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Path: utzoo!watmath!looking!brad
From: brad@looking.UUCP
Newsgroups: can.general
Subject: Re: Sunday openings
Message-ID: <709@looking.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 4-Dec-86 01:06:14 EST
Article-I.D.: looking.709
Posted: Thu Dec  4 01:06:14 1986
Date-Received: Thu, 4-Dec-86 07:11:14 EST
References: <2819@watdcsu.UUCP> <708@looking.UUCP> <605@ubc-cs.UUCP>
Reply-To: brad@looking.UUCP (Brad Templeton)
Distribution: can
Organization: Looking Glass Software Ltd. Waterloo, Ontario
Lines: 55

In article <605@ubc-cs.UUCP> andrews@ubc-cs.UUCP (Jamie Andrews) writes:
>
>     Say every store stayed open on Sunday.  Would the revenue from
>the increased impulse buying -- as Brad points out, the only extra
>revenue we can reasonably expect such a practice to take in --
>offset the cost of staying open one more day?

No, I didn't say that it was the only extra revenue, I just pointed it
out as one example that I have from personal experience.  Others on the
net have pointed out others.  The most obvious is efficient use of
physical plant.  Assuming a fixed sales volume, a 6,000 square foot store
(and associated cash registers etc.) open 7 days can handle as much as a
7,000 square foot store open 6 days, provided the size of the store is
proportional to expected traffic and not variety of merchandise.

Consider your local supermarket.  Saturday is such an incredibly busy
day right now.  It's the only day the parking lot is full.  In fact, with
Sunday shopping, they might get away with a parking lot 1/2 the size!

The savings apply not just to the market but to the city.  Saturday
shopping traffic (and downtown parking) is strongly reduced.  Remember
that so much of our resources are allocated for peak load (Saturday) and
not just average load.  The savings can be tremendous.

Of course there is an extra cost, namely staff.  But with the same number
of customers, averaged out better,  You actually might need fewer staff.
This is less likely, because people do want personal service.  Even so,
why all this complaint about increasing employment?
>
>Allowing Sunday openings would, it seems,
>only have the effect of creating a tragedy-of-the-commons setup.

You only see an immediate effect.  It's true that the need to stay
competitive requires everybody to switch at once.  But you miss the
forest for the trees.  This is a side effect of retailers doing something
that the customers truly want.
>
>     My mother (amazingly) had another good argument against Sunday
>openings, or at least in favour of stores staying closed some day
>on the weekend.  Workers who have kids who stay in school all day
>weekdays, but who have to work themselves on the weekends, never
>get days free with their kids.  This already happens to a certain
>extent with some workers (police officers, firefighters, etc.).
>Allowing it to happen with large parts of the retail sector would
>not be good for family cohesiveness.

Unfortunate, but you can't have everything.  Nobody will be forced to
work on Sunday.  If you want to have kids, it's fully accepted that you
have to reconcile your job and your desire to be with them.  If
an unemployed worker will serve people on Sunday and you won't, why do
you demand laws to protect your vested interest?
>

-- 
Brad Templeton, Looking Glass Software Ltd. - Waterloo, Ontario 519/884-7473