Customer convenience sometimes means keeping stores open 24 hours a day.

After surveyed customers said they wanted Wal-Mart to be more accessible, the store, 3015 Grand Ave., opened on a 24-hour daily basis in August 1997, assistant manager Sabrina Weber said.

“[A 24-hour store] brings in a wide span of customers,” Weber said. She said Wal-Mart only closes on Easter, Christmas and Thanksgiving.

Cub Foods, 3121 Grand Ave., only closes early on Christmas Eve and is closed on Christmas Day, said Mark McCann, assistant store manager.

Providing convenience is important even if business is not booming. Some holidays are slow at Wal-Mart, but it’s important to be open for the customers who do come in, Weber said.

Scott Sackville, manager of Copyworks, 105 Welch Ave, said college students are the customers who need a store to be open at 3 a.m.

“When I go shopping in the middle of the night, the only people I see are students,” said Laura Gunn, sophomore in zoology.

Gunn said she never goes grocery shopping before 10 p.m.

“You get in and out quicker because you don’t have to deal with lines,” she said.

Working early mornings or late nights may not appeal to some people, but 24-hour stores seem to be just as convenient for employees as they are for customers.

Employees’ schedules are more flexible at 24-hour stores, Sackville said. David Miller, junior in religious studies and a former Hy-Vee stocker, also said he liked the hours at Hy-Vee.

“Their scheduling was really flexible, which was nice,” Miller said.

Since Wal-Mart became a 24-hour store, those who work 10 p.m. to 7 a.m. are happy that they can work with customers, Weber said. “They feel more a part of the business,” she said.

Even if they aren’t filled with customers in the middle of the night, 24-hour stores do not seem to lose much money by staying open.

“It doesn’t cost that much more to be open all the time,” McCann said. He said the stocking at Cub Food is done at night, and that the electricity is on even if the store is not open.

Weber said Wal-Mart received trucks overnight before it was open 24 hours, so people were working even if the store was not open.