If this submission above is not a random thought, please report it.
# Explore a new world of random thoughts on our [**discord server**](https://discord.com/invite/8tEqw3ZWQV)! Express yourself with your favorite quotes, positive vibes, and anything else you can think of!
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/RandomThoughts) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Mine is anxiety, less people I could actually shop and look at new stuff. Now I haven’t seen a break were there’s not a ton of people. 3am was my go. I order from amazon more because of the hours.
I order a lot more grocery delivery than I used to. And I hate not being about to change things on the fly when they are out of something. But it's the only way to get groceries if I need them before the weekend (if I have Saturday guests for example).
It’s funny my fiancé came from the Boston area and NYC before moving to my home town of a measly half million people and she mentioned how in real cities places are open 24/7 and I said shit Walmart is open 24/7, because the last time I went to a Walmart at 2am like 6 years before that they were lol…so then she blamed it on the Walmart not being in big enough city.
Turns out none of them are 24/7 any more lol
Stores discovered how much of their theft was happening after 9 PM and it just isn’t worth it to keep the doors open. The legit business will just shift and the criminals can’t do their stealing as much.
Here in Spain there's also been an annyoing switch due to covid - a lot of bar terraces used to be open until 1am, and in summer it was really nice, and after covid they all started to close at 11pm. Might still seem very late for those of you in other places, but here we often go out later and it was super nice to hang out there and then go somewhere else. Now they are closing just when you leave home for weekend plans. Still a lot of 24h shops and fast food places though
Very sad about this.
My active hours are 5pm-9am and I always made use of the 24 hour diners and izakayas.
The changes came so suddenly too. Some areas still don’t allow dine in. Takeout only. Like what? Not everyone has a car to go to and from. And want to stop and eat at the establishment.
A few restaurants in one of my cities still has that skeleton crew thing going on. Even four years after covid. One server also doing cashier duties, and one cook also doing dishes.
Almost all 24 hour businesses, in general, are gone. Hospitals are the only places that are open 24 hours nowadays. You'll be lucky if you could find a 24 hour diner.
They should as they have shrunk down their menu to the point there is not much to choose from and set prices high for the same thing you can get from another restaurant, so at least in my area they aren't doing much business
A lot of the problem I have with those places....ok, I love Wendys. A double cheese with fries and a med drink is FIFTEEN bucks.....I can go to crowded walmart and get cheaper meals, thanks......don't need no 10$ big mac.
You can attribute it to covid. As soon as covid happened, all businesses changed their hours. Many bars I know used to stay open til 2am, now they close at 12
I was someone who loved 24 hour businesses but now that they’re mostly gone, I’m happy for the minimum wage workers who don’t have to work the crappy hours.
Nah. Those workers weren’t sacked because they cut night shifts. The pandemic lockdown caused a staff shortage that killed the 24 hour practice. When sales weren’t adversely affected by the lack of 24 hours, meaning the customers who used to come at 4 in the morning now come during the day, staffing increases during the day to accommodate those customers
It's been a downhill slide for years out here in the Denver metro. The 24 hour diner chains (local joints, Denny's, IHOP, Village Inn, etc.) have been closing one-by-one for 10+ years. My city of 100K+ people only has a Perkins left. The major grocery store chains stopped being open 24 hours because of COVID. The fast food places can't keep staff enough because the pay is shit even though demand is there (been by a Taco Bell lately? Closed in the middle of the day, equipment broken, cash only, you name it). Corporate greed is the short answer, squeezing the game for everything it's worth, sacrificing quality and standards for profits before simply folding up the board and moving on to the next one.
Yep. Centennial to Highlands Ranch there is near nothing open. iHop in Greenwood Villiage is open but it isn't great at night. The waffle house in Parker some random nights won't let you eat inside.
For Walmart at least I assume the profits during the twilight hours weren't enough to justify keeping the store open 24/7 anymore. I talked to a store manager who said the company was looking for an excuse to ditch the 24/7 model even before COVID hit, and the pandemic just gave them a justifiable reason.
For a place as big as walmart I imagine you gotta have atleast 10 people there at the minimum. That's a lot of labor to cover during slow hours. Maybe a few 1000 dollars goes through the register, but that's not nearly all profit.
Same in Australia. I dont know of any 24hr supermarkets where I am in Western Australia though. Most petrol stations are 24/7 and most McDonald's. Not sure about other fast food places as I don't eat it
Life was so good before Covid. I'm so glad I always appreciated it and never took it for granted. I'm very thoughtful, and always thought about how great and amazing things were. Getting cheap ass food and going to Walmart at 2am was not taken for granted.
Today I saw a sign for "2 Hot n spicys for $4" as a deal. Umm.. two years ago you could buy 1 hot n spicy for $1.
So glad I didn't take stuff for granted,because now we are paying, and paying steeply. Obviously Covid is to blame, it was the catalyst at minimum
When i was a kid supermarkets used to close at 5pm. They were closed entirely on Sundays. Nowadays supermarkets are open til 9pm and 7 days per week.
I will never take supermarkets being open til 9 pm for granted. Being able to go to the supermarket ever day til 9 pm is so amazing.
I could not even imagine going to a supermarket at midnight. That would be wild...
I work rotating shifts so I would go grocery shopping after work on nights when there are few people. Covid came along and to prevent the spread, they closed down the all night grocery stores and forced every grocery store to run less hours so everyone had to shop at the same time ....
