# Hours of Operation?



## cottagecraftsmen (Oct 28, 2006)

This is mainly for those with a retail shop, or at the least, a business with a walk in location. What are your hours of operation?
I am doing t's as part of a vinyl sign shop. Presently, I'm there 8:30-5:30 Mon-Thurs and 8:30-5 on Fridays. I used to do Saturday 9-4, but gave up on that a year ago. I'm thinking of going back to Saturdays and going 8-6 every day. I'm not in a high visibility retail location. Next door is a funeral parlor. Across the street is a small factory. On the other side of me is a plumbing wholesaler, where the pro's shop. This gets me a lot of assorted jobs from plumbers. Further down the street is a bus depot. Further up the street is somewhat slummy residential areas, a wholesale bakery (no retail counter) and a bar & grill.
I have a fair amount of walk in traffic, most people wouldn't consider this area dangerous, though there has been a few late night brawls at or near the bar lately.
I'm generally in the shop 30-60 minutes past closing catching up. I have no employees most of the time. I have a part time worker on call once in a while.


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## T-BOT (Jul 24, 2006)

I think that will vary from retailer to retailer depends.

In class A and B ..... malls according to the Lease agreements you are required to be open as per the mall regulations, like 9-9 mon-sat pus Sundays.

On street locations is mostly all up to you. Saturdays are good shopping days since most are off work and thats when they can visit the retailer etc.


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## Jasonda (Aug 16, 2006)

Have you tried advertising your tees at the bus depot? I'm a regular bus rider, and sometimes I have to spend quite a lot of time waiting at the bus station between transfers. So if there are ads stuck around here and there, I usually read them out of sheer boredom.


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## John S (Sep 9, 2006)

The first question is who are you trying to attract? Think about your target customers. 
The sign shop is more business traffic. 8-5 or 9-6 would be typical. What are the hours of the plumbing store? Are they even open on Saturday?

Are your t-shirts for business or retail? 
Some shoppers for retail are working 9-5 so they can't come to your store until they get off work. Their prime shopping time is 5-7 (or lunch time if they work close to you). Stay at home Mom's drop the kids off at school and go shopping. Are you near any grocery stores or malls?
If you want to grow your retail, your location could be holding you back. Can you move to a higher traffic area to get more 'Mom' traffic?

Start keeping a log of foot traffic and sales. My computer tracks sales by the hour so I can look and see how many, how much. My traffic peaks 11-3 and 5-7. I'm open Monday-Sat. 9-8


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## T-BOT (Jul 24, 2006)

John S said:


> Start keeping a log of foot traffic and sales. My computer tracks sales by the hour so I can look and see how many, how much. My traffic peaks 11-3 and 5-7. I'm open Monday-Sat. 9-8


yeah, that is important to have a POS system (even a cash register) that can track all aspects of your sales. Also, to be in retail as a general rule you do need the long hours.

Now as a side note  , there is a gal here in town that only opens to the public from 2-5 pm teu-friday.... no joke. Talk about executive hrs. She has a good clientelle already and uses a website to handle a lot of the order taking so people only go to her store for pick ups or to look at samples. Lucky girl.


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## cottagecraftsmen (Oct 28, 2006)

About 85% of my business is B to B for shirts. Probably even more than 90% for vinyl signs. It would be nice to increase retail traffic, and that is the intention, but my expectations are limited. At the bus depot, which has a ticket agent 7 days a week and a small waiting room for Shortline/Coach USA passenger's only, a coffee shop and a interchange with the city bus system, they have six 17x22 posters for advertising inside and outside the building. They are $150 a month, plus a $50 "production fee" if they print the poster. It isn't the bus company or the coffee shop that owns the property, it is owned by the city. I did one for for 3 months, supplied my own poster, for "safety green" t-shirts the 1st month and a more generic "personalized" shirts, signs, banners etc the second and third month. Sold about $500 worth of stuff as a result of the ads, so it turned out to be a losing deal by about $300.
I park my station wagon (a still clean 1999 Ford Taurus), nicely lettered, at the municipal lot for the bus depot. It stinks to walk a block and a half to your vehicle in bad weather, but the advertising is free.


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## Jasonda (Aug 16, 2006)

Ah ok. Here the bus station advertising is free - people just put up flyers, the city takes them down, people put up more. 

Good to see that you're trying everything, though!


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## Squirts (Feb 17, 2006)

John S said:


> Start keeping a log of foot traffic and sales. My computer tracks sales by the hour so I can look and see how many, how much. My traffic peaks 11-3 and 5-7. I'm open Monday-Sat. 9-8


Agree 100% 
The bulk of our business is Small business and organizations...seems that most of them tend to come in after 5 pm... Normal scenerio is they will call during the day...ask their questions... then show up after 5 pm to actually place the order...
Their is also a traffic spike around lunchtime as well as UPS makes their delivery around lunchtime so we open at Noon... and close around 8 pm to accomidate all the after 5 pm customers.... Even though this works for us your location and target market will dictate your hours as was already said in other replies...


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## Twinge (Apr 26, 2005)

If you feel you should be open Saturdays, one thing you might consider doing is being open Tuesday-Saturday instead of Monday-Friday. A local haircutter does this and it always seemed like a good idea to me; be careful to avoid working yourself TOO much or you might get burnt out fast.


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## instrumental (Dec 28, 2006)

we just changed our hours to stay open until 8 p.m. during the week, we open at 8 in the morning, and we are open on saturdays 10-3...we decided to stay open just to make things easier for people in california(we're in brooklyn) and some people who needed to pick up jobs after work, we're a screenprinting company so we're not really dealing with foottraffic


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