Why do stores close so early in montreal?

[tearlessnights]

Excluding grocery/pharmacy, i cant help but wonder why malls and other stores close at 5 or 6 on a weekend. Wouldn't it make sense for them to stay open a little later for business? I've seen tons of people at malls and stores just close in front of their face?????

[GeorgiaK]

Welcome to Quebec. This is because government and "society" believes that people would want to spend more time with family and at leisure.

I don't know of everyone else's opinion, but I think that making money to put food on the table would be more important.

[Patty Smyth]

There are better things to do on the weekend than shop. I don't even usually shop Sat. and Sunday anyways. I make sure all the boring stuff is done during the week so I can do things with my family.

Even when I was working I would always do my groceries on a weeknight.

Oh and Quebec is the least service oriented place on earth. I can't imagine all the crabby people who would be working on those nights.

A friend of mine was in from Toronto a few weeks ago and she was shocked the stores close at 5 on Saturday. She asked me what do people do ? LOL I said PARTY !!!

[super_e]

Store hours have gotten much better in Quebec in the last twenty years or so.
Back then stores, including grocery stores, would close at 6pm on Mon-Tues-Wed. 9pm on Thrs-Fri, and 5pm on Sat. Sunday they were closed.

And remember when they passed that stupid law only allowing 4 employees on Sundays ... so grocery stores could open, but with only one or two cashes open, the lineups were insane. And stores had to get creative and contract out some jobs so that they weren't "employees". Mostly it was security positions, with only 4 employees on the floor, you needed to make sure no one was stealing.

[chemicalflaw]

DH has been forced out of a store during Christmas season because they wanted to close at 5... the mall was teeming with people and they'd rather just shoo everyone away than make a few bucks. Something is seriously wrong with that mentality. Bad business, really.

[abouret]

DH has been forced out of a store during Christmas season because they wanted to close at 5... the mall was teeming with people and they'd rather just shoo everyone away than make a few bucks. Something is seriously wrong with that mentality. Bad business, really.

I have worked in store for 15 years and I can tell you that if you close at 9 pm, you have 15 minutes pay do to the close. If you don't do it in the 15 minutes, you are not paid for it, even if there's customer in the store. So unless you have commisson, you have no envy to serve a customer starting is shopping at 8h55. I know it's bad to say but in most job, if you do 30 minutes over your time because a rush just arrived, you will be paid but in store, it's your fault because you haven't been fast enough to close. I'm not saying it's right but it's the reality.

I remember been yelling at because December 24th was a Thursday and we were closing at 5 pm instead of 9 pm like we usually do on a Thursday. I'm sorry but if you are not ready with all your gifts on December 24th at 5 pm, it's your fault not the fault of the employees because they are closing the store or the store because they no longer have want you are looking for.

Remember that in stores bussiness, there's no longer 2 days consecutives off in a year. This is hard for store employees because even if you only works 5 days a week, you won't have 2 days off together. Also, when they increase the opening hours in store, they didn't engaged new employees do to the job, they just put more hours on existants employees. Which finally turn out to be worst than better.

I'm sure if you speak with Snuff, she can tell you even more about it because she has trouble right now finding new employees so she's ending up working 80 hours/week on 6 days. I'm pretty sure she doesn't want the opening hours to be increase!

[Tbites]

Tearless.... I think you mentioned you were from out of town.... New York ?... Let me save you some time.... QUEBEC is Spessssshul.... sometimes that's something to b*tch about and sometimes it's actually a blessing.

I realize that when you've had more (ie: 24 hour shopping etc..) you expect more but seeing as I've grown up with the business hours Super_e mentioned above... I actually think we have it pretty good now. Grocery stores are open quite late and there's still the odd 24hr pharmacy or gas station. Would I like to see some flexibility when it comes to the odd special event like Walmart's 24 hour sales (I think it's at Xmas or something ??)....absolutely !

But, I don't think these laws were created to piss people off but rather to ensure quality of life.... and I support that.

Imagine if you were in Spain !

[super_e]

What's going on in Spain?

