Kramer’s Korner: Keep Your Doors Open Longer Local Businesses

There are a lot of local businesses here in Amarillo that I'd like to be a frequent shopper at. We have a lot of niche type of stores and I've always been a fan of shopping local instead of big box chains when I can.

However, quite a few of the businesses make it VERY tough to be able to do that. Not because they don't have the selection or proper customer service, but because their doors lock at the wrong time.

Get our free mobile app

I'm sure owning your own business isn't the easiest thing in the world to do. I can't speak from experience because I've never been a business owner. But please tell me why your doors are typically only open during the normal workforce business hours?

A lot of these local places are open from 10 am to 5 or 6 pm then they close down for the night. Look, most people work from 8 am to 5 pm, or maybe 9 am to 6 pm, so it makes it difficult to pop in the store and shop around.

I know you probably have a family you want to get home to as well, and I can certainly appreciate that. Can you imagine how much more successful your business would be though if you'd keep the doors open until at least 7 pm for us normal folk who can't just slide out of work to go shopping?

I don't necessarily want to use my lunch break to go shopping because, well, I want to eat, I'm hungry. However, I now have to make a decision as to whether I come to your store and go hungry. Or do I decide to go ahead and eat a good meal and try and fly into your store before you shut the doors?

Another thing I've noticed with at least one place I'd like to frequent is that they aren't always open during their posted hours. Look, if you're going to post the hours and days your open, then you better be there. I can't tell you how many times I've driven to this particular business when they're "open" only to find out they're actually closed.

I only have a limited amount of time to hit these places up, so stop wasting my time because you didn't feel like going into work, or maybe business was slow that day so you decided to close the place early. Posted hours are posted hours. If you don't know when you're going to be there, don't post anything specific and let it remain a mystery.

These are reasons local businesses don't always make it in such a competitive environment. At least with the big box stores, I know they'll be open when it's convenient for me AND they won't shut their doors early.