Between kids activities, school, and work, I find the only time I have to go shopping is after 5 p.m. on weekdays or on the weekends. I have a hunch that my situation is not unique.
As a regional centre for education, health, and other professional services, a large majority of our workforce and students are fully occupied between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m.
Apart from running out during a lunch break to grab a quick bite, most potential customers are busy earning a dollar during the week days.
So why is it that more businesses arent open when it is convenient for customers?
My personal experience has been that when I have time to shop, particularly on weekday evenings and on Sundays specifically, very few businesses in Prince George are open. To cater to the population of retail consumers who wish to shop in bricks and mortar businesses, traditional business hours are certainly not going to cut it.
Several business publications including Business Week and the Wall Street Journal have reported studies that find 70 per cent of all consumer spending takes place after 6 p.m. In addition, Bob Phibbs book The Retail Doctors Guide to Growing Your Business outlines how the top four money-making periods within a week are, in this order, Saturday 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., Saturday 3 p.m. to 5 p.m., Sunday 3 p.m. to 5 p.m., and finally Sunday 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Therefore, if your retail business is not open on Sundays, you are missing out on the second best day of revenue generation.
I wanted to see if my observations and recollections regarding business hours were indeed correct. As a huge advocate of our downtown, I informally reviewed 20 different retail businesses within the C-1 downtown zone. I looked up the hours of operation for this random sampling of restaurants, cafes, gift shops, clothing stores, and other retail outlets.
What I found was that, other than the restaurants who served dinner and evening entertainment, every other business was closed from Monday to Friday by
6 p.m. Most were closed at 5 p.m.
If I want to shop in the evenings, I am forced to visit the big box stores, go to Pine Centre Mall on a Thursday or Friday, or spend my money online. Not that these alternatives are bad, its just very difficult to support independent small businesses when my free time doesnt match their hours of operation.
On a more positive note, approximately 80 per cent of the businesses I reviewed were open for limited hours on Sunday between 11 a.m. and 4 p.m. This provides customers with shopping flexibility which is much appreciated.
Any cities Ive visited with thriving downtown cores have always had blocks of retail shops with co-ordinated hours of operations that shoppers can count on.
Theyve often extended their hours into the evening, even if only for particular days of the week or month. For example, in the Crossroads district of Kansas City, Missouri they established First Fridays.
This is when, on the first Friday of every month, all their stores, restaurants, and art galleries are open until late or whenever the party stops. Co-ordination of offerings and extension of hours have led to record-breaking crowds and pedestrian-filled streets.
I would love to see something like this for Prince George, but Ill settle for a little after-hours shopping for now.
Until next week, stay in the black and keep coming back.
