VI. HALF-DAY CLOSING

Days suited for half-day closing

Half-day closing is one of the conventions of shopping. It is just as necessary for the distributive worker to have his half-days as it is for any other worker. However, as distribution is a service at the disposal of the community it is important to ensure that days selected for half-day closing are not out of line with public needs. It is assumed then that half-day closing would remain the law of the land, and all shoppers were asked “which day would suit you best as a weekly half holiday for shops?” and asked to specify a convenient and any inconvenient days for this purpose.

The demand for Saturday as a late closing day suggests that this day will not be very popular for half-day closing; this view is borne out by the facts. 41% of shoppers favour Wednesday as the weekly half holiday and a further 18% Thursday. Support for Saturday is as low as 4% and the only group to show any interest in Saturday half-day closing is the distributive trade, where 23% would prefer a Saturday afternoon half-day. Apart from Wednesday and Thursday shoppers do not seem to have any other strong preferences for half-day closing.

The picture of inconvenient days is even more striking. Friday and Saturday especially, are singled out by shoppers as inconvenient for half-day closing. As these days were also selected for special late closing the fact is not surprising. Saturday afternoon shopping is so important to most people that even 30% of distributive workers would regard closing on that day as inconvenient. A detailed analysis of the inconvenience of Saturday half-day closing for certain types of workers was made.

Briefly all in occupations who find difficulty in leaving their place of work to shop on a weekday seem to be strongly against Saturday afternoon closing. Saturday afternoon shopping is not only a social event for many workers, it is their only good opportunity of shopping. Thus high percentages against Saturday half-day closing were noticed among factory workers, building and transport workers, miners and to a lesser degree among agricultural and clerical workers. It is safe to say that under present shopping conditions Saturday half-day closing would cause considerable hardship to important sections of the working population.

The results of a regional analysis of the half-day closing material indicates the influence of present conditions on public attitudes. Most parts of the country seem to favour half-day closing on Wednesday with some areas preferring Thursday according to the half-day closing day actually in operation. Saturday afternoon closing seems to be universally unpopular.

Conclusion

Shoppers hold very clear cut views on half-day closing. Over 40% favour half-day’ closing on a Wednesday and another 18% half-day closing on a Thursday; feeling in favour of half-day closing on a Saturday is very small indeed except among distributive workers where it is 23%. Over 50% of shoppers regarded Saturday as an inconvenient day for half-day closing and another 23% felt Friday half-day closing would be inconvenient. Workers, and factory workers in particular, had exceptionally strong feelings on the inconvenience of Saturday half-day closing. Distributive workers however were more readily prepared to accept closing on that day.