As we get closer to another Christmas holiday (yeah I know. Again? Already? Didn’t we just do this last year??) We have those people who get to spend time with their loved ones.. And you have those people who are stuck at work for whatever reason. While the reason varies, people are still away from their families. Now, I’m not saying we shouldn’t have doctors, nurses, police and other essential services working on Christmas. They are necessary. But really, is it going to kill you if you don’t have milk for less than 24 hours? And if it is, you have far more serious problems than I’m willing to get into here.
So this is the start of what will probably end up being a yearly thing, even after I get out of the hell that is retail convenience. I’ve been saying it verbally now for four years, but this is the first time writing it down. Convenience stores and retail in general should not be open Christmas. Period. Stock up on Christmas Eve or suffer till Boxing Day. If your forget something, tough gingerbread. We’ve become too accustomed to convenience. Forgot something? Just go to the corner store. It’s open, even at 3am. Of course, someone has to be THERE at 3am for the people who can’t remember to pick up what they need when they’re out, but I digress.
The only people who benefit from stores being open on holidays are the people who forget to get what they need and the shareholders of the company, if it’s public. The operator doesn’t win. The staff doesn’t win. The operator has to pay out wages regardless, more if the person actually works on the day in question. Still has to pay holiday pay out. It gets really expensive paying someone $20/hour to babysit an empty space. The staff member, while getting that extra money the government immediately takes their bite out of, has to stay in the store and work. On a midnight, that gets quiet. I should know. Where I am there are nights where I don’t see people for three hours. That’s $30.75 out of the operator’s pocket with nothing coming in.
Of course, the people who make the decisions about whether the store is open or not hasn’t actually worked in the store for years, if ever. It’s unlikely they’ve even worked a retail environment period. And of course, because they’re the big wigs, THEY get to spend Christmas at home with their families, while the people their decisions affect have to suffer.
I still remember when the decision was crapped out four years ago that we needed to be open regular hours on Christmas. Their reasoning was “Gas stations are open 24 hours. Why shouldn’t we be?” Good reasoning except for one tiny, miniscule part: We.. Don’t... Have.. Gas.. Pumps.. Yes, there are some locations that have gas pumps attached to them, but that’s a small portion of the company’s stores. So really, the decision comes down to corporate greed. They figure they’re not making enough off the backs of the drones working the hives already by being open till midnight Christmas Eve and 9-5 Christmas Day, so they needed to change that. They decided that they needed more money. More profit. Problem is, they’re the only ones making anything off it.
Where I’m from, if you forgot to stock up on things before Christmas, you were S.O.L. till Boxing Day. The convenience store we had was open 364 days a year. They didn’t even open Christmas Day, so the people could spend time with their families. As it should be.
Now, we may never be able to go back to that time, where things were actually CLOSED on holidays, but it would be nice to be able to get reduced hours. You do not need a place to be open 24 hours on Christmas. If you do, then you need to learn to plan better, or to anticipate where you might run short on something. Until that happens, maybe I should hibernate for December. That sounds more and more appealing as I think about it..
No comments:
Post a Comment