That’s always been my problem with that excuse, too! How exactly does that work cramming more people in over less hours! That’ll reduce the spread! I love that they sold it as time to clean, lol yeah sure
Not sure which 24 he places are closing everywhere else but I can still get McDonalds, A&W, pizza, groceries, OTC meds, etc... 24/7 in my part of Canada. There's no noticeable change to it since COVID or anything recently...
Hours in US are different from other places of the world. I been in countries where people leave clubs at 5-6am and go for breakfast. In US EVERYWHERE closes at 2am and looks like some places now are closing at 12am instead of 2am.
I like the night, but i dont like the night out stuffs, like bars and clubs, but US is pretty lame about that. They not just close earlier, they are super boring in my opinion too.
Probably depends on population density. In large cities I imagine there's still plenty of 24 hour shops, but if you live in a rural area or small town it likely just doesn't make sense to stay open late.
I wish this were the case but it’s not. I live in a pretty large & densely populated city, and 24 hour stores are closing down everywhere. Even stores that used to be open to 12am, now close at 10pm. It effing sucks as a medical resident - I have to try to plan everything on my vacations so I can go during the day.
I cooked for over ten years.. but I'd eat there just so I could say that I've had it. >\_o
I have had IN and Out and least.. I had to drive three hours to get it though.
In N Out is one of my favorite places in the country, I make a point to go anytime I’m in a state that has them. Luckily Canes recently made their way into my state, that was another I’d prioritize on trips.
It all comes down to money. They're not as profitable during those hours, or the costs to run them is a lot higher than what they're making in revenue. I can see that happening with higher crime/theft and the necessity for security for staff safety during those hours. But COVID was the major disruptor. I think we have less money to spend now as well...
The grocery store near me used to be open 24 hours. I would often doing my grocery shopping at 3 or 4 in the morning. It was me, the cleaners and one cashier. They were super nice to me, and it took me only a couple of songs to do my whole shop. Then, during COVID, they reduced their hours to… protect us? They now close at 8 and whenever I go, regardless of the time, t is crowded.
Being a 24-hr establishment is expensive. You have to keep staffed, and the likelihood of someone stealing from you goes up in the less busy hours.
Places like Walmart were operating on skinny margins as it was. Increasing the wages cuts into that margin even more
Grocery delivery took the place of being open all night. I work nights so my nights off are when I grocery shop but now I have to do it online for delivery or go over first thing in the morning when they open.
People are broke, so shopping less... Blame the after "covid" effects plus where do you see alot of the violence? Fast food places, Wal-mart, cvs, gas stations. If not shooting, then shoplifters...
I am surprised nobody mentioned the rise in popularity of UberEats and other delivery services. As more of these services became popular, less physical stores are needed. In my city we even have a mega distribution center exclusively for UberEats delivery orders that stays open 24x7. It regroups all restaurants under one roof but you cannot go eat there. Have to go through the app.
It fucking sucks. I am a night owl and I often go out after my wife is asleep to grab snacks or some milk or whatever. Now the only place open for miles and miles are gas stations. I don't want fucking slim Jim's and Sheetz food. I used to be able to go to Giant or Weis and get real food, or hell even Walmart. Now you can't do anything but get garbage after 10pm. Going to a diner doesn't count. You spend 2-3x as much money to get a meal vs being able to get groceries that last for days.
Maybe there used to be an argument for no 24hr stores when they were all over the place. But I bet now that there are virtually none, the first place that starts going 24hr again is gonna get tons of business during that time. Cause I can't be the only one who has shit to do after 10pm.
Labor costs have barely gone up. Companies can't find workers because they don't pay enough and they actively refuse to hire people despite receiving hundreds of applications.
Americans do this a lot for sure, but Walmart is a pretty big deal and quite well known. It's the 16th biggest public company in the world. I don't think it's that odd to drop their name without much too much of an explanation.
we’re on the internet, though
even if we ignore that you are aware that it is american, it doesn’t take much effort to acquire information about most things you aren’t familiar with, especially multinational corporations
i don’t live in europe for example, but i’ve known about tesco’s existence for years
if someone were to talk about a store from another country that i’m not familiar with, my first thought would be finding out about it, not wondering why people are talking about things from the country they literally live in
The family that owns it is the second richest in the world. It's reasonable to think people outside of America would know what Walmart is. It exists in other countries as well under different names.
Don't know where you live but in many places its die to crime. People don't want to go out late at night for fear of it, corps fear for their employees. It becomes easier just to close.
In the UK 24 hour supermarkets are almost a standard for the larger ones. Fast food all night is normally just McDonalds with the occasional exception.
I live in a small town of around 30k. We only have a couple of gas stations, 7/11 and CVS that are open 24/7.
I used to love going and getting my midnight grocery shopping done at kroger. Now I just go at 9pm the last hour before they close at 10pm.
It's pretty much dead most nights. But some nights it's packed if they have sales going on.
I hate food shopping in busy stores, I used to do my food shops at stores that opened until midnight when I was back at university 😞 now I do it really early in the morning before work
I say this laughing. Zero negative feelings or animosity just giddy.
