Tesco has taken the decision the discontinue 24-hour opening times in two of its supermarkets, with a strong likelihood of more such measures in the near future, theguardian.com and thegrocer.co.uk report.
The retailer has not yet named the two outlets in question. A shortening in opening hours has been necessitated by changes in shopping habits, most notably the increased popularity of online grocery shopping, and of convenience stores.
It said, “We’re always thinking about how to best serve customers in each of our stores. Where there is a case to look at the opening hours of a store, we will do so, but any decisions will be made locally and our colleagues will be the first to know.”
Maureen Hinton, retail analyst at Conlumino, commented, “It makes sense to close underused 24-hour stores in the middle of the night. All retailers are looking at their productivity and having a huge store open for a handful of customers does not make economic sense – especially with rising employment costs. And if it is underused then it will not be missed by customers.”
The two Tesco stores – one Tesco Extra and one hypermarket – will henceforth close at midnight and reopen at 6am.
© 2015 European Supermarket Magazine – your source for the latest retail news. Article by Peter Donnelly. To subscribe to ESM: The European Supermarket Magazine, click here.
