10:00 Opening Time - Why? Why? Why?

It's caught me twice in two days, so it's risen (like scum) to the surface of my bubbling lake of daily irritants. And I need to vent.

What is it?

Stores and other facilities that open at  10:00am. In this neck of the woods, that means everything except the 24-hour super supermarkets and the bodegas.

In the abstract, it doesn't sound too bad, does it? "Oh look, Maude, the stores don't open till 10:00 - so we've got time to really enjoy breakfast before sallying forth for a spot of shopping!"


However, it is truly irritating in practice. Take yesterday....

I dropped my younger son at school (a bit late unfortunately) and set off to get all colors of printer ink (now there's another possible rant!), pay in some checks, check out the local bookstore, which is closing down, and return books to the local library. I was looking forward to all this -- trips undertaken without children, who have to be lifted in and out of the car, who demand lollipops with menaces, and who have to use the bathroom in every single location, are trips that I'm going to relish. But I hadn't factored in that I live in the land of lotus-eaters.

First ,at 8:40am, I struggled with the ATM at the bank. It would only take checks and nothing else, so I left knowing that I'd have to come back when the bank proper is open. Never mind, 9:05am and off to the library...

And the library is closed until 10:00am. I can drop the books in the book drop but that's it. OK, time to wander through the closing-down bookstore and enjoy a cup of coffee there before backtracking to the library and the bank. Nope. Bookstore doesn't open till 10:00am.

Thank goodness for an unnamed office supply store, which was open at 9:20 and had almost all the vastly expensive printer ink cartridges that I needed.

What does this 10:00am opening say? That business people are at work and don't need stores to be open? That noone else wants to shop or has a day that starts before 10:00am.

I guess I'm the only one. GRRRR