🚀 go-pugleaf

encarnaj@med.unc.edu (Tristan-B-Davies) wrote:
>In article <3o611b$42e@news.duke.edu>,
>Joel K. Furr <jfurr@acpub.duke.edu> wrote:
>}As for Kroger, yes you can go there in the middle of the night to buy 
>}food, but not prepared food served restaurant-style.
>
>Yes, but do't you think the healthy supply of 24-hour groceries (more here
>than in Boston!) is one reason all the convenience stores close early? Why
>stay open if your potential customers are just gonna head for Kroger or
>Harris Teeter to get a better selection and lowerprices?

In Blacksburg, Virginia (a city I'd never expected to hold up as a model
for others to emulate, but life is funny that way sometimes), we had a
24-hour Kroger with a 24-hour Hardee's and a 24-hour 7-11 within one block
of the Kroger; we also had 24-hour 7-11's elsewhere in town, making it
easy to get quick, hot food without having to sit down, place an order,
and wait 15 minutes OR having to buy food and take it home and cook it
yourself. 

I don't think the presence of 24-hour Krogers hurts the 24-hour restaurant
market; I think it's more likely that Blacksburg was a college town where
most of the kids weren't wealthy, weren't on any kind of points system
that allowed them to order pizza on their meal card, and were prone to
driving around.  I frequently hear the lack of good college-town-style
entertainment and dining opportunities in Durham blamed on the Duke
students, who simply stay home in the dorm and order pizza with Daddy's
money.  I believe they now have a meal card at VPI&SU that allows students
to get food delivered on said card, but that wasn't the case when I was a
student there and grabbing nachos at 4 am from various late-night places. 


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