Shoppers, many on their way home from work, arrive in a trickle and go leisurely through the store.
They pass a few scattered employees working quietly in the darkened aisles to restock items bought in the earlier, busier hours.
Up front, a solitary checkout clerk fills a few idle moments by cleaning the other checkout lanes and replenishing their supplies of grocery bags.
It’s a little after midnight at the Giant supermarket in the Lancaster Shopping Center, an hour that casts a mellow mood.
The daytime bustle has been erased by the sweep of the clock’s hands. The liveliness, the lights, the lines — all muted, at least until the sun rises.
“It’s kind of nice to shop at night,” said Erin Fultz, a bartender at Scooter’s in Lititz who stopped at the store on her way home from work. “There’s not so many people.”
Round-the-clock retail, a headline-grabbing novelty here 25 years ago, has become commonplace across Lancaster County at certain types of stores.
More than 65 stores here now are open at all hours. That includes the vast majority of convenience stores, nearly half of the major supermarkets and a tiny number of drug stores.
Stores that operate 24 hours a day have become a staple in a society that wants to shop when it chooses.
Officials at those stores acknowledge that the midnight-hour business can be less than lucrative. But they want to be available whenever customers wish to shop, lest customers go somewhere else.
And some customers say it suits to shop overnight.
“I work till midnight,” said Tim Swarr, a sorter in the bindery of R.R. Donnelley’s Greenfield Road plant, as he shopped at the Giant.
“On my way home, I just pop in here. I’m glad it’s open 24 hours,” said Swarr, toting a basket loaded with sausage, vegetables and Pop-Tarts.
Overnight shopping has one big disadvantage — service departments such as store pharmacies often are closed at those hours.
But the midnight customers seem unfazed by that drawback, as they stroll casually up and down the aisles.
“People who come in at night are not in that rush-rush like people during the day,” said Robin Tshudy, an overnight cashier at Darrenkamp’s Willow Valley store, a 24-hour location.
“During the day, people are trying to beat the school bus home, or trying to get to work, or whatever. At night, people are off work. They’re shopping then so they don’t have to go out during the day,” she said.
“You don’t have people running in on their lunch break to grab a salad and get out,” noted spokesman Eric White of Redner’s, with three of its four stores here operating 24 hours.
From the stores’ perspective, going to an all-hour operation is not a big deal, some retailers say.
“We have a night crew in (the Willow Valley store) already,” said Darrenkamp’s president Joe Darrenkamp. “All we need is a cashier and a bagger.”
“What it means for us is an additional cashier,” agreed Giant spokeswoman Tracy Pawelski.
“Why turn a customer away when you can easily service him?” asked White, the Redner’s spokesman.
“You’d always rather gain a sale rather than lose one. If being open 11-to-7 helps you gain a customer, why not?”
But some competing merchants disagree.
For instance, Weis Markets, the county’s largest supermarket chain, has none of its 14 stores here open 24 hours.
“At a time when there are fewer third-shift jobs, we see less need for being open in the middle of the night,” said spokesman Dennis Curtin. “In markets where there is a demand for 24-hour service, we’re open.”
Curtin pointed out that Weis stores operate from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m., giving customers ample hours to shop.
“There was a time when we had more stores open 24 hours, but the demand wasn’t there. It wasn’t worth it,” he said.
Wiley’s Pharmacy, with four locations in the county, has taken an innovative tack.
Rather than be open 24 hours, it stays open until 9 p.m. weekdays, is open Saturdays until 5 p.m. and has pharmacists always on call.
“We’ve done focus groups with our clients and have found that the need is being met by our being on call 24 hours a day. ... That way, our clients can always reach us,” said president Stephen Wiley.
CVS uses extended hours as well, often staying open to 11 p.m. or midnight, though two of its 16 stores here are 24 hours.
Company-wide, it has more extended-hour locations than 24-hour locations, said spokesman Mike DeAngelis.
“We try to have enough 24-hour stores in each of our markets to serve the community need for a pharmacy that’s open late at night, so prescriptions can be filled on an emergency basis,” he said.
The Fruitville Pike Wal-Mart, which lacks the supermarket section found at Wal-Mart supercenters, went 24 hours for the 2004 Christmas season.
But overnight customers were lacking, so the store reverted to an 11 p.m. closing after the holiday.
“A lot of it has to do with our location,” said store manager Dennis Colbert. “Most of the people on our side of town work days. They have office-type jobs.
“It starts slowing down in here at 9 p.m. We never have to throw anyone out (at closing time) ...,” he said. “If those 10 o’clock and 11 o’clock hours were pretty high, we’d look at extending the hours.”
In contrast, it makes sense for the supercenters to stay open overnight because of the traffic in their supermarkets, said Colbert.
Russ Colton, store manager of the Ephrata Wal-Mart supercenter, agreed. “There’s more demand for groceries in the middle of the night than anything else,” he said.
Like the other 24-hour operators, Colton said it takes little extra effort to be open all night.
“We stock all of our merchandise on third shift anyhow, so we already have associates in the store. We have to have some cashiers, but other than that, it’s very cost effective,” he said.
“It’s a convenience for our customers and a convenience for us. It’s almost easier for us to stay open,” said Darrenkamp.
However, Darrenkamp’s Mount Joy store closes at 9 p.m., keeping the same schedule as it had when Darrenkamp’s bought it in 1997.
Giant has six of its seven supermarkets here open 24 hours.
“We don’t want our customers to have to wonder when we’re open,” said Pawelski.
Only the Reservoir Street store isn’t open around the clock, because “the sales just aren’t there to sustain a 24-hour operation,” said Pawelski.
White of Redner’s said only its Elizabethtown store here isn’t open 24 hours, for the same reason.
Non-stop shopping has been available for the most years here at the county’s scores of c-stores.
Turkey Hill Minit Markets, which began 24-hour operations here in about 1981, now has 44 of its 60 county stores open around the clock.
“We have some stores where (overnight is) their peak time,” said spokeswoman Erin Dimitriou Smith.
Smith said local ordinances and security issues usually dictate the operating-hours decision.
“There’s not any pros to being open 24 hours if it poses a security risk for customers and employees ...,” she said. “We take safety very seriously.”
Sheetz has 321 of its 322 stores company-wide, including all six of its county stores, open 24 hours. (The sole exception is one in Huntingdon County, where the hours are limited by a local ordinance.)
“If you’re going to be convenient, you need to be available at all hours to all people,” said spokeswoman Monica Jones.
All kinds of merchandise were being bought by customers in the Lancaster Shopping Center Giant after midnight one evening last week.
Fultz, 28, of Conestoga, picked up some spring water to mix into formula for her four-month-old daughter, as well as some sponges and detergent.
Grabbing some snacks was Manny Firoglanis, 31, of Mountville, going into work at Hot Z Pizza on his night off to help a new employee close the restaurant.
Doug Calaman, 29, of Landisville, stopped on his way home from work at Thermacore, where he’s a production supervisor. His “honey do” list, courtesy of his fiancee, included tortilla chips, peanuts and toilet paper.
On her way from work at Inter-Media Marketing to her boyfriend’s place, Vanessa Helsel, 19, of Lancaster, ducked in to buy a sketch pad.
Linda Martin, 56, of Lancaster, likewise was heading home from her job when she made a shopping detour.
Martin, who works in quality control at R.R. Donnelley’s Steel Way plant, picked up some cat food, milk and other things, though something else was her main priority.
“I need trash bags,” she said. “The trash goes out tomorrow.”
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