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That comment also sucks when working holidays, particularly Thanksgiving. “They should let you be with your families!” Ok thanks, get out!
If that person wasn’t there, you’d still be open though. From what I have seen of people going in during a holiday, they are all overworked with no time off and cannot get what they need beforehand, leading to them being essentially forced to.
yeah but then if nobody comes in the first year, they might close for next year
I’ve gone to places on holidays only because I knew they were open. It wouldn’t have been a big deal at all if they weren’t open.
At least some places like New Zealand have a surcharge on public holidays.
Most of the time, it’s the store being open that causes customers to come in. People expect places to be closed on holidays, so they check online. If the store’s listing on Google Maps or whatever confirms it is indeed closed, most people will just say “oh dang, too bad”. If it actually ends up being open then they go, buy their stuff, and then make a sympathetic comment to the employees.
I agree and that’s how i operate. However the counter argument to this is, if a store is open and no one shows up at all then next year they will not open because there was not a single sale. Not sure how acurate that is in terms of corporate BS but that is the general counter argument i hear.
Exactly.
“Stfu, I need my stat pay”
Yeah that’s why, if I say anything, I just thank them for being there.
I would usually respond something along the lines of well, people still show up so we’re here. Don’t miss that line of work one bit.
Serious question: Is it about the tone or would you rather nobody comes? I mean it’s the same working hours for you. Where I live, shops are closed on holidays and Thanksgiving isn’t one so don’t ask me if I might be that customer.
The entire economy can’t just shut down because of some snow. Realisitically the most dangerous part about that weather is the driving, if we just built public transit, their commute wouldn’t even be that different from a sunny day. If you dress for the weather you’ll be fine.
Yes it can.
Is this a technical argument like, “It absolutely can shut down. It shouldn’t, but it can.”
Or are you arguing that it should shut down for a day? If so, do mean for holidays or more like a general strike? In either case, would there be exceptions?
The economy will survive if businesses aren’t open for a day or two in places the weather is angry
Erm actually, have you considered that line go down?
My area experiences snow 2-3 times a week regularly. Thats a bigger issue than a handful of days a year.
As long as people don’t go driving around in cars unnecessarily, heavy snow and storms aren’t that bad to get around in. Buss lanes are usually the first to be plowed and walking in a snow storm is always so cozy. Just wear a lot of layers.
People with mobility issues and even just people with shorter legs can struggle to walk around in a snow storm, especially when budgets vastly prioritize car lanes over sidewalks and pathways.
And if you do have to drive its fine so long as you leave earlier to account for slower speeds and some delays like plows or accidents.
Yes disabled people exist. They shouldn’t be out and about in a snow storm. Please don’t go driving around in it though. You’re in the way of the plows doing their job and you are not as experienced as the buss drivers. You’re likely to get stuck and cause an accident. We can let some days be exceptional days, everything doesn’t have to work all the time.
I have to drive a van for work, no way I’m convincing my 70 year old french canadian boss that some snow is a good reason to shut down working for the day.
Okay, I see what you mean, now. I think I was interpreting “shutdown” in a more absolute sense and “economy” in a broader sense. I was concerned more along the lines of utilities, EMS, etc being unavailable.
That’s one way of saying you haven’t commuted by bus, train, or subway in your entire life, I guess.
Maybe you’ve just never got to use good, high quality public transit.
It’s a region dependant luxury. Where I live, transit has tons of tweakers and unstable people. Especially during winter. The city doesn’t bother cleaning blood off the walls for weeks after a stabbing.
I’d love some proper investment into transit and security on said transit, but I’m not holding my breath
In Hong Kong, after a Category 5-equivalent typhoon hit, the metro system was back up again within two days with apologetic announcements that some trains were slightly delayed due to debris on the track.
Probably not the best in the world, but I would consider my city’s public transit network way above the average for what I know. It’s lovely most of the time, just not at rush hours when millions of people have to be moved at the same time, and specially in bad weather. I’m not sure what your standard for high quality is but I’d bet that even the best one gets overwhelmed in these situations and it’s an absolute hell to ride as well.
Edit: even though I think it is still good, It just came to mind that trains have been crashing as of lately in my country. So the quality could fall due to corruption and capitalism at any moment really…
If its over capacity every rush hour then they should consider running more trains and more frequently around those times, or depending on the trips taken, invest in another transit line to ease congestion.
I think I know which country they are talking about. I wouldn’t call it over capacity, but at capacity which still means metro every 3 minutes and every train is full. The experience of so many hundreds of people moving in and out can definitely be overwhelming. Combined with the noise, the heat in the summer and the smell, even if it’s on the better side of the scale world wide is still far from ideal.
If its at full capacity its time to consider expansion unless the city has strict rules in place to limit growth.
You cannot oversize the infrastructure for that 1% peak use. It’s just not feasible. It’s the ‘mOaR trains/rails/busses…’ instead of lanes. There isn’t any efficient way of moving that much people around in that little time, imo the solution has to include distributing the use of the resources, like with wfh or even flexible schedules (honestly we should aim for just working less. We humans are doing and making too many things all the time…). What do you do with so many busses and trains just 30 min after the rush hour when almost no one rides it? I’ve seen those massive parking lots where the American yellow school busses lie the 99% of the time when they’re not swarming all the roads, our current lots for busses and trains are quite big already I don’t think they can be scaled that way. And then you have drivers and other workers…
Unlike more lanes, more trains is far easier to implement, cheaper, and basically takes up no space. The extra trains can be used to swap out during maintaince and repairs. They can also be deployed during abnormal congestion such as concerts or sports events.
If our cities will let robotaxis on their streets, i see no problem with robo trains which are literally attached to rails to guide them and would be far easier to implement emergency safety features like auxiliary brakes.
if we built public transit
It’s almost like they’re implying it needs expansion and improvements. Maybe if you read past the first sentence without waiting to be immediately outraged, you’d have caught that.
