24 hour supermarkets

[LimeAndSodaMum]

AIBU to think that more Supermarkets should go back to being open 24 hours like pre covid? It seems that since Covid there are no 24 hours supermarkets anymore!

I don’t think big supermarkets need to be open 24 hours. Surely that can’t be justified financially. Little ones I can understand.

If they felt it was worth the extra costs they would be! The fact that most haven’t returned to it shows it’s not economically feasible in most cases.

The bigger supermarkets used to be open 24 hours before Covid so it must have been financially viable then!

I work in a supermarket that was 24 hour pre covid and now closes at 10. If it made a big enough profit it would be open 24 hours. Truth is not enough people use it to make it worthwhile, especially when you factor in the extra cost of employing staff and security to man it. Far to many thieves and also homeless, drug addicts looking for somewhere warm to sleep or shoot up.

It probably costs too much to put the lights on.

People’s shopping habits have changed since Covid though, especially with regards to online shops. That will inevitably have an impact on how the stores operate.

Honestly I never understood why they reduced hours surely it would have cut down the queue opening longer?

Anyway I dont think there is a 24/7 need anymore maybe do one night a week and close Sundays

I would have thought a lot of them would have the lights on pretty much 24 hours anyway - for restocking, picking online orders, carrying out maintenance etc.

Not really it was more if Tesco do it then Asda and Sainsburys better follow suit so they don't miss any potential income. There are plenty of shopping hours outside of 24/7. People only have so much they can spend they don't spend more because of longer opening hours

I guess they’d do it if there was demand for it. The only ones open 24 hours near me are at petrol stations. I didn’t realise most big ones had stopped being 24 hours! Do you need to shop overnight? I had a friend who used to go at 5am before her kids woke up (her DH was home) until I told her she was mad and to do it online!

My local Tesco Extra is open from 6 am till midnight. That's enough surely.

That was why it was viable when it started in the 00s but increasingly people have moved to online orders or click and collect and that infrastructure has developed so it's just not worth the extra bit of staffing and security risk to be open through the night in store. If it was financially beneficial, they'd still be open, especially with increased autimation at the tills.

We have only one left in the area and I think it’s due to it being just off the motorway so caters for travellers, haulage, emergency services.

the latest I’ve ever gone to it is about 11ish when I’ve needed emergency Calpol

I adored 24/7 supermarkets as it was quiet both on the roads and in store plus it was easy to shop right after my night shift - which could finish anywhere between 11pm and 6am.
My DH worked for Tesco - they were told that it came down to profit. Whist it made sense to open at night and some shoppers loved it and they made a profit…. They could make much greater profits by reducing staffing, and getting dot com and shelf filling done during the day, also wages were lowered as no unsociable hours uplift. Thefts were high at night too, so again less opening hours = less theft opportunities = theoretically less profit loss.
downside is of course that the aisles are heaving with the dot com staff and stock waiting to go on shelves sits in the tiny back stores and on the shop floor, making the shopping experience (imo!) horrible. But let’s be honest, the shopper doesn’t really have much option if they want to eat other than go to a supermarket to buy food. So zero incentive to go back to 24/7.

Big Tesco here is open 6am til 10pm. It used to open 24 hours. Those hours must work for virtually everyone virtually all of the time , surely?

We close at midnight now, it’s better for us because it’s easier to work the delivery without customers and tbh the people who used to shop after midnight were usually just running in for one or two things so it wasn’t worth the extra cost to run checkouts.

No, the heating.

I heard from one person, who stacked shelves in large supermarket at night, how cold it was, because there was no heating on!

Equally, an employee of M & S complained to me, how hot it was to work there, before and after opening hours, because they only put the air conditioning on for customers!

I used to go into the office 5 days a week pre-Covid. But that’s not viable anymore. Things change.

I don’t see the point. Who needs to shop in the nighttime?

Yes, petrol, stations stay open 24/7, as it would cost them so much in huge insurance premiums to have a potentially very dangerous site unattended at any time, it's much cheaper for them to pay wages to have a staff member there permanently... and if they already have a staff member there anyway, well, there's no point in turning down potential sales, is there?!

Because it’s quieter and a lot less busy both in the shop and on the roads. Also often suits night shift workers.
online delivery works if you don’t want to see and select your own produce, shop for yellow sticker products or have a large enough shop to mitigate the charges.

Too quiet and less busy otherwise they would stay open.

@DarthVadersGlove yes as I did explain clearly in my previous post…….

all I was answering is why would someone much prefer to shop at night. In this particular post.