Retail Watchers

klkla wrote: ↑September 7th, 2020, 8:40 am Interesting about Florida. Cases are down from their peek in July but hardly under control. It’s really not that hard to put a friggin mask on is it?

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In FLORIDA???

YESSSSSSSSSSSSSS!

A couple Walmart stores in my area (Philly burbs) seemed to have returned (or increased I should say) to a 10 PM closing time. This only seems to be their largest busiest locations..the rest are still stuck on the 8:30 closing times.

The Walmart closest to me just switched to a 10 PM closing time from the previous 8:30 PM time. Finally, after all this time they are at least open decent hours especially when Target opens until 10 PM. The only other Walmart in the county that closes early is the Neighborhood Market in San Ramon, California.

The store was surprisingly uncrowded. There was only 1 cashier open and of course the self checkouts. The staffing at this store is minimal. I am surprised that they could not spare 1 cashier to keep the store open until 10 PM all this time. McDonald's was open late as well. However, there were only a few customers and indoor dining is still banned in this county.

Kohls has moved to 10 AM to 9 PM daily and Macys has moved to 11 AM to 9 PM Monday-Saturday.

JC Penney continues in its state of cluelessness with 11 AM - 7 PM Monday-Saturday hours. Dillards continues with short hours as well.

There have been a handfull of times the past few months where I would have gone out to these places and likely bought a few things, but the 7 PM closing time was just prohibitive with my schedule and I couldn't get there in time. I am glad to see some of them moving back to 9 PM closing times. Sure, Kohls isn't open until 11 PM Friday night anymore as much as I enjoyed that, but I don't think they did much in sales between 10 PM and 11 PM anyway.

Around here, the H-E-B stores that were once 24 hour stores have extended to 1 am. There are even a few sit-down restaurants that have returned to 24 hour operation.

It looks like the few 'straggler' Walmart locations that stuck with the 8:30 PM closings in my area have increased it to 10 PM now.

Went to a Grocery Outlet last night and was booted almost immediately - because they still close at 7 PM due to COVID. Okay... all their other locations around here close at 9, but okay.

Also went to Best Buy yesterday and according to signs on their door, they close at 6 PM. For some reason I thought they were open later. Anyway, I was there close to 6, and there were no closing announcements or similar.

Grocery Outlet stores are run by individual owners and can set their own hours. The ones near me close at 9. Best Buy is 10 AM to 8 PM in the San Francisco Bay Area. However, they are not busy at all. Fry's is still 10 to 7. It is emptier than a Sears store these days.

I also noticed the Walmart Neighborhood Market that was closing at 8:30 PM is now open until 10 PM. The store was always turning away customers just before 8:30. They must have lost many customers to other supermarkets. Now people can shop without feeling so rushed. Recently, the crowds have become even larger than ever. People probably are becoming more frugal.

Walmart is planning to change hours again. They will open until 11 PM starting around the end of November. This might relieve the overcrowding at their stores during the day.

Surprisingly, most Ralphs have returned to their pre-COVID operating hours (opening at 5AM/6AM, closing at 12AM/1AM; some stores in/near LA stay open later). Heck, even the stores near me that closed at 12AM prior to COVID have been extended to 1AM. I had envisioned that midnight would become the new norm, so I'm humbling surprised. Is Southern California the first Kroger division to return to regular operating hours?

Albertsons/VONS have standardized their store operating hours at 6AM-11PM (there may be a few exceptions). Previously, stores near me closed between 10PM-3AM. This appears to be a permanent change, as they've updated their store signage.