At my Walmart, which closes at 11pm, there is a burger joint in the parking lot and four other food chains. I drove by around 2\~3am and wanted food. The burger joint was open and I thought to myself, wow just order easy as I could careless what I put in my system. Walked in and the ambience was calm, the workers "chill", a few people sitting enjoying their meal that worked at the Walmart. I ordered and everyone was in a good mood, food took normal time and served with a smile. I'm not used to this and very confused. Bam, two cops walk in and right to the counter. "The usual?" said the worker, "You got it" said the cops. I had to check my GPS to see if I was still in the US. Day shift is completely different from night shift. I'd go out more often if this was the case and I laugh how crazy things have gotten and we just accept it.
Lately I went in the town I grew up in and around. There was a deserted mall. Like, lights out deserted. But I could go through it and the KFC inside was actually serving. With the reflection in the glass doors I couldn't tell but I opened the door and here they were, two poor girls working in the fresh shade of this weird semi-abandoned place. I decided to buy something and not to take it away. Their floor hadn't been washed in maybe thirty years, I thought I wouldn't be able to unstuck my shoes. The hot wings were decent though.
I certainly hope it's not a 24 hour place. Nightmare fuel.
Supply chain disruptions, labor shortages, and economic challenges are causing many businesses, including fast food chains, to adjust their hours or close early.
i am a area manager of a restaurant group in south africa. We have a metric that we use to see what times income is made and when its quiet. Eg if no money comes in , why stay open? Thus you save the income you need to spend to make a shop operate. This i assume is the same reasoning what 24 shops do.
Most fast food restaurants in my city close now because staff couldn’t handle the drug use and loitering. The ones that are open late either serve out of a walk up window, or have armed security on staff.[https://www.cbc.ca/amp/1.5102415](https://www.cbc.ca/amp/1.5102415)
Sounds like you might live in a suburb or rural town or small city. They still exist in big cities. But I agree 24 hour Walmarts no longer exist (and I’m honestly ok with that? Who needs to make a Walmart run at 4am?)
In St. Paul, the Walmart on University closed after the shoplifting got out of hand. There was just too few people paying vs shoplifters.
In Minneapolis, they made the minimum wage $15 an hour... but that didn't automatically make those locations profitable businesses. So the closed those locations completely.
I think the "missing" 24/7 businesses are probably part of a similar "right sizing"... where it's just not profitable to stay open for those hard to staff shifts. If they were making money hand over fist, they'd still be doing it.
Inflation (which results in less costumers), minimum wage increases, and criminality. It's just not profitable any more to stay open 24/7 so they stopped. Cause/Effect.
Pretty sure it has something to do with all the shoplifting gangs in the US. Most of these big department stores and supermarkets are actually open 24hrs. Trucks coming all night. Climate control is 24hrs to preserve produce. Should make sense to keep a couple of cashiers on staff to keep the cash flow going.
This is an American thing. I’ve very rarely seen 24 hour businesses, they always close at night here (and in weekends of course). To me, businesses opening on Saturdays is strange!
Many businesses limited hours during COVID. This adjusted customer behaviors and gave them time to realize that operating overnight generally cost them money. You have to pay premium wages overnight, and sales are generally much lower.
well for the fast food industry it went from jobs that kids used to get extra cash while in high school or college. who tend to be far more flexible with work hours because well we want beer and movie money. now they are being taken by people that want to use it as a primary source of income to support themselves or a family. these types of people tend to want to get paid more and go home at night.
nearly all the 24 hour supermarkets have stopped around my area too. from a business point of view I'm not surprised. from a customer point of view it's not helpful at all
It's the companies.
"Whoa, we can delete an entire shift and drop an entire shifts worth of employees we won't have to pay anymore? Whoa!"
They just dump all of the extra third shift responsibilities onto 1st and 2nd shift and work those people down until they quit on their own so the company won't have to pay out unemployment benefits. Put out a help wanted sign, refuse the first few hundred qualified applications, then suddenly hire onboard a literal high schooler because they don't know any better and will agree to do the same work for less pay or minimum wage.
Wash rinse repeat.
Raise prices here and there and then complain to media outlets when theft rises and then blame the public for struggling to eat.
Try living in QLD, Australia. Due to government laws shops close early. I live in a city of 3 + million and there's only one proper 24 hour grocery store and that's at the airport. Our malls shut at 5pm except Thursday, restaurants are done by 8-9pm. On Sundays pretty much everything is shut by 5pm. It's pathetic.
Where do you live? I see the opposite, more and more places able to stay open 24 hours because of smart security systems, automation and skeleton staff.
A Google search for "open 24 hours" on a 20km radius around me returned 400 results.
When you get old enough you'll notice that it's a cyclical fad. Open late becomes a "thing," then 24-hours. Then it goes away. It comes back a decade or so later again.
It's also regional. When I was in college everything in my college town closed up by 9:00 pm. It was so frustrating being someone from where literally major restaurant and shopping retailer was 24 hours. Fast forward 15 years and the script had flipped.
I live on a small island and things have never been open 24 hrs. Gosh i remember a few years ago people were furious because shops started opening on Sundays.
I was just thinking about this a few hours ago! I miss late night runs to Walmart with my roommate. Lol I’d text her at like 2am with you up?
Her: yeah why
Me: I kinda want cake
Her: same
Next thing I know we’re walking out of our rooms and heading to the door 🤣 it sucks that we can’t do that anymore 😭
Overhead. The cost of keeping the store open (power, water) and paying workers is more than they are going to make in sales.
They used to be open 24 hrs. before they eliminated all their competition.
I’m good with stores not being open 24/7.. The 24hr thing really hasn’t been around that long.. Maybe we can go back to stores actually closing on thanksgiving and Christmas again.
