Bank Holiday Blues

There is a fairly popular misconception that Bank Holiday weekends are a great time for selling property. The reality couldn’t be further from the truth and perhaps marks a notable return to bygone days in terms of the family unit and time off. These day most potential buyers are away or otherwise engaged and so you have a much smaller pool of people out viewing and it’s Sods’ law that the few people who do want to view, normally want to see places where your homeowners are away.
 
In the 80’s and 90’s, public expectation on opening hours steadily grew and Saturdays and Sundays were considered almost a consumer right. The swell of demand outweighed religious concerns about a day of rest and more and more business owners succumbed to the reality of giving up their weekends to strengthen their businesses. I was no different, with Sundays being a staple working day for me during those years. Indeed those days often proved very fruitful as people took the opportunity to use the day to go house hunting.
 
However, in the last decade I have noticed the novelty has steadily worn off, at least in house buying. Don’t get me wrong, you still wouldn’t get me within half a mile of Tesco or IKEA on Sunday lunchtimes, as they remain more popular than ever at this time.  As an aside, why do so many people go to IKEA on a Sunday?! Surely they must know it’s almost guaranteed to raise your blood pressure and stress levels. You spend 2 hours building your shopping list only to discover half of it isn’t in stock and what is available, you have to queue for an hour to get to the till. By this time you will have normally added items to your trolley you really don’t want or need, just to make the trip more worthwhile.  I still own a turquoise beanbag as a result of one such experience.

Anyway, I digress. In my business, Sunday and Bank Holidays have pretty much become a washout. I sense more and more families wanting to maximise these as days of rest, or days of sport or for family activities and you know what, I think that’s a pretty good thing. My staff certainly agree, although I suspect they are less interested in the cyclical change of consumer behaviour and more interested in the fact they get extra days off!