What bugs me most about post-pandemic life is that nothing stays open all night any more

In New York, they close because of crime.

I agree completely. Have observed this in NYC — it's not a city of 24-hour services anymore.

Even the House of Pies closes at midnight now.

I think corporations and smaller companies realized they could save on utilities and labor with reduced hours and sales wouldn't drop enough NOT to stay with the changes that Covid brought on. I used to have three 24-hour Walgreens within 10 minutes. Now two close at 10 pm (one stayed open until midnight for a while) while there's one that's open 24-hours - sometimes. Sometimes it's closed due to staff shortages.

There is still some stuff open 24 hours (like some gas stations) but, yeah, there's a LOT less than there was before.

It isn't even about late night hours, but many places now close earlier than before.

Local laundromat, dry cleaners, and other shops in my area of NYC have shaved off one-half to an hour (maybe more) from previous closing times.

If looking up hours online such as Yelp best to pay close attention to if things have been updated recently. Or even better call or text to get confirmation.

I agree. Here in Toronto most malls are now closing at 9pm. For the last two years, it's been either 7 or 8. Not a big deal but for some of us who work longer hours, it's hard to shop after 8. Will be interesting to see if places stay open later for Christmas shopping.

Yep. It sucks. Especially if you work overnight. Which I sometimes do.

It’s horrible. I don’t understand why all the other protocols people were up in arms about ending, and that were over with as soon as we got word….but everyone still goes along with this.

YES, WE MUST ALL HAVE A 9PM CURFEW. YES, YES, YES. 🧎🧎🧎

What did that ever have to do with reducing spread anyway? It squeezed everyone into the same few hours. I used to love shopping late when the crowds were gone.

Where I live, nothing was ever really open late. Since the pandemic, though, even some cold beer and wine stores (most Canadians still can’t buy alcohol in grocery/convenience stores) that used to close at eleven are closing at nine now due to staff shortages. Everywhere has “help wanted” signs up.

I guess it’s lack of staff coupled with people doing the math and figuring out that staying open all night really wasn’t worth it, especially if many people have made changes to the way they live due to the pandemic/inflation…?

(note: where I am, the pandemic really changed the way people think and live. We were already a bit insular and odd on Vancouver Island, but now even more people cook at home and retreat to home once the workday is done - if they they’re not already fortunate enough to be able to work from home, that is. the cost of living/housing here is also insane, so i think maybe the pandemic caused people to reevaluate their priorities. home became a sanctuary)

I would be very surprised if any of the people that worked late when all these services were open miss their jobs. They may do, but I would be surprised.

Limited restaurant menus, and earlier closing hours, even at higher end restaurants.

"In New York, they close because of crime."

LOL, Tulsa has more crime than NYC

I want to wake up in the city that never sleeps...............where is that now?

I want to wake up in a shitty that never schleeps. Where isch that now?

Aldi suddenly started closing at 8PM now. They used to close at 9. It was handy to be able to run in there at 8:30, 8:45 to grab a few things for dinner the next day, in and out in record time. They just started this a month or two ago.

. I also keep hearing of staff shortages and yet I hear so many people looking for part-time jobs or full-time jobs whether it's retail or not. I am a bit suspect that it's due to staff shortages because there is demand for these jobs. I think it's a case some employers don't want to hire more staff and it's good for keeping costs low.

In Seattle the last movie screenings start at 10:15-10:20. Must be a New York thang...

As for grocery stores, they stopped being open 24 hours about five years ago.

The sas thing is, I don't think we are ever going to pre-pandemic life.

By me Arby's closes at 7:00pm. Dunkin Donuts at 10:00pm.

Mentally ill matt-fatso weighing in about nyc as usual, a city where he doesn’t live. He’s obviously insane with jealousy, posting from Shittsburgh (which has a much higher crime rate than nyc).

I noticed the CVS on10th/54th is not really 24 hrs last summer.

That’s why people moved to Miami and some didn’t come back.

I agree r16.

OP some of that stuff has nothing to do with Covid but the Great Resignation. But I guess in a way the great resignation was affected by and a spinoff from the pandemic.

That CVS may get more business now that DR is closing at 8th and 47th.

In San Francisco, The Safeway, (grocery store), on Market Street was fromerly open 24 hours. During the pandemic, homeless people would take the shopping carts from the parking lot. Now the store closes at 9:00pm, to the chagrin of quite a few people.

Our McDonalds close at 8pm now, and IHOP at 9pm, which is ludicrous. The few local restaurants that were open late are back to almost normal hours but closed on Sundays and Mondays. Chain restaurants close at random times, you can call in an order and go to get it and find the place shut down. Grocery stores close at 9pm now and don't open until 8am. I really hate it.

Maybe if establishments didn't treat their employees like shit and paid them instead of letting the CEO buy a fifth house more people would be hired and could work nightshifts, hmm?

I will lie awake all night tossing and turning because your 24-hour convenience has been compromised, OP.

The McDonalds here closes at 2 and is just drive thru until 11.