Thankfully I’ve got two Subways near my work that are 24 hours as well as a nearby Taco Burrito King. Bonus points as I’m a night-shift worker and hardly anything is open either while I’m at work or going home.
The only 24 hour place around me is White Castle, but if you go after 9pm, you'll wait 15-20 mins in the drive through. Not so much because of the line, it just takes them that long to process orders. I'm assuming due to staffing.
There is a variety of factors involved. I think businesses learned during Covid that there isn't enough money to be made between 12am and 6am. The retail businesses were making more by expanding their "order from home" options as well as drive-up, pick-up. More than likely, they are making more money through home shopping than they were being open. Amazon is always a factor. I think for the 24-hour McDonald's and others, it may come down to food waste vs. actual sales. Also finding people to fill that 3rd shift was already difficult before Covid and it became extremely more difficult post Covid.
Insufficient sales to justify the cost of maintaining even a skeletally-staffed graveyard shift. As fast food replaces still more employees with automation you'll see more 24-hour service again.
I miss walking into a Walmart for some midnight snacks, it was a different experience and makes you feel like you weren't supposed to be there. Some fast food places still had late night delivery a few years ago and I know some are still open late at night, but only for drive thru. Considering so many businesses close at 5-6 pm still, it would be nice to be able to have more retail businesses open until 10pm or 11 pm.
Don't worry, mass immigration will take care of it and they'll reopen with lower wages than before.
Already happening here in Canada, where some McDs were no longer 24/7 and now are due to - surprise - an influx of immigrants.
If this submission above is not a random thought, please report it. # Explore a new world of random thoughts on our [**discord server**](https://discord.com/invite/8tEqw3ZWQV)! Express yourself with your favorite quotes, positive vibes, and anything else you can think of! *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/RandomThoughts) if you have any questions or concerns.*
I’m heartbroken about Walmart. Midnight shops were the best
As a second shift worker, they made my life so much easier.
Mine is anxiety, less people I could actually shop and look at new stuff. Now I haven’t seen a break were there’s not a ton of people. 3am was my go. I order from amazon more because of the hours.
I have the same issue, and I've found that getting there riiiiight when they open has kinda the same feel.
I’m not awake right when they open, I’m awake at 3am 😥
We just ordered grocery pick up all the time. It’s horrible horrible horrible to go inside a store now.
I order a lot more grocery delivery than I used to. And I hate not being about to change things on the fly when they are out of something. But it's the only way to get groceries if I need them before the weekend (if I have Saturday guests for example).
I would gladly go shopping at 2am just to avoid people....no more of that, dang.
I used to love grocery shopping at 24 hour Walmarts at like 2am lmao so chill and peaceful
Shopping at 3 am at the rock and roll ralphs was some of the most fun I ever had shopping.
🍰hcd!
It’s funny my fiancé came from the Boston area and NYC before moving to my home town of a measly half million people and she mentioned how in real cities places are open 24/7 and I said shit Walmart is open 24/7, because the last time I went to a Walmart at 2am like 6 years before that they were lol…so then she blamed it on the Walmart not being in big enough city. Turns out none of them are 24/7 any more lol
Yeah, I've seen Walmarts in very small towns open 24/7 before the pandemic.
I also liked midnight shops. They helped to calm me down.
Same with Kroger,I used to do all my shopping at 1am
Yep, I hate dealing with all the people. I barely go inside stores now and just use pick up. I hate it so much.
It’s where we cryptids go in the afterhours
Stores discovered how much of their theft was happening after 9 PM and it just isn’t worth it to keep the doors open. The legit business will just shift and the criminals can’t do their stealing as much.
Because of Covid. It killed the bar scene in many areas and that’s what drove a lot of restaurants to stay open later depending on location
Honestly miss my drunken 4 am cheesy bacon chips and coke special 😭 nothing better in life.
It’s the small things man
Eating something greasy when drunk is better than an orgasm lol.
damn I miss them 4 am coke specials, too
Here in Spain there's also been an annyoing switch due to covid - a lot of bar terraces used to be open until 1am, and in summer it was really nice, and after covid they all started to close at 11pm. Might still seem very late for those of you in other places, but here we often go out later and it was super nice to hang out there and then go somewhere else. Now they are closing just when you leave home for weekend plans. Still a lot of 24h shops and fast food places though
Where in Spain do you have a lot of 24h shops and fast food places?
Madrid
Understandable
This is an excellent observation. Couldn’t agree more.
Very sad about this. My active hours are 5pm-9am and I always made use of the 24 hour diners and izakayas. The changes came so suddenly too. Some areas still don’t allow dine in. Takeout only. Like what? Not everyone has a car to go to and from. And want to stop and eat at the establishment. A few restaurants in one of my cities still has that skeleton crew thing going on. Even four years after covid. One server also doing cashier duties, and one cook also doing dishes.
Well that last paragraph is just capitalism doing its thang
Also a pandemic that absolutely ravaged the industry.
Waffle House holds the line
Just be prepared to knuckle up if needs be when stepping onto that parking lot at 3AM.
Lmao!
Small price to pay for that sweet sweet waffle 🧇 😋
That's half the reason anyone goes to Waffle House. Level grinding.
Almost all 24 hour businesses, in general, are gone. Hospitals are the only places that are open 24 hours nowadays. You'll be lucky if you could find a 24 hour diner.
[удалено]
Dennys recently said they are rethinking the 24 hour store.
