The End of the 24 Hour Society?
Welcome back!
As President Obama said, last week in his press conference, Americans are loosing jobs at an alarming rate. Stores are closing like crazy. I am amazed to see even bigger chain stores closing in my area.
We have become an around the clock society. So many stores offer 24 hour services, as opposed to 10 years ago. We have come to expect, that certain mega-retailers and drugstores will be open at all hours of the night, just incase we need something.
However, as the jobless rate goes up. and payroll gets harder to cover for many business’ large and small, will we start to see a decline in the 24 hour store? When I started to thing about this concept in depth, which I had never really done before. I was amazed at how expensive it must be.
A store that is open for 24 hours, 7 days a week must incur some serious costs. Payroll must be outrageous. If you thing about it, the store must be staffed at all times, usually with more than one person. Almost all 24 hour stores have a manager on duty, at all times. Managers are payed more than regular staff and are therefore more expensive.
Then I thought about,how much the energy costs of keeping your doors open at a 24 hour store must be. Heat, or air conditioning, lights, and water? That kind of usage must really add up quickly. Especially for a mega-retailer such as Walmart.
Taking all of these thoughts into account, I wonder, with the downturn in the economy will the 24 hour store survive? As we all know, retail sales are down sharply for the country. People are not out shopping. Which I would think would certainly effect the over night crowd that frequent 24 hour stores.
I am grateful for the store that stays open for 24 hours in times of sickness or emergency. However, I think that with stores being open constantly are slowly changing our society. We are able to do things like shop whenever we’d like that we were not able to do before now.
So, what does this current depression have in store for the 24 hour shopper? I guess only time will tell. Until then, covet your ability to feed your 2 am. fix for that Heath Bar or be thankful that you can buy junior diapers at 4 am.
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