# Why Wednesday? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** food-cooking, liquor-alcohol\ **Created:** [September 6, 2023, 11:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-wednesday/989687 "2023-09-06T11:39:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2023, 3:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-wednesday/989687/21 "2023-09-07T03:58:04Z")
Wednesday is Garbage Day here, in my little slice of Hell. ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2023, 3:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-wednesday/989687/22 "2023-09-08T03:40:00Z")
Wednesday so peeps could make the list out for shopping on Friday. Payday. ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2023, 8:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-wednesday/989687/23 "2023-09-08T08:59:31Z")
> [@Kent\_Clark](#): > > Yeah, this is really a question you should ask the supermarket chains: why do they start their sales (and run the ads to go with them) in the middle of the week instead of the weekend. Oddly enough, the glorified grocery store where I work (technically, it’s “big box” but groceries are where we started and still the bulk of the business) has their sales and specials start on Sunday. But plenty of customers accustomed to other stores’ habits think they start/stop on Wednesdays. So we’re the exception. ---
**Author:** ![Novelty\_Bobble](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Novelty\_Bobble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Novelty_Bobble)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2023, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-wednesday/989687/24 "2023-09-10T18:50:28Z")
One thought. Having been brought up in a rural area there was a tradition in small _market_ towns of having the market and the argricultural exchanges on a midweek. Wednesday or Thursday. All the farmers would be coming to town on that day, buying, selling and doing much of their business. The pubs had all day opening on that day, the local newspaper came out on that day so it perhaps makes sense that any other “special” thing would coincide with that day as well. In a time where most places were market towns, and where larger cities grew out of an aggregation of those small towns, perhaps that tradition simply carried on into the modern era. ---
**Author:** ![LurkMeister](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/3da27b/32.png) [@LurkMeister](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LurkMeister)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2023, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-wednesday/989687/25 "2023-09-10T21:54:47Z")
If I’m remembering correctly, during the late 70s the grocery stores in the Chicago area started their weekly sales on Thursdays. The reason this sticks in my mind is that at the time I was only working a seven hour shift on Fridays, so Thursday evening I would check the ad for my local store, clip out any coupons that were of interest\*, and make up my shopping list. Then when I got home early on Friday I would go grocery shopping. \*Yes, in those antediluvian days the stores would actually print coupons that were good only at their store for the coming week. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-wednesday/989687.md?page=1)