If the thorny issue of closing businesses on Sundays still does not achieve consensus, many Quebec hardware stores have nevertheless decided to review their schedules. Nearly half of them have reduced their opening hours in 2022, according to a review carried out by the Quebec Association of Hardware and Building Materials (AQMAT).
This is a real gain for the president of the association, Richard Darveau, who has been campaigning for months for a reduction in opening hours in order to allow merchants and their employees to breathe a little, in a context where there is a severe shortage of personnel. Thus, out of some 800 stores, nearly 400 have made changes.
Mr. Darveau nevertheless wants a law to be adopted to force businesses to close on Sundays and prevent unfair competition. “If there was a law, it would put everyone on an equal footing,” he explains.
The president of AQMAT had also already mentioned the idea that two merchants decide together to have similar opening hours. However, this practice is illegal. The Competition Bureau advised Mr. Darveau that he was liable to a fine of up to $25 million or even a prison sentence if he encouraged his members to agree on working hours. common opening.
“If there was a movement to close on Sunday, we would be the first to board,” says Éric Deslongchamps, owner of three Rona stores located in Mont-Laurier, Rivière-Rouge and Maniwaki.
Although his business is open seven days a week, Mr. Deslongchamps is one of the hardware stores that have reduced their opening hours. The reason: recruiting employees was giving him headaches. Its stores are closed on Thursday evenings. On Fridays, activities cease at 8 p.m. rather than 9 p.m. The businessman made this decision even though two major competitors, Canadian Tire and Home Hardware, are located not far from his Mont-Laurier store.
When I pass the Canadian Tire on Tuesday evening, there are two cars in the parking lot. We reduced the time slots that hurt the company the least.
Éric Deslongchamps, owner of three Rona stores located in Mont-Laurier, Rivière-Rouge and Maniwaki
According to him, no customer has complained about these changes, and his sales have not decreased. For the moment, the hardware store has no intention of going back, especially since its employees have shown it great gratitude. “It gives them more time to spend with their families. »
PHOTO MARCO CAMPANOZZI, THE PRESS
The Rona Major & Major hardware team in Montreal
Relieve the staff
It is also to allow its staff to “breathe” that the Rona Major & Major store, a hardware store located in Ahuntsic, in Montreal, now closes at 7 p.m. on Thursdays and Fridays. Days end at 6 p.m. Monday through Wednesday. “We did this to reduce the workload of the employees, explains the assistant director, Pascale Prud’homme. After three years of the pandemic, we were all exhausted. »
Responsible for scheduling and employee management, Mme Prud’homme had also noticed that the traffic in the store between 7 p.m. and 9 p.m. was less and less important. “Sometimes it costs more to stay open. »
Based on this observation, it does not plan to return to the opening hours “of yesteryear”. “Anyway, I don’t have anyone left who wants to do [ces quarts de travail-là] “, she launches spontaneously. And although opening hours have been reduced, the retailer, with a team of 48 employees, has more staff than before. “We increased our number of employees to relieve the pillars of the store. It requires more personnel management for fewer hours of availability,” explains M.me Prud’homme, who adds in the process that the newcomers are not ready to fill all the shifts offered.
In Sainte-Agathe-des-Monts, in the Laurentians, Christian Bélair, general manager of the Lortie et Martin hardware store, does not see the day when he will return to his old opening hours. Currently, the business is closed on Sundays as well as Thursday and Friday evenings. Many new employees who are asked to work every other Saturday react with little enthusiasm, he says. Mr. Bélair therefore struggles to imagine what would happen if they had to report to work on Sunday.
We learned to live with this new schedule. The more we evolved, the more we said to ourselves that if we started to open again on Sundays and in the evening, we risked having extremely diluted hours and a lower quality of service.
Christian Bélair, general manager of the Lortie et Martin hardware store
About 100 people worked at the hardware store before the pandemic. Today there are 85.
“People come to see us because their well has just frozen or their snow blower has stopped working,” he explains. We have to give a lot of advice. So if you split that over seven days with fewer employees, you’re not getting there. »