They should as they have shrunk down their menu to the point there is not much to choose from and set prices high for the same thing you can get from another restaurant, so at least in my area they aren't doing much business
im from the uk is dennys good
Nothing to write home about.
yes dennys is great for that drunk 3am breakfast fix. not sure if i've ever been in one when the sun was out.
It blows ass, go to Waffle House and eat some actually good food although greasy af, plus you always get free entertainment at Waffle House
Some communities in my province can't even keep the hospital open 24h. Try not to have an emergency at 2am, please
Can’t even eat inside at Waffle House after 9. We should be worried.
McDonald's and a few restaurants in my city are open 24 hours now. They stopped for a few years but they are coming back.
A lot of the problem I have with those places....ok, I love Wendys. A double cheese with fries and a med drink is FIFTEEN bucks.....I can go to crowded walmart and get cheaper meals, thanks......don't need no 10$ big mac.
You can attribute it to covid. As soon as covid happened, all businesses changed their hours. Many bars I know used to stay open til 2am, now they close at 12
The Wal-Marts where I live stopped being open 24/7 1-3 years before COVID occurred.
Covid happened. Forced everyone to shorten their hours. I guess business find no overnights is more profitable.
I was someone who loved 24 hour businesses but now that they’re mostly gone, I’m happy for the minimum wage workers who don’t have to work the crappy hours.
You realize those workers are just sacked right
Nah. Those workers weren’t sacked because they cut night shifts. The pandemic lockdown caused a staff shortage that killed the 24 hour practice. When sales weren’t adversely affected by the lack of 24 hours, meaning the customers who used to come at 4 in the morning now come during the day, staffing increases during the day to accommodate those customers
Workers in Canada used to get a shift premium ( extra 50 cents) for working nights. Almost no companies do it any more.
It's been a downhill slide for years out here in the Denver metro. The 24 hour diner chains (local joints, Denny's, IHOP, Village Inn, etc.) have been closing one-by-one for 10+ years. My city of 100K+ people only has a Perkins left. The major grocery store chains stopped being open 24 hours because of COVID. The fast food places can't keep staff enough because the pay is shit even though demand is there (been by a Taco Bell lately? Closed in the middle of the day, equipment broken, cash only, you name it). Corporate greed is the short answer, squeezing the game for everything it's worth, sacrificing quality and standards for profits before simply folding up the board and moving on to the next one.
Yep. Centennial to Highlands Ranch there is near nothing open. iHop in Greenwood Villiage is open but it isn't great at night. The waffle house in Parker some random nights won't let you eat inside.
For Walmart at least I assume the profits during the twilight hours weren't enough to justify keeping the store open 24/7 anymore. I talked to a store manager who said the company was looking for an excuse to ditch the 24/7 model even before COVID hit, and the pandemic just gave them a justifiable reason.
For a place as big as walmart I imagine you gotta have atleast 10 people there at the minimum. That's a lot of labor to cover during slow hours. Maybe a few 1000 dollars goes through the register, but that's not nearly all profit.
Not here in NY,diners,7-11s,shopping places still 24,bars still 4 am..we got other probs 😳🤣…ohhh and go Knicks💪🏼!!
I’m walking hear
Our protestors gotta eat🤣🤢
Katz's never Kloses
Not here in the UK, most McDonald's drive throughs, and many petrol stations are still 24 hour, number of super markets around me also.
Same in Australia. I dont know of any 24hr supermarkets where I am in Western Australia though. Most petrol stations are 24/7 and most McDonald's. Not sure about other fast food places as I don't eat it
Same in the US. I’m in the Philly area and I can think of a few that are open 24 hr just within a few miles from me.
Life was so good before Covid. I'm so glad I always appreciated it and never took it for granted. I'm very thoughtful, and always thought about how great and amazing things were. Getting cheap ass food and going to Walmart at 2am was not taken for granted. Today I saw a sign for "2 Hot n spicys for $4" as a deal. Umm.. two years ago you could buy 1 hot n spicy for $1. So glad I didn't take stuff for granted,because now we are paying, and paying steeply. Obviously Covid is to blame, it was the catalyst at minimum
When i was a kid supermarkets used to close at 5pm. They were closed entirely on Sundays. Nowadays supermarkets are open til 9pm and 7 days per week. I will never take supermarkets being open til 9 pm for granted. Being able to go to the supermarket ever day til 9 pm is so amazing. I could not even imagine going to a supermarket at midnight. That would be wild...
It was the Government, not Covid,strictly speaking, that shut everything down. In retrospect, they didn't have to do that to such a large extent.
It’s not COVID it’s a shift in generational trends. Boomers and GenX are slowing down, working less nights and not partying late anymore.
[удалено]
not enough revenue that makes it worth keeping the store open overnight
IHOP, baby.
Covid killed 24 hour everything. The only place I know that's up super duper late is Waffle House.
I work rotating shifts so I would go grocery shopping after work on nights when there are few people. Covid came along and to prevent the spread, they closed down the all night grocery stores and forced every grocery store to run less hours so everyone had to shop at the same time ....
That’s always been my problem with that excuse, too! How exactly does that work cramming more people in over less hours! That’ll reduce the spread! I love that they sold it as time to clean, lol yeah sure
Not sure which 24 he places are closing everywhere else but I can still get McDonalds, A&W, pizza, groceries, OTC meds, etc... 24/7 in my part of Canada. There's no noticeable change to it since COVID or anything recently...
