. This is no small town, but I don’t think (town) size matters anyway. Growing your business matters, to you and to me, so here’s any easy change with long-term impact:
Find out when your customers need you to be open.
Be open then.
Big P.S.: Get a website now. It’s like hiring your own 24-hour, 365-day employee.
Earlier, later, or both? When do you need your favorite small business to be open?
Grow and be well,
Kelly Erickson
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16 June 2008, 6:39 am
Heh. I hear you on this one. The pharmacy’s hours are 8 to 10. The used book store isn’t open on Sundays or Mondays. WalMart is 9 to 5. The bagel store is 10 to 4, closed on Wednesdays and stays open to 9 on Thursdays and Fridays. The bank is 10 to 3, closed on weekends.
But the depanneurs… ahh, the depanneurs full of beer, cigarettes, chips and chocolate bars… they’re 24/7. Go figure.
16 June 2008, 7:13 am
James,
The WalMart blows my mind! I thought those folks wanted to catch everybody.
If my bagel shop pulled stuff like that they could no longer be my favorite place to write my posts. The depanneurs, of course, don’t want anyone to go without their vices.
Around here a couple of McDonald’s have joined them, so if you want to load up on fats at some horrid hour, chips and chocolate bars now have competition.
Regards,
Kelly
16 June 2008, 9:04 am
Kelly.
“Why aren’t they open when the people who use them want to go?”
Oh, man! That’s hilarious! You MUST be writing about Splat Creek, Ontario, right?
I tried to imply that same question in our local paper, and I’m still getting flack for it three months later. I’ve upset too many people.
The obvious answer is the store owners just dont’ care… and/or don’t want your business that badly.
This is what happens when you get a monopoly (i.e. a small town with no competition). Or, in your library case, a goverment service.
16 June 2008, 9:09 am
@James
I also like how Quebec dosent’ allow major grocery chains to have more than a couple of cashiers after regular hours.
This is apparently to give the “poor Depanneurs” a chance.
Your choice is to go to the Depanneurs and get overcharged, or go to the regular store and wait 15-20 minutes in line.
I’m glad we dont’ get this in Ontario.
16 June 2008, 2:16 pm
Too right!
So many stores get this wrong, it’s always a pleasure when someone gets it right:
Trader Joe’s : 9 to 9. Easy to remember. And while some stores close later or open earlier, that’s the core time
Costco: Opens earlier for business class members. They can fax in their order and pick it up first thing, so this likely expedites checkout.
Rita’s ices and frozen custard: Open until 9pm. And thank goodness for that. We can have a late dinner and still mosey on over there for dessert.
Local movie theater: shows as early as 10:30am, and as late as midnight.
So when I hear that my friend’s small town coffee shop changed management, and stopped opening at 6:30am for, oh, I dunno, BREAKFAST, and now they don’t open until 10:30am-11am, I don’t get it. I just don’t get it.
16 June 2008, 2:29 pm
Friar,
Writing about Splat Creek? No. Linking to someone who wrote delightfully about Splat Creek, yes.
Grocery stores around here cut back to the bone after evening rush, too. Almost daring the convenience stores to snatch their business away from them. It works, too, because we have some fine “depanneurs” around here.
Crystal,
Rita’s I would never think of late. The sun has to be beating on me to want a water ice. However, the sun is beating on us later and later right now… maybe I’ll have to try them late.
Until later,
Kelly
16 June 2008, 2:45 pm
Hey where’d my comment go? Is it in the bin?
16 June 2008, 3:03 pm
How can a small business owner maintain a work-life balance if they have to be open seven days a week, 10-12 hours a day? I know it’s frustrating to show up only to learn your favorite noodle joint is closed Wednesdays, but a proprietor has to take a break once in a while. What do you recommend?
16 June 2008, 3:21 pm
Ellen,
I had that happen to me earlier today. Nothing in “the bin.” If you have a moment, please comment again, I’d love to hear from you.
Nermal,
I hear you. Of course I’d like to recommend staff who can take different hours than you to expand your range, but that’s not possible for everyone.
My best recommendation: be consistent (same times daily), be obvious (big sign with your hours), and be as observant of norms as possible.
For instance, most antique shops in this region, known for antiquing, are closed on Mondays. Folks know not to go antiquing on Mondays. If you buck that and take Sundays off (prime shopping day!) you are going to lose money and be open on Monday for nothing.
In the small town where my parents live, restaurants are closed on Sundays. This means they have to eat fast food or go to Big City 25 miles away if they want someone to cook for them on Sundays. (You could see that as your natural day off, or you could see that as your day to clean up with all the hungry people who’ll soon be at your door, as one restaurateur in that town just did. The place is packed on Sundays.)
Another for instance: larger cities have luncheon spots, which close at three or four, and get (surprise) the lunch crowd, and plenty of fine dining spots that open right about the same time and don’t even try to serve lunch, feeling it would be spreading themselves too thin. I might suggest to a client opening a noodle joint that specializing in that way could be an option.
