I heard the latest news about Quebec’s pilot project allowing extended store hours on weekends while in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
The project is being expanded from a few municipalities to the entire province, and will come into effect following up to 45 days of public consultations. Stores will, the plan says, be allowed to open from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays, as opposed to just until 5 p.m.
Quebecers will remember that as recently as 35 years ago, stores were generally closed on Sundays. This, and the subsequent restrictions, emanated from Quebec’s Catholic religious influence, and the current limited hours were a combination of unions wanting employees to spend more time with their families and helping out smaller family-run stores. Still, there have been exceptions – the Winners store in Place Montreal Trust is open until 7 p.m. on Saturdays and 6 p.m. on Sundays. Some other downtown stores close at 6 p.m. on Saturdays.
As a frequent traveller to the United States and Ontario, including Cornwall which is just over an hour from Montreal, our rules seem antiquated. In that relatively small city, Walmart is open until 10 p.m. every night. In Montreal, even though half of it is a supermarket, Walmart has to close at 5 p.m. on weekends. Some Maxi stores, which also sell items other than groceries, can close as late as 10 p.m.
The Walmart close to Sawgrass Mills, near Fort Lauderdale, closes at 11 p.m., and Target in that mall closes late as well, especially during the holiday season.
While at Sawgrass, one of my favourite shopping centres, I asked a few people what they thought of Montreal’s store hours, particularly Walmart closing at 5 p.m. on the weekends, While asking, I felt a twinge of embarrassment, and so I added the plea, “try not to laugh.”
Steve, a customer at Target and a native of Fort Lauderdale, was a bit bewildered.
“It’s a little bit much. If someone gets off work at 5 or 6 p.m. during the week, the only option is maybe on the weekends if stores are open a little bit later. You see how late stores are open here, especially around the holidays. They keep stores open 24 hours or until midnight. The more your doors are open, the more people can come into your business.”
Claude, a salesperson at Target, said the rule in Quebec for a place like Walmart is “not nice.
“I’m from Jamaica, and back home places are usually closed early on Sundays, for church. Some places are essential and need to be open later.”
Steven, a salesperson at Brandsmart USA, also at Sawgrass, said, “you’re hurting your business, I would think!
“A lot of people might want to come at the later hours, especially on the weekends. Sundays are our earliest day closing too, but it’s just the way the companies want to run themselves and how the economy is up there.”