DISQUS

Chris · 6 months ago

Have you heard of a little company called Walmart? They are all over the world, many of their stores are open 24 hours a day, and they sell all the things you mentioned.

Why should the prices be different late at night? That doesn't make sense to me.

Louis Gray · 6 months ago

Wal-Mart. Are they new?

I recognize there are some solutions found there, but not in every community and not for every product, though they certainly do a good job trying to make sure they do.

guruvan · 6 months ago

This is one very distinct advantage NYC has over SF. When I lived in San francisco, I simply couldn't believe that there were only about 3 places in the entire city to get something to eat after 2am.

As population density increases so do general commercial hours of operation (I have no scientific evidence of this of course). You start to see this more and more I believe.

I would probably pay extra for some services myself. But I have also expected my employers to allow for the time to take care of necessities in the course of a work day (but I don't work hourly shifts either).

And while New York is open 24hours a day, the Ciy of Berkeley has an ordinance that shuts most businesses down at midnight. This is a shame to me. shopping at night is, to me, one of the signs of a true modern metropolis.

Unfortunately the only place to shop late in most of the US is WalMart. but they're open all night.

And one more thing: If you can't leave your work during the shopping hours, aren't you a prisoner to someone else's schedule then too?

Louis Gray · 6 months ago

You brought up Berkeley. Their shut-down ordinance drove me nuts when I was a student there. And students are notorious for keeping crazy hours.

Sue Anne · 6 months ago

I do wish things were open later. But, then again I wish the whole world started later. I prefer getting to work between 10 - 11 am, but that is so late to other people.

Duncan Riley · 6 months ago

You need to move to Melbourne. One local supermarket down the street is 24 hours, the other opens 6am-midnight. I can drive 10minutes up the road to a 24 hour department store. Average pub here: 3am. Bottle shop: 10pm-midnight. The casino never closes, as I once found out :-) Having said that, when I lived in Western Australia, the stores closed at 6, and didn't open on Sunday (mostly).

What you're describing though isn't necessarily a cost problem, but a demand and regulation problem. In many places (I'm presuming its the same there) Government regulation restricts opening hours. Where deregulated trading hours exists, it's simple demand side economics: is it worth our while opening after hours/ late? To give you an example, a number of shopping centers (malls) open here 24/7 for days leading up to Christmas, because the demand is there, but not the rest of the year.

To answer the paying more question, you need to consider the broader marginal cost of opening then. Just because we might be willing to pay more doesn't necessarily mean that the demand will be big enough to cover the costs of opening.

centernetworks · 6 months ago

louis - come visit me - we can get anything you want here 24 hrs a day - and you can get most of it delivered anytime as well :)