and retail is down...

It was about 85 degrees tonight about 9pm.  Maddie has decided that she won't miss any of the Olympics and is therefore, staying up until 12am again.  So we decided to go shopping.  We stopped at Gymboree because it closes at 9pm even on beautiful nights with many people in the store ready to spend money.  We had 5 minutes to shop and took advantage of it.  Then, we proceeded to Borders Bookstore which closes at 10pm.  Or so we thought.  We walked up and they were locking the doors.  Seems, they have been slow so they have decided to close at 9pm.  Seems very intelligent to me.  Sales revenues are down.  Overall shopper numbers are down.  Stock price is depressed.  So, on a beautiful night with many people still out, you should shut down early.  For the convenience of your staff, lets forgo all of the money that people were more than willing to contribute to your P&L, and just go home early.  And you wonder why retail is down.  Because retail is starting to be about convenience as opposed to serving the customer.  You would think that the store manager, seeing about 20 people wanting to enter his Borders, would just stay open.  Lets get the store numbers up.  Lets show corporate some proactive signs that we can improve sales.  Umm, it is a beautiful night, lets just head home early.  Yeah, good luck hitting your quarterly numbers.  And you know the options that never seem to pay out like you had hoped.  Well, look in the mirror.  Yes, I am this bitter because I was trying to pick up a magazine and missed out by 3 minutes.  Frustrated, yes.  But, don't worry, Barnes and Noble never seem to close early...