Should Glasgow Shops Open Later?, Plan could boost city centre economy Options

[catherine berrie]

Great idea, we have to keep up with the rest of the world.Go to America, they cater for the customer.

[Elma]

In most of Canada too. The Wal-Mart in our closest town is open till 10 p.m. 7 nights a week. I have just realized that our store, I am a partner with my daughter and son-in-law, is open 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Monday to Saturday and 12 noon to 9 p.m. on Sunday. We retail books, toys, puzzles, greeting cards, paper goods and also DVD rentals. We employ staff on shifts to cover the hours and pay more than the minimum wage!

[**marionf**]

I agree with boots,opening till 9pm is a better idea.Where I live there are 24hr stores eg.Walmart the same corp. that owns ASDA..

[ayrforce1]

My wife works for a major High St. employer. There have been a considerable number of redundancies recently , especially among management. I have seen nothing in the media regarding this, possibly because the employer is one of the new governments quick fix darlings.
My wife has not had a wage rise for around 3 years, and her management position was made redundant to be replaced by a newly created position which will give her less hours and a lesser hourly rate. This is a major cut to her wage, but the alternative was redundancy , at legal minimum payment. She has worked 5 days over 7 for years, late working to set up sales and stocktaking, and working on the likes of Boxing Day. Many shop staff are on minimum wage, they won`t benefit from this, hours will either be restructured or low paid part time staff will be taken on.
We don`t live or work in Glasgow but late high street shopping has been on the go for years , especially at the festive period , and shops in our town gain little if any for the extension.
Most of us have 2 days off work, when we could shop, 24 hour supermarkets are commonplace nowadays, do you really need stores to be open longer or is it the norm that "I want it now".
If you know anyone who works in a shop ask them how busy they have been recently, ask them how many of their customers use the shop merely as a showroom or fitting room , then go home and buy the item on the internet.
We wanted pubs to be open all hours, in my town from 10am is normal even on a Sunday, yet many will not cover their costs a considerable amount of the time, the shortfall being made up by the weekend trade.
I can remember when shops were closed a half day midweek, and same on a Saturday , and no Sunday shopping.
Do you really need this?

[GG]

Reading the comments and reflecting on the original story, I now realise that (doh!) it is the shopping malls who are pushing to open late, not the shops on the streets. From a mall-owner point of view, this makes sense, as they have huge running costs (open or closed) so they will want to maximise revenue, thus the desire to open later.

The problem with this – allowing malls to open later – is that it will not improve the atmosphere on Sauchiehall Street, Buchanan Street or Argyle Street. Customers will likely drive to the St Enoch or Buchanan Galleries car parks and then proceed directly to and from the mall, without ever setting foot on any of the streets. The increased footfall on the 'Golden Z' of streets will be minimal ... unless you count the shop workers whose family lives will be inconvenienced.

In fact, if malls open later then entertainment and eating establishments located on the city's streets could actually suffer as a result as customers could be 'pulled' from those establishments into the restaurants, pubs and cinemas located (or planned to be located) in the malls. Thus, the overall effect would be that, rather than becoming streets buzzing with activity over a longer period, Glasgow's high streets would actually suffer a further decline as customers and revenue went elsewhwere.

And to finish my wee rant , I think that we have to remember that these malls (St Enoch and Buchanan Galleries) represent transnational companies in the business of competing with other big companies which own the Glasgow Fort, Silverburn and Braehead ... they are not actually much interested in the evening ambience of the city's high streets!

Glasgow city centre's problem is that it is surrounded by too many out-of-town shopping malls pulling customers away. Add to that the rise of Internet shopping, and you can understand Selfridges' reluctance to commit to a site in the Merchant City.

GG.

[ayrforce1]

Just to clarify the shop my wife works in is in a mall on a high street. The company she works for have shops on the High Street itself . They will also have shops in most if not all out of town shopping centres. The shop she works in is leased as most are so who gains most from extended hours.

[Melody]

I wonder when exactly shopping became the leisure persuit that it is today? Remember when we went to the shops when we needed to buy something?

[ashfield]

I wonder when exactly shopping became the leisure persuit that it is today? Remember when we went to the shops when we needed to buy something?

Aye Melody, but a lot of people go to the shoping malls to keep warm because they can't afford to heat their houses

[Melody]

Sadly probably some truth in that Ash.

[Lennox]

I am surprised also that the shops have not come around to the idea of staying open later , but I can't understand for the life of me why people want to go to a Walmart at 2.00am .. I would like to see shops open till 7 , 8 or 9 pm just like here .


Meldoy & Ash, you are both right here , a lot of the homless hang out in the malls in the cold weather

[angel]

I wonder when exactly shopping became the leisure persuit that it is today? Remember when we went to the shops when we needed to buy something?

Melody ,I think the same applies to day,we still go to the shops
when we need something "well I do" and I will go to the malls in my area ,primarily to catch up with old friends,have a coffee and hopefully a good laugh, socialize I guess, but there is always that chance that I just might find something that I fancy,

[Melody]

Angel, what I meant was that going to the shops used to be treated as a necessity rather than the leisure persuit that it is today. In the past we would have met friends for a coffee and whatever separately not necessarily to shop at the same time. I feel that we are treated simply as consumers these days and shops are opening long enough hours already. Goodness knows nobody will have more money to spend in the current climate of cuts. We seem to wander around these days looking at rubbish that we neither need or want. Don't get me wrong I'm as guilty as anyone else.

[*maggie28*]

Glasgow is supposed to be a major city in Britain but shops closing for 5.30pm says otherwise.

I prefer shopping with extended hours as then there is no rush to get what you want. Working and fitting in all the other shopping duties is a nightmare at times.

Longer opening hours for most business is a must in major cities. This includes banks and post offices.

[*Janette Docherty*]

Absolutely. As a multi-cultural, cosmopolitain city I believe we should have the shops and coffee shops in the city centre open until at least 9.00pm. It would create more job opportunities, plus allow tourists the benefit of being able to buy more souvenirs and have a rest after shopping in the city centre department stores. In other countries where the shops are open late there is more of casual air of browsing, rather than having to rush around worrying about closing time. Shopping for something for a night out is stressful enough without having to clock watch and it would benefit workers in the city centre who have to work later with little time to spare.

[wee davy]

I truly have a lot of sympathy for the retail work force.

It's not only happening in Glasgow, but up and down the land - and a great many families will be adversely affected by their employers continuing to ride roughshod over them.

Somebody mentioned Walmart.
Since they have owned Asda, they have stealthily introduced over 60 of their worlwide abusive employment practices here in the UK. They have since become an industry benchmark. (Walmart - the same company which was found to be party to a policy (in the US) of indemnifying them for 'wastage' of employees - ie taking out a life policy on their employee's life, without their knowledge - or consent.

One of their more clever ones, has been recently for their employees to agree to work bank holidays for flat rate, whenever they fall on their shift days.

Believe me, the sharp practices of the 19th Century are slowly but surely, all returning - only THIS time its via CORPORATE abuse.