No, I’ve read the whole comment. And I think it’s wrong all of it. Of course we should build good, robust, and reliable public transport networks. But I think those shouldn’t be oversized in excess. In this case I consider much more efficient to shut down or downsize the economy, than to prepare busses and trains, and rails and roads for events that doesn’t happen that often. ‘Sorry boss, the union has put out a message that today we aren’t working.’ is what it should be.
You still just want to be outraged to be outraged. I DIDNT read past your first sentence because it’s clear that’s all you want to do. Feel free to reply, but I’ll just do the same then too.
When there was some ice and snow in my country, the cars and busses didn’t work. Trains were still going, so more reliable indeed.
If a job doesn’t pay well enough for snow tires it must not be that important
Snow tires make roads safer in winter but certainly aren’t nearly as safe as a train or tram on rails would be. You having snow tires also has no effect on the other motorists, whom may choose not to use snow tires.
Lol, you sound like you’ve never seen public transit in snowy conditions before. Unless you invest specifically in making that public transit resilient against snow and ice, it’ll crumble as soon as it starts snowing. Here in the Netherlands, where we have good public transit but no good snow/ice resistance it all comes to a halt when it’s snowing. Recently we’ve had a couple of days where basically the entire public transit system came to a halt. And not for extreme snow or blizzards, but for a relatively small layer of snow. It’s simply not worth it to invest all that money just to drive on those rare snowy days apparently
Unless you invest specifically in making that public transit resilient against snow and ice, it’ll crumble as soon as it starts snowing
I get 6-8 months of winter in my area. The system should be designed to handle that snow and ice regularly from day 1.
I remember on 9/11/01 people coming into my job like that: “so crazy huh? Can’t believe you guys are working. Anyway, let me get a half pound of potato salad.”
Also on something like blisteringly humid 40°C days, where you’re only doing inside service but tables insist on eating outside
Like bro, I’m a person too
It works both ways. When it’s -10°C outside and you walk into a store where the thermostat is set to a cozy 27 and the employees are walking around with short sleeve t-shirts. You spend 2 minutes 37 seconds inside, and leave with your balls drenched in sweat.
Okay, but customers have to put up with it for 2 minutes. Workers have to put up with it for 8 hours while doing exercise
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There should be the opposite of a dollar store right next door to a regular retail store. Everything’s marked up by a factor of 10. It’s open 24/7/365 come hell or high water, like a waffle house. It doesn’t sell much unless everything else is closed. Employees get hazard pay as a function of sales. If sales go up, so does hazard pay.
This is basically a gas station. Open 24/7 and sells common stuff like bread and milk, but you often pay significantly more than at a groccery store due to convenience.
[Facepalm]
I just reinvented the convenience store.
I don’t mind as long as it’s said gratefully. Like they hoped for a miracle and you’re it.
I don’t have much guilt over using a grocery store or gas station on a holiday. Retail or restaurants, on the other hand, I’ll try to avoid. Not all businesses are equal in daily necessity.
The grocery stores in my country are all closed on holidays …
Look it’s just fun to go out in the snow 😅
in the winter, I push my errands out until there’s enough snow to slide around in, if I have to drive
you’re telling me that I get to go drift (reponsibly, of course), I get a basically empty store with nobody blocking the aisles or anything, the parking lot is wide open, and the checkouts have no lines? fucking sign me up
I really think the argument that “people who go into stores are the reason the store is open” is kind of dumb. The reason the store is open is because the owners want to make more money, and they think they can do that by staying open. I had to do the errand sooner or later anyways, it makes no difference to the amount of money I am spending at your store if I go in today or tomorrow. but it’s more fun and convenient for me to go today. if you were closed because of the weather, I would be mildly disappointed, and then forget about it in 3 minutes because I’m having fun sliding around.
blaming the customer in this situation is like blaming the customer for your boss paying you below minimum wage.
I really think the argument that “people who go into stores are the reason the store is open” is kind of dumb.
The reason the store is open is because the owners want to make more money, and they think they can do that by staying open.
Okay, hear me out. I know this sounds crazy, but if the owner wants to make money, they do so when people come into the store and purchase things.
So if people didn’t come into the store, then they wouldn’t purchase things, right?
So if there’s nobody purchasing things, the store isn’t making money. Which means that if there’s a reason that people aren’t coming into the store and spending money, the owners of the stores will possibly try to avoid wasting money by being open. Not instantly, of course, but over time - say, the course of a year - a pattern showing a lack of customers because of a specific cause will make a business reconsider their policy if it impacts their bottom line.
I grew up in a tourist town, and outside of 3 months of the year 50% of businesses were closed. And probably 25% reduced the hours that they’re open. Because no tourists meant fewer customers and who cares about the locals. It was cheaper to close and for the owners to go to their second houses in Florida for the winter than stay open all year. But I knew of 1 restaurant that expected the entire staff to be there regardless of the weather - rain, snow, or shine. One time the owner was going to let his staff go home because of a blizzard so bad that the state declared a state of emergency and was closing down the roads, and some guy came in for dinner. And this was in New England, so we’re talking snow accumulation measured in inches per hour and whiteout conditions - not some southern state where an inch of snow grinds everything to a halt. The entire staff had to risk being snowed in at work and unable to get home until the state got the snow cleared because 1 guy decided to go out in a once in a decade winter storm.
Me when there’s blizzard conditions outside and three people have died but Taco Bell is still open
I’m in retail management. My mom told me she had a baseball sized tumor they needed to be removed.
I was like “I don’t know what to say I haven’t prepared for this. All I can think right now is ‘you’re still coming in tho right?’”
