Evening hours

[J Phipps TN]

I have been out of town for the past week and while trying to catch up on my Grumble reading, I ran across a post where the new business owner was opening his shop but only in the evenings.

I'm now curious about this, How many of you have late night hours and does it work well with your customers.

Seems to me that it would be a perfect solution to the comment "I can't seem to get there before you close".

I am condsidering this for at least one night a week and I would love to hear from those who do it or have done it in the past.

Thanks

[JbNormandog]

I worked at one shop that regularly closed at 7:00 and on thursdays would close at 9:00. It was across the street from a train station that brought commuters from New York home at all hours of the night.

We would get the occasional pickup from someone but for the most part it was done for production time and do it yourself framers.

A larger shop (corners) would stay til 9:00 every night but not much came in after the ususal dinner hours. (I think they did it for production time as well)

[Val]

I'm often in my shop evenings (nearly every night lately). Normal closing at 6. But while I'm here, the neon OPEN sign stays on. We're right in the middle of town, but I rarely get customers in, except friends who "drove by and saw the light on" and come in to visit. But that's just here, not a lot of traffic in the evenings.

[wpfay]

I was once located in a "town center" area with other retail and restaurants. The merchant's association decide it might be beneficial to stay open late one night a week, so we gave it a try (supported by group advertising and posted notices). Our experience was that there was no increase in business for the frame shop. Some of the other merchants got a bit of business, but not enough to sustain interest. We figured all the people in the area were in the restaurants (the parking lots were all full).

If you are going with the flow on this, it might work. If there are people in the area shopping after hours, if there is some kind of precident or synergy. If you are banking on changing peoples habits, I would reconsider.
Our only success (in getting warm bodies in the shop) at after hours business was when we would have an art opening. They were of mixed success, and we probably broke even overall. Amazing how many new friends you have when the wine is pouring.

[DTWDSM]

I am in a mall so my hours really don't matter here since 99% of you are not in the same situation but here is my 2 cents.....

It all depends on where you are located, as in who are your neighbors and what are their hours. If you are next to a restaurant, big box, ect., you better be open the same hours that they are.

This past weekend I was at a meeting in Chicago and the same question was asked of me and the person said that they didn't want to work past 5 or 6pm because they had to do that in their past career. I asked them who their typical customer was and they started out with higher income working family and I stopped them there, I asked them how can a high income working person shop with them if they are only open when that person is working? Huh? they replied.

I currently am open at least 10-9, 363 days a year and if/when I would move out of our mall, I would keep pretty much the same hours, if anything I would maybe close an hour earlier depending on the location and who my neighbors were.

[seido]

So here is how it went for us when we tried staying open at night...

We are just feet away from an upscale and very busy Italian restaurant. Couples on their way to dinner would stop in, the wives would "just love" a piece and then the husbands, who could care less about the art would say, "c'mon, we have a reservation, let's go!"...fast forward 1-2 hours the same couple would come in after too much wine and the comment about the same piece would be, (wife)"my kid can do better than that with one hand tied behind his back! (husband) Lets go, the valet just brought up the car"!

...and a pleasant evening to you too!

We don't stay open at night any more. And...as for openings. We do a few of them but they usually bring in the same freeloaders every time, who can smell a free glass of wine from 2 miles away!

10-6 six days a week is enough.

Joel

[EllenAtHowards]

We are open 9:30-6pm Mon-Sat, closed on Sunday and open until 8pm on Wednesdays. It is generally a waste of time, but there is always something to do so we make good use of the quiet time. And every once in a while, someone will bring in a big job that makes it worth while...

[Dancinbaer]

Originally posted by J Phipps TN:

Seems to me that it would be a perfect solution to the comment "I can't seem to get there before you close".
Thanks I think I'm the person with the new shop you are refering to that is open evenings.

I chose evenings hours for a few reasons:

1) The obvious, I have a full time job besides the shop.
2) When the previous owner worked late during the busy season he would have nearly as many customers as during the day.
3) Being a rural/ farm community most people work during the day.
4) Before buying the shop I asked a few locals and the one lady staff at the Chamber of Commerce, and the family of the previous owner, they all felt the business would work better part-time than full-time.

[Bob Carter]

If you are in a free standing location or a strip mall, staying open will probably be a big waste

But, if you are in a place where evening traffic is self-developing (like a mall or a power center), then it can be powerful

An easy test might be to sit outside after closing and watch how many people come to that are to go shopping.If not many, you sure won't increase that number

Let's face it, most framers are lucky if 5 or 6 people come to them daily in a 10-6 timeframe.

Shoppers need magnets

We framers probably don't even register on the magnometer

[Tim Hayes.]

Hmmmm, location location location !!!

S 12-5
M-T 10-8
F 11-9
S 10-8

"Lifestyle" center (open air) Washington DC suburb
Neighbors: Container Store, Crate & Barrel, Orvis,
Williams-Sonoma, etc.

[BrianInOmaha]

Mon-Thurs 11-8
Fri 11-10
Sat 10-10
Sun 12-6

[Steph]

location is definitely the answer. I'm on a busy road that is growing in leaps and bounds...mostly professionals in a former hoouse like myself. My traffic is a direct reflection of what surrounds me. Tried staying open until 7 on night a week in the beginning, huge waste of time, but I got a lot of framing done. Now its:
M 9:30-4 (stay till 5;30 many times)
t-f 9:30-5:30
sat 9:30-3
sun closed

many times I'll stay on Sat until 5...but during tourist season unless I'm busy no sense staying open past 1. Once track starts, post time is 1...thats were everyone is, might as well go home and jump i n the pool!