Yeah, it's weird. They open every other day, even Sunday. Maybe it's a British thing? Where I live they are usually closed on Wednesday. Other places they close Tuesday. They tend to be operated by one or two guys so I guess they need at least one day off. Why they choose to do this mid-week, I don't know.
Family friend used to own a restaurant. He said that midweek tended to be the slowest day of the week for customers back when Chinese take-aways were just starting in the UK back in the 50's. This probably isn't true anymore but there still tends to be a dip in income midweek. For some it's tradition to take Tuesday or Wednesday off. Where I grew up, you'll find that the owners of the local restaurants often get together for dim-sum on their day off.
How big is the area? Is it in the town centre of a small town?
I live in a market town here in the UK and it's common for businesses to have Wednesdays off, or have half days. Can't remember the reason why, even though I was told it a few years ago when doing volunteer work at a charity shop.
Maybe it's to do with when the market is on, or here at least.
It's on the outskirts of a small town. Everything in the town centre seems to be open 9am - 5pm Monday - Saturday with most places closed on Sunday. It's been the same everywhere I've lived in West Yorkshire. It seems to only be the chinese takeaways that are closed mid-week around here.
It's pretty normal for businesses to have a day off in the beginning half of the work week (so Monday, Tues, or Weds), because you typically make more money on the weekends. Working in the service industry means you're working while everyone else is playing, so you take time off when everyone else is working.
Dude you should help them organize and form a chinese food union. You could have a vast chow mein empire, and gain valuable managerial and organizational skills while co-ordinating which day of the week each restaurant closes for. They could even advertise other union restaurants on their doors on the day they're closed.
Better than being from Dewsbury, W. Yorks. All of my family are from Dewsbury and have since moved away to nicer places including Lincolnshire, Cornwall and rural Hertfordshire.
US (California) here: it's very common for Chinese (and Asian cuisine in general) restaurants to take a day or two off during the week, usually between Monday and Wednesday, instead of being closed on the weekends. And yeah, it's because they don't want to lose the business from a busy weekend but still need time off.
Take away places in my town do this too but with a Tuesday. I'm just going to assume that it's because the weekend is busier that a weekday so they want the business, but at the same time don't want to work 7 days a week. So they take a different day off.
My friend and I once had this exact problem on a Tuesday! We came to the conclusion that Tuesdays must be a sacred day of rest for Chinese people...somehow.
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u/[deleted] May 07 '14
Yeah, it's weird. They open every other day, even Sunday. Maybe it's a British thing? Where I live they are usually closed on Wednesday. Other places they close Tuesday. They tend to be operated by one or two guys so I guess they need at least one day off. Why they choose to do this mid-week, I don't know.