The snowball effect of the Great Resignation, a global phenomenon, looks like this:

- People quit shitty jobs

- Gaps in rosters cause businesses to limit opening hours

- Employers lure people with better pay

- Employees, now with better pay, will want to work less (because they can afford to)

- Gaps in rosters remain, impossible to hire people to just cover the odd day and hours.

This was posted by me ^

Actually doesn't bother me at all because I am rarely out and about late at night and would never go food shopping at like 2am.

The nearest big cinema to me still shows films pretty late though - for example, this coming Saturday they have a showing of Black Panther: Wakanda Forever that starts at 11pm - it will actually start around 11.20pm with ads/trailers, and it's apparently 2h41m so people are not going to be leaving until 2am.

Stores are too cheap to pay the workers decent enough salaries, or do not see big enough profits from staying open all day and night.

I don’t like that restaurants don’t open for lunch and if they do it’s a tiny one page menu. I don’t live in a city and don’t like driving at night to go have dinner.

Don't people in the US eat dinner very early by international standards?

Most restaurants in Europe don't open until 8pm, earlier than that and it's 'pub grub' food in the UK.

Exactly R26, one of the most annoying things that has happened a few times is that I put in a mobile order (at a reasonable hour), the order went through fine/I paid/etc, and go to pick it up and find the location closed. Once a Dunkin that was supposed to be open 24 hours was closed at 7:30pm!

Average dinner time for most Americans is between 6 p.m. and 7 p.m. Though it can be early as 4:30 p.m. or late as nearly 11 p.m.

Keep in mind most Americans don't have large midday meals (luncheon), nor it much time allotted for same. This makes dinner the largest meal of day and also a time traditionally when families come together.

Since early 1900's or maybe post WWII era increasingly dinner at least in working to middle class homes was when the man of house arrived home from work, hence around 6 p.m. being most common meal time. This way mother, father and children all had meal together.

Growing up in my slice of suburbia streets were empty from about 6 p.m. on. That's when men began arriving home from work it to us kids it meant supper time.

The lack of late night openings is sometimes slightly frustrating, but nothing that I have huge problems with. It has side effects like now during my grocery stores limited hours there's more intrusive stocking and other stuff that used to be done in the wee hours going on, which only crowds the place more.

I just find it all fascinating that it's changed so much in such a short time. I will say that in my area, the places that actually are open 24 hours - like one 24 hour Walgreens or the bar that serves food late (midnight or 1 am) - have very quickly capitalized as being "that place." But even those places don't always do it consistently and there can be day-to-day changes based on staffing and for bars/restaurants on patronage.

There are a lot of people doing shift work in our town, we have a large regional hospital and several factories, a huge military base, plus support staff for two universities and all the local schools, all of whom get off work about midnight. It doesn't make sense for everything to be closed when probably 2000 people (at minimum) get off work, not to mention that there's nowhere to get anything for a minor emergency in the overnight hours. It's not just about people who like to stay up late or whatever.

I know. That sucks. The only time I can stand Wal-Mart is late at night.

Nobody wants to serve drunks either.

Curious.

The worry of crime and/or short-staffing may explain it to some extent, plus any change in consumer habits, but to me it doesn't add up.

COVID had a big impact where I live but I think for that reason there was a quick resumption of normal hours and habits when restrictions as restrictions were removed. Shopping hours 10.00 - 21.00 (and to 22.00 for department stores and some others) are back to normal and restaurants as well. The difference with restaurants being that pre-Covid it was much easier to find a table at a restaurant; now it's become standard to reserve many more places than before which may mean having to book ahead or plan the hour well for taking a chance on finding a free table.

There are many reasons why formerly 24/7 places now close, and or they now close eariler.

Here in NYC places once open 24/7 began closing overnight as one way to kick out homeless, druggies, and others who loitered about all night, this especially during bad weather.

For many traffic and or customers simply hasn't returned to what it was pre-covid. Again here in NYC many people did move out during pandemic. And while new arrivals have replaced they aren't always same sort of customer.

Biggest issue for many places is crime (Duane Reade, Rite Aid, and CVS type stores are basically being looted during overnight hour), and fact rising costs simply do not justify keeping places open late or even overnight.

Minimum wage in NYC is now $15/hr. You can eliminate one entire shift of workers by closing overnight. This and or adjust hours so only need one or two shifts of part-time workers.

Retail, restaurants and other service places at least here in NYC say they simply cannot find staffing to open up longer hours or extra shift.

Plenty of people got serious bank during covid (nearly two years of enhanced unemployment, two stimulus checks...), and good number saved a good amount of that money. They don't "need" to work at something they don't like because of that financial cushion.

On other side of things many companies are also shaking trees for all sorts of entry level workers. This is proving a golden opportunity for say a former retail or service worker to land a more prestigious office job. Being an administrative assistant, work from home CSR, or whatever has better compensation than retail or Starbucks and has better hours.

In short many simply have traded up to better jobs and aren't interested in going back to low level service, retail or similar employment.

