We Close When We Say

Tonight I ran into two situations where despite posted hours, places closed on their own terms. First was at the King of Prussia mall. We had gone there, my family and I, to celebrate my sister's 20th birthday by having dinner at The Cheesecake Factory. After we finished eating, we rushed back over to The Plaza to hit a few stores before the mall closed. At 8:50, with 10 minutes left until the mall closed, the owner or manager of Old Navy locked up. Despite the store and the mall hours being listed as a 9 PM closing time, this store shut its gate 10 minutes early. I am not going to gripe too much because I had no intentions of going in there, but there has to be some monetary loss there as well as a just a poor business decision. Shoppers are typically more spontaneuous and stupid when short on time. People are much more likely to buy something without taking much time when they are given the "10 minutes until we close" warning. Closing early means you miss out on that family that was going to run in a just buy something without spending much time thinking about it. Sure this isn't going to grately effect the company's profit margin, but it's still money lost.

Later, friends of mine and I met at a bowling alley. We knew we only had until 11:30 and it was already 20 after 10. This is not a terrible amount of time, but it was enough. We walked into the place and went to pay for a few games and shoes. We were met with a slightly rude "you know we close in a little over a half hour." The hours are hanging right behind this employee which clearly say that the place is open until 11:30 Monday through Friday. I responded by pointing this out to the kid. He responds by saying, "we only stay open late if we have a league." Essentially saying - look, it's late and since there is nothing official going on, we are closing up shop early so I can get home." Again, they place lost business because what would have been 2 games per person switched to one. In the long run, like with Old Navy, they don't notice. But it is not good practice to advertise your hours and then neglect to tell people about the clause that says "these hours are only valid if the people who pay more to be here show up. Otherwise, we'll kick you out when we get tired."

Maybe the angle to take is the vauge hours. Parks typically go with "park hours are sun up to sun down." Or "we close in the late evening." If you don't tell people an exact time, then you can make your own call on when to close. But if you have posted hours, you should honor them.

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