[Tbites]

What's going on in Spain?

Are you being sarcastic ?

[frankienitka]

Remember that the main reason for the 4 employees quota is to keep the moms and pops business alive. They do not have the capacity or employees to be able to compete with big chains store. I actually think it was a very good decision. Makes is fair competition for the little store while the big ones can open more hours. Alot of small businesses would have closed without that law, why wait at the small one when I can get in and out in 5 minutes at the big one.

[snuffaluffagus]

I don't know of everyone else's opinion, but I think that making money to put food on the table would be more important.

Would you rather work 35-40 hrs over 4-5 days or 35-40 hrs over 7 days? You would make the same amount of money to put the same amount of food on the table and still have quality time to spend with family and at your leisure.

DH has been forced out of a store during Christmas season because they wanted to close at 5... the mall was teeming with people and they'd rather just shoo everyone away than make a few bucks. Something is seriously wrong with that mentality. Bad business, really.

It would be worse business to lose the respect of your employees after having forced them to work overtime, especially during the holidays when they'd like to spend time with their families too. Also, if businesses have to pay all their employees overtime every single day over the holiday period, they're losing money, not making it. And in all honestly, time to spend with one's family is more important than a couple of extra dollars if there is any to be made.

But, I don't think these laws were created to piss people off but rather to ensure quality of life.... and I support that.

Two decades or so ago when the laws governing the opening of store hours changed, the gov't gave the argument that it would create more jobs and people would have more money to inject back into the economy. What they didn't brag about was the increased taxes they would be collecting from all around. Those include from consumers who spent more on goods and from income taxes due to increased salaried hours (imagine what they collect from those working over/double time!!). Then calculate the taxes earned from the increases in insurance, increased electricity/gas bills, parking, etc. etc..

The only businesses that profited from the change were the big box stores. The resources of smaller business were stretched to the extreme. Small businesses did not make more money due to the changes because their total sales were now calculated over a 7-day period vs. the same amount of money they were making over a 6-day period. Why the same amount of sales? Because customers didn't spend more, they just chose other days hours to shop instead of during the old store hours. Why did small business take a loss? Because with the same amount of income, they had to spend more on salaries for the extra hours of operation. Remember, we're talking small businesses here where the profit margin wasn't making anyone rich, in fact, it was only (and still is only) a very small fraction of what the large chains are making.

So yeah, while the consumer enjoys shopping at their leisure, what about the quality of life of retail employees? Their families? Small business owners and their families too? Sometimes all the money in the world won't make up for the lost time...for quality time. It's a sad reality that we live in an age where consumerism is valued above all else.

In addition, are we really making more money than we did 20 years ago? Factor in that personal debt has increased to phenomenal proportions since that time....it's highly doubtful we're currently in a better place.

*Deep cleansing breath*...LOL...all that to say yes, you're correct abouret, I don't want store hours to be increased...I'd like to see them decreased back to the good old days .

[super_e]

Are you being sarcastic ?

Nope, not being sarcastic. What's going on with store hours in Spain?

[Tbites]

Nope, not being sarcastic. What's going on with store hours in Spain?

Ooops, I shouldn't assume every knows this. Ever heard of siesta ? In Spain, most stores/ businesses close down for 2-3 hours in the afternoon and reopen later during the day.

[snuffaluffagus]

Ooops, I shouldn't assume every knows this. Ever heard of siesta ? In Spain, most stores/ businesses close down for 2-3 hours in the afternoon and reopen later during the day.

Now they know how to live . The same where my parents are from. If I remember correctly from when I last was in Rome (many years ago), business also closed there as well in the middle of the day.

[Tbites]

So yeah, while the consumer enjoys shopping at their leisure, what about the quality of life of retail employees? Their families? Small business owners and their families too? Sometimes all the money in the world won't make up for the lost time...for quality time. It's a sad reality that we live in an age where consumerism is valued above all else.......
.

I feel the need to respond because you quoted me....I didn't say I supported longer and longer work hours.... but a better quality of life by NOT having to work extended hours.