from here

All this is doing is an easy way out for some of aucklands traffic problems. It is a selfish thing to do and is just promoting greed. It would make it a much longer day for most people. The average person would end up sleeping in, the extra hour gained (5.30-6.30) is much more productive.

They really should just encourage people to live and work locally, rather than hordes and hordes flooding into Auckland CBD every day.

I agree with mrt... If they implement this plan, give it three months and all we'll have is a longer and later rush hour.

BUT

This now seperates rush hour from "OMG SKOOL"-Rush hour

But surely, they received this after lengthy consultation with experts in their fields, didn't they?

ehhh. i dont see this is being much of a problem. i can also see it meaning that restaurants/bars etc will get a lot more customers, as people are going to be out shopping at dinnertime-ish. how is this greedy steveo? i know that when im working lots, i find it really hard to get to shops before they close.

but yeah, i do agree with the local work thing.


and with the whole sleeping-in thing......well, these longer hours, if they are indeed aimed at working people (9-5) would not affect their sleeping patterns, as they would already need to be up for work, anyway. if the average student sleeps in an extra hour- then great- theyl be less hungover for their days activities. the shops hours are just reflecting what our lifestyles are becoming - lives of the night and of evening entertainment.

well I'm for shops staying open late, shopping during the week isn't really even possible in the city at the moment.

good call
in major cities in the UK and the US shops open til 8 or so

hexactly. I've been enjoying the fact that everything stays open in Prague. I've been in a Czech town these past few days though, and everything closes at 5:30, and doesn't open on sunday :cry:

Maniac: Its not fair on th employees of the stores, most people work a 9-5 job and they find the time to get to the shops.

^^ try living in a small town in Canada, nothing is open on a Sunday OR Monday

Thats how it should be! Although im bias I guess, we are open 364 days a year (except xmas) because apparently we sell goods that are "essential"

but what about the consumer whores of the world?!!!! they need consumer goods 24/7 or else THEY WILL DIE!

fuck that shit, if you want to work in a service industry then you have to be prepared to work when people need to be served. Otherwise, lets close shads at five so the barworkers can all go to sha.. oh wait :P

Its a bit different for a bar, thats the hospitality industry. My industry traditionally opens at 8 and closes at 5-5.30. How many workshops are open past 5.30?

the hospitality industry is the same in that it deals directly with consumers during their leisure time, as opposed to offices, factories etc.

workshops offices etc mostly close at 5, meaning that you only have half an hour to get to the shops, and complete your shopping. The alternative is to leave work early, which is not easy unless you've got a lazy-ass job. and anyway its probably bad for national productivity or something

Thats why you go shopping on a Saturday

Comparing our opening hours to those of some hardout Asian capitalist economy, I think we're way behind. Look at those cities in the world that never sleeps, they never close. A second or third shift of employees only adds to solving unemployment.

What about shops who cannot afford to hire new people?

Then they can't open and eventually lose out to the competition. The first shops to open in the weekends here were the Asian groceries. They're also more likely to defy the holiday trading hours simply because they cannot compromise profitting.

Do you guys know why shop opening hours are nearly 24 hours these days?

Neo-liberals like Don Brash, Richard Prebble, Ruth Richardson and Roger Douglas pushed this sort of stuff: their utter obsession with free markets extends to pushing the boundaries of the market into a total free market for time. Don't get me wrong, I think in most cases long opening hours are a good thing, but people sort of miss the point when you request MORE opening hours beyond now.

For one, it doesn't help employment at all, considering what happens is that you actually have a decline in skills specialisation if you increase your employment, and even if you employ a new person, the likliehood is that you'll pay both people shit wages, and that the person who was working there initially would lose most of their time. Countries like Spain that have very, very different opening hours to us (Most shops, apart from breakfast cafes and a few shopping centres, open at 9-10, close at 2-3 pm or so, reopen at 5-6 and then close at 10 pm. A lot of shops have less opening hours than that, yet there is no particular reduction in consumer choice and no long queues considering.

Overall, we are 'far ahead' of most of the world's economies in terms of our opening hours and levels of consumer access to products (that are already here, so not counting freight etc) are very high in reality. Why the fuck anyone would want St Lukes open 24/7 is anyone's question. I for one do not plan on shopping anywhere between 5 pm and 9 am apart from bakeries, fast food places, wine shops, restaurants and dairies!

From a tourist's point of view our opening hours are quite lazy.

Well if they do open it 24/7, then obviously some people would want it open at those hours, or they won't do it. Night shift workers for instance.

About St Lukes, I was talking about the possibility of doing it. I don't think St Lukes does 24/7, only sometimes they do that close at 10 pm thing during Christmas and holidays.

Adolf, from a relatively well-traveled persons point of view (my own), I still maintain our opening hours are much longer than in most other countries. Just because Hong Kong and Singapore have insane opening hours doesn't mean that non-city states can do the same thing.

Late night thursdays at St Lukes I think.

It takes me forty minutes to get to St Lukes. Which means that by the time I get there after uni, it will be 5:40. At least. Bingo, everything is closed. Pushing the window of the hours around is not so silly.

Then go on a Thursday, thats why latenight shopping is there. Or even better just get whatever you need in town.

I agree, six thirty perhaps is a good time to close, but as Steveo points out, it's not randomly assigned and there are specific late days. It just depresses me this 24 hour 7 day a week culture that is speeding things up so much in that everyone wants everything to be attainable immediately, which is making us back into little children and is having bad effects in terms of stress etc.

There isn't an 'OMG skool' rush hour (although that does sound like an early 90s Otara hip hop group). How many people drive their kids over the harbour bridge to go to school? Not many. The reason there is heaps less traffic during the school holidays is because of all the people staying home to look after their kids, and not driving into work, rather than people not taking their kids to school.

So, as mrt says, the solution is to work local, or to catch public transport.

In terms of shopping hours, they should do like the Spanish, and open late, but have a two hour lunch break from 1-3, where nothing is open except eateries. That would make life as a retail-ho heaps better.

Ditto. Things are always better if you have to wait for them :P

Town is more a capitalist shithole than St Lukes. The rent is high, the shops are therefor tiny and if they don't have it on a shelf, they have no room out the back to stock inventory.

oh boohoo, so shop workers will have to work later.
dude, my hours of work are 12-2.30, then 6-10/11/12pm. working in hospitality is way worse hours than working in shops, handle the jandal!

ehhhh, i think that malls should be open to midnight in december, i freaking love going shopping at night.

But you choose to work those hours, it goes with the job. Like if I worked in a bar I would expect late hours, you work in a shop selling stuff you expect to finish at 5.00 -> 5.30. As they say you cant compare apples and oranges.

Its a case of if the shops want the consumer dollar, they have to chase it. It's commercial evolution.

i know, i definitely wasnt complaining, i love the hours i work!

Yeah late hours are rad coz you have the whole day free :D

And Sloanie I see it the other way round, the consumers "need" the product then they will come and get it. Maybe if you're shopping at supre' where theres lots of competition. It depends store to store.

One big reason why they do this is it can simply get too hot during midday to work.

Last time I ever tell you where I shop.

I beg to differ

Have you ever tried driving through Avondale during rush hour?

I could say 50% of those cars wouldnt be there if they were already at school

i agree with maniac they should be open late...i'm finding more and more i'm bored at about ten o'clock and have nothing to do because everythings shut...plus who wants to be inside shopping during the summer when there are so many beaches around the shore...

That's right. However, this continues all year round, even during the height of winter and in very bad weather.