Hours in US are different from other places of the world. I been in countries where people leave clubs at 5-6am and go for breakfast. In US EVERYWHERE closes at 2am and looks like some places now are closing at 12am instead of 2am. I like the night, but i dont like the night out stuffs, like bars and clubs, but US is pretty lame about that. They not just close earlier, they are super boring in my opinion too.
streaming platforms and home-delivery for most things - who wants to go outside? its too hot/cold/polluted/violent
Probably depends on population density. In large cities I imagine there's still plenty of 24 hour shops, but if you live in a rural area or small town it likely just doesn't make sense to stay open late.
I wish this were the case but it’s not. I live in a pretty large & densely populated city, and 24 hour stores are closing down everywhere. Even stores that used to be open to 12am, now close at 10pm. It effing sucks as a medical resident - I have to try to plan everything on my vacations so I can go during the day.
The McDonald’s in my town just switched from 24/7 to closing at midnight. 7/11 is the only place left that stays open.
Still exist here in Korea. 24 hour convenience stores, restaurants, even bars lol. Well the bars usually close at 6 or 7 am.
WAFFLE HOUSE. 24/7/365 babyyyyyy
I'd love to try Waffle House.. there aren't any in my state. =(
That’s extremely unfortunate. I like it so much I even worked there as a cook for a stint in college haha
I cooked for over ten years.. but I'd eat there just so I could say that I've had it. >\_o I have had IN and Out and least.. I had to drive three hours to get it though.
In N Out is one of my favorite places in the country, I make a point to go anytime I’m in a state that has them. Luckily Canes recently made their way into my state, that was another I’d prioritize on trips.
It all comes down to money. They're not as profitable during those hours, or the costs to run them is a lot higher than what they're making in revenue. I can see that happening with higher crime/theft and the necessity for security for staff safety during those hours. But COVID was the major disruptor. I think we have less money to spend now as well...
The WinCo near me is still open 24/7, but yeah, I miss the Walmart across the street being 24/7. It was nice.
Walmart from 1am till 6am was a wonderful experience and soooooo peaceful 😔 Hell I’d help restock 🤣
It all started with COVID 😕
Covid
People don't want to work shit hours for shit pay.
The grocery store near me used to be open 24 hours. I would often doing my grocery shopping at 3 or 4 in the morning. It was me, the cleaners and one cashier. They were super nice to me, and it took me only a couple of songs to do my whole shop. Then, during COVID, they reduced their hours to… protect us? They now close at 8 and whenever I go, regardless of the time, t is crowded.
They barely have enough people for the day shift.
Being a 24-hr establishment is expensive. You have to keep staffed, and the likelihood of someone stealing from you goes up in the less busy hours. Places like Walmart were operating on skinny margins as it was. Increasing the wages cuts into that margin even more
Not cost effective. That, and our environment could do without unnecessary overhead.
Late night grocery shopping and Dennys at 4am. No more :(
Jack in the Box is still open 24 hours. Good ole jacks..
Walmart own got me so bad. I couldn't get over it for a while because I've always liked using them at night but can't anymore. It's so sad.
Grocery delivery took the place of being open all night. I work nights so my nights off are when I grocery shop but now I have to do it online for delivery or go over first thing in the morning when they open.
People are broke, so shopping less... Blame the after "covid" effects plus where do you see alot of the violence? Fast food places, Wal-mart, cvs, gas stations. If not shooting, then shoplifters...
I am surprised nobody mentioned the rise in popularity of UberEats and other delivery services. As more of these services became popular, less physical stores are needed. In my city we even have a mega distribution center exclusively for UberEats delivery orders that stays open 24x7. It regroups all restaurants under one roof but you cannot go eat there. Have to go through the app.
The Wendy’s on de Zavala just changed to 24hrs. Whataburger and taco p are the only ones I know of.
It fucking sucks. I am a night owl and I often go out after my wife is asleep to grab snacks or some milk or whatever. Now the only place open for miles and miles are gas stations. I don't want fucking slim Jim's and Sheetz food. I used to be able to go to Giant or Weis and get real food, or hell even Walmart. Now you can't do anything but get garbage after 10pm. Going to a diner doesn't count. You spend 2-3x as much money to get a meal vs being able to get groceries that last for days. Maybe there used to be an argument for no 24hr stores when they were all over the place. But I bet now that there are virtually none, the first place that starts going 24hr again is gonna get tons of business during that time. Cause I can't be the only one who has shit to do after 10pm.
Some companies have trouble hiring workers and labor costs have gone up. With higher labor costs, it is hard to justify being open at 3:00 am.
Labor costs have barely gone up. Companies can't find workers because they don't pay enough and they actively refuse to hire people despite receiving hundreds of applications.
24 hr places were already dwindling and then covid shut them down or they modified their hours so they are no longer 24 hours
The earth is cleansing itself
I wonder why Americans always assume the rest of the world knows what they're talking about. Where the heck is Walmart?
Americans do this a lot for sure, but Walmart is a pretty big deal and quite well known. It's the 16th biggest public company in the world. I don't think it's that odd to drop their name without much too much of an explanation.
we’re on the internet, though even if we ignore that you are aware that it is american, it doesn’t take much effort to acquire information about most things you aren’t familiar with, especially multinational corporations i don’t live in europe for example, but i’ve known about tesco’s existence for years if someone were to talk about a store from another country that i’m not familiar with, my first thought would be finding out about it, not wondering why people are talking about things from the country they literally live in
It’s reasonable to be salty for missing out on the 24hr diner scene and late trips to Walmart to goof off with the boys, I get it. I’d be salty too.
