Why I Think It Is OK for Businesses to Be Open on Easter Sunday

Hey! Happy Easter everyone! I hope you had a great day with your families. I was working all weekend, so my time with my family was very limited. As I worked from Friday through Sunday, I noticed a pattern in what I was hearing from my customers. Human behavior interests me a lot so I conducted a very informal study on their behavior as it related to me having to be at work on a religious holiday. The results may or may not surprise you.

On Saturday, I had a lot of questions from customers expressing concern on whether or not we would have the day off for Easter. These are people we work with frequently, and they are truly concerned about our well-being. I appreciate them so much for that sentiment. The comments I heard the most were “You guys get a day off tomorrow, right?” or “They aren’t making you work on Easter are they?”. When I confirmed that we would be working regular hours on Easter the responses were “That’s just terrible!” or “I’m so sorry.” or “I wish they wouldn’t do that to you.” So, that made me wonder Who is “they” anyway and why would they make me work on Easter? 

We used to at least have a delayed opening at noon on Easter (instead of 10am) so we could go to church. That policy was changed this year. I am a Christian man. I believe you should spend Easter Sunday celebrating with your family. Does my company not care about me? Could our customers live one day without visiting the pharmacy? Sure they could. When I was a kid growing up in Pineville, Louisiana, all of the stores were closed every Sunday. I don’t believe this one Sunday should be too much to ask.

All of the comments and concern on Saturday peaked my interest as to what I would hear from the customers on Sunday. I decided to take notes on how many customers expressed that same concern for us on Easter while they were in the store shopping. We waited on 50 or 60 customers today. How many of those do you think expressed concern about us working on Easter? Think about it and I will give you the answer later.

I eventually arrived at the conclusion that being open on Easter, and other holidays, is purely a market-driven decision. It has nothing to do with religious beliefs held, or not held, by my company or its management team. The main reason we are open is that we have customers there who want to shop. The choice you make to go to the store that day indicates that you want us to be there. If you believe that we shouldn’t be working on a religious holiday, then you should choose not to shop that day. Actions speak much louder than words.

Now, I am not here to pass judgment on the customers who did shop today. They may not celebrate Easter. They may have been taking advantage of lighter crowds. Maybe they were finished celebrating Easter and needed to get ready for the week. Sunday is a day that you take care of things that you can’t take care of during the work or school week. The fact that it is a holiday doesn’t change that. It wouldn’t be right for me to force my preferences on them. They wanted to shop, so our company decided to be open for them. I have a job there so I had to be there. I have no problem with that.

If you own your own business then you have the right to close your store and observe whatever holidays you want to. You won’t see many chain stores thinking that way. One exception, of course, is Chick-Fil-A. They have decided that they want their employees to be off every Sunday and all of their stores are closed. It is a decision that costs them a lot of money but I respect them for standing by their beliefs. Leaving money on the table for religious reasons is not a common practice.

Keep reading for the survey results…

A new friend?

Last week, one of our sister stores went out of business. They have a different name than we do, and a lot of customers are not aware that we are owned by the same company. It was an old store and it had a lot of loyal customers. Many of them were not happy about losing their store and pharmacy. I think I met the least happy one today. Our store was listed as a possible destination on the letter that all of their customers received, so we have been receiving a lot of inquiries over the last few days.

Early in the day, we noticed an older gentleman who looked confused, and quite angry. He was glaring at us from a distance. My technician, Meredith, politely asked if he needed help and he quickly told her no, and turned away from us. A few minutes later he approached the pharmacy with a prescription. He said he was forced to bring it to us because his other store had closed. I asked if he had been to our store before, and he told me that being in our store was like “being on the moon.” I welcomed him and let him know that we would take good care of him. He let me know that I don’t even know him and that I wouldn’t be able to replace those who had been serving him for the last 15 years. I promised to try.

I realized that we did not have his insurance information. I was scared to ask for it. When I did, you would have thought I asked him to stand on his head for 10 minutes. He asked for his prescription back so he could take it somewhere else. I considered giving it to him. I am not a fan of grumpy people. But I thought about how lost he looked, and must have felt. His prescriptions also lead me to believe that he may have some emotional issues. I decided to kill him with kindness.

I don’t need to prompt Meredith to pour on the customer service. She is quite skilled at it, and she followed my lead. By the time he left, I believe he was happy. He cracked a joke. He almost smiled. I think he will grow to like us. Someday.

Survey results

I know, the suspense is killing you. I recorded exactly zero people today who said they thought we should have been given the day off. This surprised me. I thought it would be 30-40 percent. These folks didn’t say that we should be closed because they didn’t think we should be. And good for them for not telling me one thing but showing me something else. It was a very slow day, so it looks to me like those who thought we should be closed also let their opinions be known. It is a market driven decision and the market said we should work. So we did.

I would love to see us get to a point where we would all close because the majority of customers stay home on Easter. We will see if that ever happens.

I hope you enjoyed this. Thanks for reading.

UPDATE:  A few days after writing this article, the gentleman who was upset about his pharmacy closing returned to our store. He was all smiles and cracking jokes. I am very glad we fought through his initial visit. It looks like he will be fun to work with from now on.