EclectEcon

In the early 1960s, there was a store in the town where my relatives lived [Meijer's Thrifty Acres -- it's still there] that decided to stay open for customers for 24 hours a day. They did a calculation and discovered that the extra costs of staying open in the wee hours were extremely low, since they had the lights on and had people in the store restocking the shelves. In eco-speak, the incremental or marginal revenue from staying open 24 hours outweighed the incremental or marginal costs.

That was over 40 years ago. Twenty years ago the A&P store near where I lived in London, Ont, went through the same calculations and decided to stay open 24 hours.

So it's not a new phenomenon, despite what is implied by this article in the Trono Globe & Mail. It's just new in some chains in Canada.

This Kitchener location is one of 25 Wal-Mart Canada stores that will be open 24 hours a day, seven days a week, from now on.

The company's announcement last week makes it the first major department store chain in the country to keep its doors open all night past the peak holiday season.

It's not that Canadians are all that slow in figuring out the basic marginal computations. Rather, many municipalities have had store-opening-hours regulations, prohibiting stores from opening on holidays (Sundays, too, until recently) and from remaining open for long hours. Speaking for consumers, thank goodness for the erosion of these regulations.