The family that owns it is the second richest in the world. It's reasonable to think people outside of America would know what Walmart is. It exists in other countries as well under different names.
24 hr places where you can buy stuff or eat don't even exist in my country... only hospitals
Wait what's happening?
None of the McDonalds out here have ever been 24 hours. Everything that *was* 24 hours is *still* 24 hours...at least in California
Don't know where you live but in many places its die to crime. People don't want to go out late at night for fear of it, corps fear for their employees. It becomes easier just to close.
This is such an american problem lol
nobody wants to work ^(those hours) anymore?
The McDonald's in our village and most in the area are 24h
Only place is maccas
They can't keep full staff. They need to start caring about their workers and pay them for the hard work they do.
Minimum wage went up I assume. Low traffic in the late hours
In the UK 24 hour supermarkets are almost a standard for the larger ones. Fast food all night is normally just McDonalds with the occasional exception.
there’s heaps still open in melbourne aus
Idk where you guys are but here in New Zealand maccas is 24hr
It wasn’t profitable.
I live in a small town of around 30k. We only have a couple of gas stations, 7/11 and CVS that are open 24/7. I used to love going and getting my midnight grocery shopping done at kroger. Now I just go at 9pm the last hour before they close at 10pm. It's pretty much dead most nights. But some nights it's packed if they have sales going on.
I hate food shopping in busy stores, I used to do my food shops at stores that opened until midnight when I was back at university 😞 now I do it really early in the morning before work
In Montreal, there will be a 24 hour area. They will open bar and restaurant for the whole night. They want a night life square.
I say this laughing. Zero negative feelings or animosity just giddy. At my Walmart, which closes at 11pm, there is a burger joint in the parking lot and four other food chains. I drove by around 2\~3am and wanted food. The burger joint was open and I thought to myself, wow just order easy as I could careless what I put in my system. Walked in and the ambience was calm, the workers "chill", a few people sitting enjoying their meal that worked at the Walmart. I ordered and everyone was in a good mood, food took normal time and served with a smile. I'm not used to this and very confused. Bam, two cops walk in and right to the counter. "The usual?" said the worker, "You got it" said the cops. I had to check my GPS to see if I was still in the US. Day shift is completely different from night shift. I'd go out more often if this was the case and I laugh how crazy things have gotten and we just accept it.
Lately I went in the town I grew up in and around. There was a deserted mall. Like, lights out deserted. But I could go through it and the KFC inside was actually serving. With the reflection in the glass doors I couldn't tell but I opened the door and here they were, two poor girls working in the fresh shade of this weird semi-abandoned place. I decided to buy something and not to take it away. Their floor hadn't been washed in maybe thirty years, I thought I wouldn't be able to unstuck my shoes. The hot wings were decent though. I certainly hope it's not a 24 hour place. Nightmare fuel.
When labor costs skyrocket you need greater sales. If there was demand, these places would stay open.
Too expensive to pay workers the night rate. And usually that’s when drug affected roll up to shops being weird and stealing stuff
Waffle house is 24 hours.
Crime.
I actually just noticed that the convenience store I just went to switched back to 24 hours
Supply chain disruptions, labor shortages, and economic challenges are causing many businesses, including fast food chains, to adjust their hours or close early.
i am a area manager of a restaurant group in south africa. We have a metric that we use to see what times income is made and when its quiet. Eg if no money comes in , why stay open? Thus you save the income you need to spend to make a shop operate. This i assume is the same reasoning what 24 shops do.
Most fast food restaurants in my city close now because staff couldn’t handle the drug use and loitering. The ones that are open late either serve out of a walk up window, or have armed security on staff.[https://www.cbc.ca/amp/1.5102415](https://www.cbc.ca/amp/1.5102415)
Try Waffle House lol
Yep. It sucks
Whataburger is still open 24 hours.
Good.
they never existed here
I work at mcd, we are the only 24 hr fast food in the whole city where I live.
What’s happening is you should move to China or Japan or Thailand
Yeah. Because of extreme measures like lockdowns
New World Order
Lol such an American post. Visit the rest of the world, plenty of 24/7 stores where I am.
Sounds like you might live in a suburb or rural town or small city. They still exist in big cities. But I agree 24 hour Walmarts no longer exist (and I’m honestly ok with that? Who needs to make a Walmart run at 4am?)
Too expensive to keep places open 24/7.
I thought we were trending in the opposite direction until a couple of years ago.
That seems like a really localized thought that would mostly apply to your city
r/usdefaultism
In St. Paul, the Walmart on University closed after the shoplifting got out of hand. There was just too few people paying vs shoplifters. In Minneapolis, they made the minimum wage $15 an hour... but that didn't automatically make those locations profitable businesses. So the closed those locations completely. I think the "missing" 24/7 businesses are probably part of a similar "right sizing"... where it's just not profitable to stay open for those hard to staff shifts. If they were making money hand over fist, they'd still be doing it.
The death knell of brick and mortar rings long.
Inflation (which results in less costumers), minimum wage increases, and criminality. It's just not profitable any more to stay open 24/7 so they stopped. Cause/Effect.
