> Why do banks close at noon on Saturday? Almost any bank I have ever > been a member of has been closed on Sunday and closes at 12 on > Saturday, sometimes turning away customers who are waiting in an > ungodly line outside the store in order to cash or deposit their > checks before the bank closes. Also, every time you want to go, > they're closed due to some holiday - President's Day, Christmas, > St. Crispin's Day, what have you. How can banks afford to be closed > so much? Couldn't a bank attract a lot of business keeping normal > business hours? > > On that same note, how can Chik-fil-A afford to be closed on > Sundays? Fast food seems like a very competitive industry - very > similar goods being sold, prices constantly changing, menu items > constantly changing... and yet Chik-fil-A closes an entire day out > of the week. Can this make business sense? Do a lot of people eat > at Chik-fil-A because they feel good about a company that closes on > Sunday?
I don't think the banks and Chik-fil-A are analogous. The key difference is, with a bank you have an ongoing relationship -- you need to make deposits/withdrawals are YOUR bank, not just any bank that happens to be open when you want to make a deposit (ATMs chnage this somewhat, but not entirely). With Chik-fil-A, there is no ongoing relationship -- you just go whenever you want the food. If Chik-fil-A is closed, you just go on to the next fast food place; you can still go to Chik-fil-A next time. In other words, the cost to Chik-fil-A is just whatever profit they lose on Sunday; the cost to banks could well be higher. If the owner of Chik-fil-A is maximizing utility, not merely profit, it's obvious why closing on Sunday might be entirely rational based on his utility function, even if NOBODY eats there on the other days because they feel good about a company that closes on Sunday -- and I'm sure at least SOME people do. As for banks, there are exceptions -- I have accounts at not one but two banks that are open not only in Saturday but also on SUNDAY. One of them is in a supermarket, and is open every day the supermarket is open (but not every hour; the supermarket is open 24 hours six days a week and just closes for inventory for a few hours on the weekend). The other is in a neighborhood with a lot of Orthodox Jews (who wouldn't go to the bank on Saturday); I suspect for them being open on Sunday is an important competitive advantage. --Robert
