At 1:30 in the morning you are driving down Walton Road when you pass the
7-11. You decide to stop in and treat yourself to a nice big slurpee. As you pull in
the parking lot you notice that the sign says, “We’re open 24 hr’s, 7 days a week, 365
days a year.” However, when you reach the door you notice that they have locks on
the doors and you think to yourself, why do convenient stores have locks on their
doors if they’re going to be open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and 365 days a year?
If they’re never going to close then they have no need for locks on the doors. This
will only cause an inconvenience for employees and customers.
The idea of adding locks onto the doors is only going to cost the store more
money. Also, it would give the managers one extra key on their already big key chain
that they really have no use for. Since they are open every second of the year, they
never need to lock the doors between shifts. When one person’s shift is over then
the next person will come in and take over. It’s not like most stores where at night
when the store closes they lock the doors and go home. Then, in the morning
whoever is going to be opening comes in and unlocks the store and gets it ready for
the first customers of the day. This situation would never happen at a store that is
open all the time because there always has to be someone working.
On a rare occasion, the store might need to the lock the doors if someone
outside is causing trouble. However, if they locked the doors and wouldn’t let any
customers in they would be lying saying that they’re open 24 hours a day, 7 days a
week, and 365 days a year. Doing this would cause the store to lose money because
no one could then get into the store.
By adding locks onto the doors would also make people think that sometimes
they do close, like on holidays. On almost all national holidays like Thanksgiving
and Christmas, stores will be closed to allow their valued employees time off to
spend with family. If this was the case then some people might avoid shopping there
on holidays in fear that when they get there they will be closed. Then they would
have to drive all the way to another store that sold the same type of merchandise or
service. Some people might think the locks were for security reasons. If they
thought this they might be afraid to come back because it might suggest the location
of the store is bad or that they have problems with people living in the vicinity of the
store.
The sign saying they’re always open can be misleading to customers. What if
the store burned down or needed remodeled. Then they would have to lock the
doors. So the sign should say “We’re Almost Always Open” instead of “We’re open
24 hr’s, 7 days a week, 365 days a year.” This new sign would clear up any confusion
that the old sign had caused.
Stores that are open all the time and have locks on the doors need to realize
the trouble’s they could be causing to their employees and their customers. They
need to take the locks off the doors if they never plan on closing. On the other hand,
they need to change their sign if they plan on closing once or twice a year for
holidays or for any other reason they may have.
Why do convenient stores have locks on their doors
if they are always open?
Bob Eaton
Comp IV
2/28/96
6th hour