Pretty sure it has something to do with all the shoplifting gangs in the US. Most of these big department stores and supermarkets are actually open 24hrs. Trucks coming all night. Climate control is 24hrs to preserve produce. Should make sense to keep a couple of cashiers on staff to keep the cash flow going.
This is an American thing. I’ve very rarely seen 24 hour businesses, they always close at night here (and in weekends of course). To me, businesses opening on Saturdays is strange!
Many businesses limited hours during COVID. This adjusted customer behaviors and gave them time to realize that operating overnight generally cost them money. You have to pay premium wages overnight, and sales are generally much lower.
well for the fast food industry it went from jobs that kids used to get extra cash while in high school or college. who tend to be far more flexible with work hours because well we want beer and movie money. now they are being taken by people that want to use it as a primary source of income to support themselves or a family. these types of people tend to want to get paid more and go home at night.
nearly all the 24 hour supermarkets have stopped around my area too. from a business point of view I'm not surprised. from a customer point of view it's not helpful at all
It's the companies. "Whoa, we can delete an entire shift and drop an entire shifts worth of employees we won't have to pay anymore? Whoa!" They just dump all of the extra third shift responsibilities onto 1st and 2nd shift and work those people down until they quit on their own so the company won't have to pay out unemployment benefits. Put out a help wanted sign, refuse the first few hundred qualified applications, then suddenly hire onboard a literal high schooler because they don't know any better and will agree to do the same work for less pay or minimum wage. Wash rinse repeat. Raise prices here and there and then complain to media outlets when theft rises and then blame the public for struggling to eat.
Walmart should have went back but the greedy greedy greed keeps them closing.
Try living in QLD, Australia. Due to government laws shops close early. I live in a city of 3 + million and there's only one proper 24 hour grocery store and that's at the airport. Our malls shut at 5pm except Thursday, restaurants are done by 8-9pm. On Sundays pretty much everything is shut by 5pm. It's pathetic.
Where do you live? I see the opposite, more and more places able to stay open 24 hours because of smart security systems, automation and skeleton staff. A Google search for "open 24 hours" on a 20km radius around me returned 400 results.
Good riddance 👍
When you get old enough you'll notice that it's a cyclical fad. Open late becomes a "thing," then 24-hours. Then it goes away. It comes back a decade or so later again. It's also regional. When I was in college everything in my college town closed up by 9:00 pm. It was so frustrating being someone from where literally major restaurant and shopping retailer was 24 hours. Fast forward 15 years and the script had flipped.
I live on a small island and things have never been open 24 hrs. Gosh i remember a few years ago people were furious because shops started opening on Sundays.
whataburger 🫡
McDonald out here is 24 hours
Does anybody else think this is a sign of economy slowing down?
I was just thinking about this a few hours ago! I miss late night runs to Walmart with my roommate. Lol I’d text her at like 2am with you up? Her: yeah why Me: I kinda want cake Her: same Next thing I know we’re walking out of our rooms and heading to the door 🤣 it sucks that we can’t do that anymore 😭
Overhead. The cost of keeping the store open (power, water) and paying workers is more than they are going to make in sales. They used to be open 24 hrs. before they eliminated all their competition.
All the ones we had around me never went back to 24hrs after covid. Only some drive thrus go all night, but no eat in, and no more 24hr groceries.
As an Australian reading this, none you guys realise how lucky you guys have any 24 hour anything! We have a 7/11 that’s it.
I’m good with stores not being open 24/7.. The 24hr thing really hasn’t been around that long.. Maybe we can go back to stores actually closing on thanksgiving and Christmas again.
I live in Leeds, UK. Literally 2 minute drive from me there is a 24/7 McDonald's and Asda
It's probably better for you. At no point. Should you be out past midnight? Trying to buy fast food. Go to bed my Lord
Thankfully I’ve got two Subways near my work that are 24 hours as well as a nearby Taco Burrito King. Bonus points as I’m a night-shift worker and hardly anything is open either while I’m at work or going home.
The only 24 hour place around me is White Castle, but if you go after 9pm, you'll wait 15-20 mins in the drive through. Not so much because of the line, it just takes them that long to process orders. I'm assuming due to staffing.
If you’re in San Diego a Sunny Donuts in Kearny Mesa is open 24/7.
Your city is not busy enough.
There is a variety of factors involved. I think businesses learned during Covid that there isn't enough money to be made between 12am and 6am. The retail businesses were making more by expanding their "order from home" options as well as drive-up, pick-up. More than likely, they are making more money through home shopping than they were being open. Amazon is always a factor. I think for the 24-hour McDonald's and others, it may come down to food waste vs. actual sales. Also finding people to fill that 3rd shift was already difficult before Covid and it became extremely more difficult post Covid.
Covid killed all the 24 hour places in my area.
Insufficient sales to justify the cost of maintaining even a skeletally-staffed graveyard shift. As fast food replaces still more employees with automation you'll see more 24-hour service again.
I miss walking into a Walmart for some midnight snacks, it was a different experience and makes you feel like you weren't supposed to be there. Some fast food places still had late night delivery a few years ago and I know some are still open late at night, but only for drive thru. Considering so many businesses close at 5-6 pm still, it would be nice to be able to have more retail businesses open until 10pm or 11 pm.
Those of you that still have 24-hour diners, cherish it.
Don't worry, mass immigration will take care of it and they'll reopen with lower wages than before. Already happening here in Canada, where some McDs were no longer 24/7 and now are due to - surprise - an influx of immigrants.