‘Tis true, sadly. One can only imagine what the world would be like if people with a little common sense were in charge. But, let’s start small, shall we? In fact, let’s leave the big stuff up to someone else who has more time and more brain cells than I to look at this on a larger scale.
Let’s look at my situation, at the place where I work. I think I may have talked about this grand *sarcasm* place of business, called Longs Drugs. The one place where potentially smart people become morons the second they enter the door. Or just where all the dumb people like to congregate (with a few exceptions, of course).
This store which I have worked at for the past few years during school summer and winter breaks has been open until 10 pm for some time. Used to be open ’til 9 pm at one point, but the hours were extended, which isn’t too bad, since it’ll stay fairly busy for a while during the evening. Now, it’s open until 12 am, everyday. This store is in a town called Newbury Park, and the section we are in is basically rich, white suburbia (all the housing communities behind the store are anyway).
How many people in their mid 30’s and later with a 6 figure salary and a job that requires them to be at work at 5 or 6 am stay up late, until, say, midnight? Not too many I know. This town, city, whatever, has absolutely NO night life to speak of. Like I said, rich, white suburbia. Corporate for this company decided to extend our stores hours, including the other Longs store in town, until midnight, like I said, and I seriously doubt they even looked at any sort of info to make that decision. I doubt they looked at sales, the demographics, nothing to come to their decision.
I just finished my first closing shift since the change, and how many customers did we have after 9:45 pm? None. Zero. Zilch. Nada. NO ONE. I think we average about .5-.75 people in that two hour period. Hardly worth the utilities and the hourly pay for this sort of thing, is it?
This is why this world is run by morons. I doubt they called up the store managers, talked to the employees, did any kind of customer survey, to see if anyone thinks it’s a good idea, or if anyone would find it more convenient with extended hours. Me, I live in this frickin town (4 months of the year) and I can tell you that this place basically dies before, if not at, 10 pm. Maybe not on a Friday or Saturday night. Even then, how many of you think “hmmm, you know, I could go for some aspirin” in between going to movies, parties, whatever? (FYI no parties around here, no clubs, no nothing. Hence, no night life). I mean, damn, we’re a couple of miles away from the freeway, so it’s not as if anyone will see the sign and decide to stop in.
Bastards.
