Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Miscellaneous/2019 February 11

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February 11

Japanese finger: what does luke mcgregor say in this video??

In this video: The Project - 01 Feb 2019, what does luke mcgregor say?? At the point: 2:35ish, he cracks Gorgi up, a little at first, then she absolutely loses it, all over “Japanese finger” and something like “Hi Australia”. What’s the joke? (The whole story starts just after 2:10, about Ariana Grande's tattoo fail.) IBE (talk) 16:37, 11 February 2019 (UTC)

Services' working days and times

If a customer wants to be served by a hairdresser or a tailor or a car mechanic or a state institution, they often have to visit the respective office. So why do such types of services often work Mon-Fri with standard working hours? Many of the customers themselves work Mon-Fri with standard working hours. Wouldn't these places profit more if they offered service when it would be more convenient for customers to visit them, on weekends or late in the evenings? --Qnowledge (talk) 16:43, 11 February 2019 (UTC)

Your assertion may be correct for your own locality, but it is certainly not the case ubiquitously. In the small town in Southern England wherein I reside, for example, hairdressers and car mechanics are typically open 6 or 7 days per week, and a proportion of them (though not all) are open until 8:00pm. However, larger businesses like major supermarkets, DIY stores, etc., can by law only open for 6 hours, most often choosing 10:00 to 4:00pm, on Sundays – see Sunday trading hours for a wider treatment of this).

Some state institutions (excluding medical services, some of which are always open) operate for part or all of normal Saturday hours: that they do not open longer will be partly due to their necessity to minimise costs (which are paid for by the taxpayers), partly due to their personnel's unwillingness to work outside "normal" hours, and partly because their clients often need to visit them in particular with some degree of urgency and will therefore make the effort, whereas more discretionary services can be had from a variety of providers, creating more incentive for them to be available at their customers' convenience. {The poster formerly known as 87.81.230.195} 2.122.1.40 (talk) 17:42, 11 February 2019 (UTC)

Every organization is different, and they will set their hours based on customer needs and their own needs. As one example, Chick-Fil-A is always closed on Sundays... even at the NFL stadiums they have franchises at. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 18:55, 11 February 2019 (UTC)

Also note that there's a paradox here. That is, if all those current 9 to 5 businesses that serve consumers were to move to different hours, such as 2 PM to 10 PM, then those workers would be largely unavailable to patronize the other businesses that made this change. One solution I've seen is some businesses that are open late, one day a week, or perhaps more.

Also note that late shift workers may have other issues, such as nobody home watching the kids. So, the seemingly obvious solution isn't always best. SinisterLefty (talk) 01:10, 13 February 2019 (UTC)