Unhealthy for shops to be open all hours

By JOHN DARKIN*

To be open all hours is both an old-fashioned and a modern concept. The old corner grocery stores, for which the advent of supermarkets signalled the beginning of the end, were forced to survive by offering a small range of expensive goods at all hours. But it was no more than a marginal service. The forgotten bag of sugar, loaf of bread or packet of ciggies.

Seldom for the corner shop was it a privilege to supply a whole week's worth of groceries. Their owners attended to their businesses all day, often hovering in a back room, grabbing a bite to eat, waiting for the ring of the doorbell that warned of another meagre sale.

The late customers, grateful as they were to be able to pick up their forgotten item, had done their week's shopping up the road in one of the new American-style grocery supermarkets. Their gratitude toward the "small shopkeeper" did not extend to more than petty cash.

Some corner stores survived, their open-all-hours policy allowing them to scrape up enough petty cash to squeeze out a living.

Yet nowadays to be open all hours is considered smart modern retailing. Owners take the view, correctly, that there are only a certain number of dollars available for spending, and all shops are competing for them.

Every minute the store is closed the opportunity to acquire those dollars is lost. That is the unfortunate reality of a competitive market.

Chain stores are better placed than independent businesses to take up the challenge. For smaller shops, finding staff to work antisocial hours can be a problem. Rostering duties to cover weekends severely interrupts normal domestic life for a large number of families.

Retail owners hide the true reason for long hours and say instead that weekend opening is to meet "public demand". That is to say, if a store stays open long enough, someone is sure to drop in, therefore a "service" is supplied.

But is this really necessary? Is it not the case that if shops are always open, the public becomes aware of it and gradually changes shopping, social and family habits to suit?

If that is true, society should be concerned that we have nothing better to do than to shop at times when in the past far more beneficial pursuits were followed.

With shops open on Saturday afternoons and Sundays, the public are tempted to drift around retail districts as a kind of entertainment rather than be more inventive and creative with their precious leisure time.

Some "retail experts" will argue that holidaymakers require shops to be open all hours. It is, nevertheless, difficult to imagine why a person on holiday and visiting another town would want to visit that town's shops when they are, after all, supposed to be getting away from all that.

The day and a half of enforced closure of shops can in no way be a hardship. However, this does leave an interesting challenge for retailers to design better shop windows so those who cannot keep away are inspired to return on the next opening day to make their purchases.

There is real danger in allowing shopping to become a dominant feature in our lives. Economists might insist that high levels of leisure-time shopping drive the national economy forward, and that as a result society as a whole grows richer.

That is probably true, but do people grow richer in mind and spirit just because they are able to make their purchases on a Saturday afternoon or Sunday? That is unlikely.

To encourage a better balance between ambition and quality in our lives, it is surely far more appropriate to forget shopping for 36 hours each week and amuse ourselves in more stimulating activities.

A short weekly break from the temptations of consumerism will inevitably make the eventual purchase sweeter and more rewarding. The economy will not suffer. If people want something badly enough, they will find another time to obtain it.

Why don't shops have, say, two late nights during weekdays, staying open until 7pm instead of 5pm?

That gives ample opportunity for those shoppers who claim that 5 1/2 days' opening is not enough.

Encouraging consumerism on an open-all-hours basis discourages intellectual gain through better use of time. Small shopkeepers as well as staff will all benefit from enforced disengagement from their shops. More relaxing leisure time for all will stimulate improved working practices and a better-motivated staff.

All involved will stay healthier, happier and consequently enjoy their work more, and live longer.

A simple agreement between the giant retailers, followed by local legislation designed to curb weekend retail activities, is all that is required to end this crazy situation forever.

It is a challenge that society cannot afford to ignore.

* John Darkin is a Gisborne bookshop assistant.