I feel your frustration. It's been like that a long time - I can't remember when you could expect a place to be open on the weekend or evening.
I know it's hard for business owners to keep and pay staff but I've always thought sales would be strong outside the M-F 9-5 period. I'm not much of a shopper though so I dunno.
I think the DTA's street parties and similar events are designed to address this.
When I was selling treadmills back in 1999, a visiting salesman told me to "work when your customers aren't working". He meant that I should be open from 5-9pm instead of 9-5, because that's when customers could come in.
My gym is busier from 5-9am and 5-9pm than from 9-5.
In the service business, our workday is almost the opposite of the average worker.
Unfortunately, downtown, there are mitigating factors. Fewer people want to shop or park
I also always had frustrations about so many food places just being closed monday or tuesday. I get they need to choose one day off and those are probably the slow days, but I want to support places and Mondays are usually my lunch day!
I think this has been a struggle for a long time. Even in the 90’s when there was a good bar/club on every block, there was nothing else happening at night.
I think it is the old chicken and egg situation, where businesses started closing earlier because there were no customers and now there are no customers at night because the businesses are closed.
It is a tough situation. I think there has to be a night life downtown to get people there.
As someone who lives downtown, it’s sad and frustrating that these are the typical hours for most Queen St. businesses. Not only closed on weekends but after normal office hours as well. Many places can’t be visited unless you take time off from your 9-5.
Has it always been like this? A plaza can only do so much if there’s not much else to do. I think the market is down to one day a week as well?
What can be done to turn the downtown in a place to visit on evenings or weekends?