It was one of those things brought up in the past. That a tighter labor market may have emerged because the number of people retiring. Now, we know those people still need services.
But, if the workforce participation shrinks somewhat, due to demographic shifts (primarily aging), would we ever go back to shorter hours for businesses? I mean, Wal-Mart not open 24 hours a day. Other types of businesses closing earlier in the evenings? Of course, working people still need to do business, so everything 8:00-5:00 isn’t something I’d expect, but fewer hours open outside those might happen. And retirees have all day to get their business done, so a larger segment of the clientele wouldn’t be alienated.
More than likely, automation of ‘intellectual’ tasks will reduce the need for workers that it will be difficult to get full-time work in many areas of employment. Fortunately, that will give people far more time to use the self-checkout and doom-scroll away on whatever media platforms are coming to replace Twitter and Tik-Tok. Win-win for all!
With the advent of Amazon, 24h B&M retail shopping is less necessary than ever. The demand for food is 24h, but only to the degree people are working those hours. Once very few people are working weird hours, the need for restaurant meals at 3am will more or less evaporate.
My take is sort of the opposite to the OP. Graveyard opening hours will become rare for all consumer outlets. But more food and retail places will be open from real early to approaching midnight. The last vestiges of true 8 to 5 will be dead, replaced by 6am to 10pm. But 10pm to 6am will be dead, dead, dead. Unless it’s a truckstop along an interstate.
Up until the 1970s there were virtually no late night business hours in most places. When I was working the night shift in Evansville, Indiana, a local supermarket started staying open all night because a) they had workers in the store stocking, so it made sense to have a cash register open and b) there were some large manufacturers, health care centers, etc., that were running 24 hours a day and provided a ready-made customer base.
Grocers don’t need to spend eight hours anymore stamping prices on every individual can of beans, and the local assembly plant probably isn’t running three shifts anymore, either.
All of the businesses in my area (Central OH) already did this since COVID. Walmart is not 24 hours and neither are any fast food places. Grocery stores that were previously open til 12 or 1 are now 9pm or 11pm. the 24 hour CVS went to 8am-9pm. The Denny’s in a 24 hour truck stop closes overnight now. Some places like the 24 hour IHOP are open some nights and not others. Tim Hortons used to be 24 hours and is now something weird like 5:30am- 8pm. Some of these changes started pre-COVID, like the 24 hour Kroger and Giant Eagles all started closing at least 5-6 hours per night. But the Walmarts and Meijers and some other places were 24 hrs until 2020. I work nights and used to stop at the store on my way home, but haven’t been able to for about 3 years.
My supermarket has shorter hours since covid. Do does the local tile shop. The hardware show with longer hours closed, and the other one didn’t expand its hours.
Back in my 20’s I worked a four day work week (at 10 hours a day). It was a total boon, having a long weekend every weekend. Would go back to that in a heartbeat.
Groceries went to 24 hours for the same reason stores do anything: to make more money. They had workers there all night to restock, so why not open a register to make a few sales?
They stopped when they realized it didn’t make enough to pay for the extra person. It had nothing to do with COVID; all our supermarkets had ended 24-hour service before 2019.
I doubt there will be any further cutbacks in hours – that will reduce profits (it probably won’t, but I doubt they’d want to ignore the perceived risk). Self-checkout will cover for lack of staff.
There’s a large farm stand near me that is 24/7 and only has employees around a couple of hours here and there. It’s all self checkout, with camera surveillance.
I suppose someone could drive a truck up at 3am and steal a few thousands in frozen chicken and pork, and cheese and preserves. But they could only do it once, and it seems high risk for the value.
I went there a lot before i got vaccinated because i could go at a weird time and be the only person in the space.
While visiting my cousin, we went to his gym - Anytime Fitness. While we went during the latter half of a weekend morning, he got in via a fob & there was no employee there. I don’t know who you’d report broken equipment or any spills too.
I could see retail going back to how it was 100 years ago - everything behind the counter / in the back room. You choose what you want from a screen, either a robot picks it or it drops out like a vending machine onto a conveyor belt that delivers all of your items to you up front. Since you have some electronic payment method on file, you’re automagically charged & their retail theft rates go way down. Of course this eliminates spur of the moment purchases.
Or a restaurant in Mid-town that caters to all the people who get off at 10pm and still need to eat/drink/unwind. “After hours” joints will always have their place.
This is Switzerland now. There are clubs open Friday and Saturday night, and a few places which provide food for the club-goers, but most shops close at 7:00 pm on Mon-Fri, 5:00 pm on Saturday, and don’t even open on Sundays.