In recent months we’ve all experienced stores and restaurants with limited hours, and supermarkets may be next. According to reports, some grocery retailers are moving away from 24-hour operations.
Strategic Resources Group’s Burt Flickinger III cites a shortage of people willing to work retail because of Covid-19 and public health concerns, coupled with extended unemployment benefits as part of the problem. He also noted that there has been a record amount of shoplifting across the country, leading many employees to request daytime hours.
And signs indicate that the trend will continue into the future because fewer people are making in-store purchases.
“Market leaders like Giant Food are moving to more pickup and delivery,” Flickinger said. “The business went from 95% to 97% shopping in store to about 60% to 65%. They feel they can reasonably handle all the customer demand over the course of 17 or 18 hours versus 24 hours.”
In addition, some stores are feeling the effects of rising costs for electricity and raw materials. Keeping shorter hours is one way of mitigating those costs.