The third thought is the tough-love idea: roughing it with those long hours and becoming known for your wonderful noodles brings in the customers who become fans, expands the profits, and allows those who can handle it in the short-term, to hire that extra manager to do the open or the close (or the Wednesdays) after the bottom line is looking more attractive.
Thanks for your comment!
Regards,
Kelly
16 June 2008, 3:43 pm
@Nermal and Kelly – It probably is too expensive for small town shop keepers to stay open too late?
@Kelly – Oh, I was just commenting on the library and how I didn’t mind their hours. They have the same schedule in Kazoo. Also the deppaners and how I would get the wine to celebrate your red banner ass. heheheHa!
16 June 2008, 3:46 pm
What a relief when your comment goes through. I feel like a babysitter.
Oh, if you need any WP advice let me know. I’m free. But I’m not a techie. It is very hard. You have my utmost sympathy.
I did not understand FTP and had no idea of how to unzip a file…the whole schmiel. What a mess it was for me. I tried to get Harry involved but he ran away.
Just kidding.
16 June 2008, 4:56 pm
That’s one argument I hear…what about the people who run the stores? What about their work-life balance? Dont’ they deserve their time off?
True..I agree.
But what I dont’ get..is if they’re going to work 8 hours ANYWAY…why do some of these stores chose 9 to 5?
It’s great for the stay-at-home parents and retirees. But for the majority of us who are away during the day, we’re S.O.L.
What if these store owners shifted their hours? (from 10:00 to 6:00 PM..or 11:00 to 7:00 PM?)
Same number of work hours, but huge increase in potential customer base.
God Forbid, though. We can’t have THAT, can we?
16 June 2008, 5:19 pm
Ellen,
If I told you how close to done I am right now… in the morning, you’ll be able to tell me if there’s anything I still need to know. (Oops! Pre-announcement!)
I’m pretty good with this stuff, but TypePad harasses you on the way out the door. My ftps and phps and even my csses are all happy happy. TP is sad, and when TypePad ain’t happy, ain’t nobody happy.
If you want Harry you have to whistle for him. Just put your lips together… and blow.
Friar,
I do appreciate work-life balance. Honestly, though, you may go in not knowing a lot of things, but the hours a store is normally open is not one of them.
Bricks-and-mortar stores have to be open bricks-and-mortar hours. That is, if growing profits is part of your business model. That’s just how it is.
Shifting your hours (or specializing in a certain crowd, like businessmen/women at lunch) may be an option for the little guy. A lot of times, sad to say, that little business owner has forgotten who those hours are for. In your area it’s safe to say the retirees could come in a bit later, so that the little store owner you wrote about could serve the customers with far greater spending power and have no overall loss to his personal time. He’s decided to shoot himself in the foot.
Later, he’ll wonder how the big box stores ran him over so darned fast, as many do around here. No loyalty where it counts, because they aren’t taking the care to create that loyalty!
Later,
Kelly
16 June 2008, 6:49 pm
@ Friar – Yup. I’ve waited in line over an hour and a quarter to pay for groceries. The depanneurs? They do very, VERY well. They ain’t hurting for money.
I am so jealous of some things in Ontario.
17 June 2008, 9:48 pm
You’ve really hit a sore point for me on this one. I know I’m not the only one to realize I need to refill the propane before firing up the grill in the evening or on the weekend. And there’s a propane supply place not 4 minutes from my house. Their hours? 8 am to freakin’ 4:30 in the afternoon, weekdays. I wonder how much money they’re leaving on the table.
17 June 2008, 10:17 pm
Matt,
That’s awful. My parents have a gas grill, which I love to use when I’m visiting. I never plan in advance for the fact that Dad always leaves it open! We’d never grill out again if he had your store nearby, lol.
So do you drive four times as far to a convenience store and pay a premium, or do you stare wistfully at the grill and order pizza?
Until later,
Kelly
18 June 2008, 10:33 am
@ Kelly: Well, it depends on how much we were looking forward to the steaks or whatever, and how central it is to the plans for the meal. If it was a whim that can wait a day, we’ll get something else. Otherwise, I drive “just” twice as far to the convenience store to pay the premium.
Or, if I catch it early enough, I fire up the charcoal grill, which tastes much better anyway. The gas is just so much more convenient, you know?
Matt Tuley, Laptop for Hires last blog post..The best branding book you’ve never heard of.
18 June 2008, 6:14 pm
Matt,
I hear you about charcoal. Well worth the wait. I keep telling Dad that for how much trouble it is every time he lets the thing bleed empty, he ought to get charcoal and give up on the gas. They make some fancy charcoal grills I’m drooling for these days, and what’s an extra 25 minutes? It’s probably about the time it takes us to go get him a full tank.
Until later,
Kelly