What I don't understand about the "great resignation" is where did they all go? Chaturbate? Only Fans? Not everyone moved up to some glorious better paying job. And were pandemic unemployment payments really so great that people can still live off them? Something's not right.

Honey, it's not safe to be open all night anymore.

The election is over R45 and the November Sweeps are halfway over. No need to push the rising crime rate narrative any longer.

Chelsea Lately. No one wants to be on the subway late at night and the subway is the lifeblood of New York City. And people are realizing that no neighborhood is safe anymore and you must always be on guard.

nightlife in New York City is pretty much dead

[quote]Plenty of people got serious bank during covid (nearly two years of enhanced unemployment, two stimulus checks...)

That was not "serious bank" on any level. At all. It ended two years ago and there is no way anyone could have lived normally on that money for two years without needing to earn more. Your outdated talking points from July 2020 are duly noted, however.

[quote]Plenty of people got serious bank during covid (nearly two years of enhanced unemployment, two stimulus checks...

I'll be dining off those two stimulus checks for decades!

It's Bush fault.

I can't imagine stimulus checks still funding somebody's life. If so, more power to them, but it would seem like all the people who got stimulus money - at least the base level money - would have to be back to work by now. Not that they have to choose to go back to restaurant or retail jobs, but work somewhere.

It's not just that nothing stays open at night anymore; many places are closed MTW or MT and some places don't open until noon or even 1pm now. People don't seem to want to offer more than 8 hrs in a service-type establishment except for maybe on the weekends. (Fri Sat)

Could be worse, my local pub here in the UK only opens 8pm - 1am Thursday to Sunday.

Opening at other times doesn't cover heating/staff costs.

The most people got for stimulus was what? 3k? And 2 yrs ago. No one could live off that. Many people also blew it right away, according to reports -- either debts, or purchases, like a new car, which would've been gobbled up right away.

You might come across now sensible if you argued people changed their lifestyle, saving them more money, than arguing they were able to make 3k stretch 2 years! Like moving back home with family, becoming a stay at home parent to save on childcare, while getting the buffed unemployment for a year, even older people deciding to drop min wage side jobs, etc., Point being; 3k couldn't be responsible for major changes with the service industry.

I always think it's hilarious when New Yorkers complain that they can't have everything the second they want it.

I long for the NYC of my misbegotten youth of course, but also the NYC where you could swing by Florent for a 3am steak sandwich, or boudin noir any day of the week!

R34 you have no idea what you’re saying.

The past is a bucketful of ashes.

[quote]The election is over [R45] and the November Sweeps are halfway over. No need to push the rising crime rate narrative any longer.

Is that you, Mayor Adams?

"I always think it's hilarious when New Yorkers complain that they can't have everything the second they want it."

I live in nowheresville - central Illinois. Springfield and now Bloomington - metros about 170-200k. And even here there was a lot you could get at all times or very late which has been drastically reduced.

Excuse me R59

[Quote]The past is a bucketful of ashes.

—Robert Frost

R44

Read NYT linked article above or research online.

Many if not majority of those in "great resignation" simply quit one job and took another.

Good number of co-workers, friends and others one knows are being pestered nearly daily by head hunters. That or are being hit up via LinkedIn or similar sites. It helps also that for past year or so many places are offering new hires decent to fantastic bonuses and other incentives to onboard.

My old man used to always say best time to find a job is when you have one already. That is largely still true. But in many areas of employment market today one can quit a job on Friday, and have another lined up a week or so later.

It's a combination of the leftovers of the pandemic, and inflation/the coming recession.

Yeah I miss later hours

San Francisco was never a late night town, but now restaurants and grocery stores are closing by 8 or 9pm, even on weekends. It seems impossible to find restaurants open on Sundays and Mondays. Even in The Castro. Prices are outrageous. It seems that all of our greasy spoon late night dinners have closed permanently.

Probably because the pandemic is not over yet.

[quote] What bugs me most about post-pandemic life is that nothing stays open all night any more

Hey, my local bathhouse - Steamworks, still is 24 hrs. You can still shoot your load into a hot twunk at 3am. Thank god.

[quote] I want to wake up in the city that never sleeps...............where is that now?

Nowhere, you’re supposed to be home now and in bed by no later than 10:30 pm. Life sucks. Well, at least it gives you more time to rub one out now.

Steamworks should add a nice little pub area with eats - no late night food problem.

"If you want to do more than fuck and suck - you're in luck. Introducing The Cantina/Pub/Bistro, now at Steamworks! Get your rocks off and your grub on!"

If you're talking about Steamworks Chicago (are there others?) I wouldn't think late night food/drink would be a huge issue, or is it?

Walmart should NEVER be open 24/7

[Quote] If you're talking about Steamworks Chicago (are there others?) I wouldn't think late night food/drink would be a huge issue, or is it?

no issue at all You can always get a tuna sandwich at Subway

I would like more late night openings. But, thinking about it, in my small-medium size city, there was a fairly surprising amount of things open 24 hours or very late pre-Covid. It was probably never all needed.