Hungry Jack's No Longer Open 24 Hours?

iluvpizza on 01/04/2022 - 23:10
Last edited 02/04/2022 - 10:37 by 1 other user

So the HJ closest to me being Burwood VIC has been open 24hrs for years, but then I drive past at 1am the other night only to see they're closed. According to the website they now close at 11pm Fri/Sat, 10pm otherwise, which seems a bit insane.

Always seems reasonably busy to me when I go there or drive past. The next closest one is Forest Hill which stopped opening 24 hrs maybe 4 years ago, they close at 11pm but more understandable as its not on a major highway out of the city like Burwood.

I guess they know what they're doing though, if it was still profitable enough they wouldn't close so early. Just wondering if anyone has some inside info about if the company as a whole is not doing to well or maybe just in Melbourne?

Related Stores

Hungry Jack's

• 

  Slippery Otter on 01/04/2022 - 23:20

  +2

  I guess people are used to lockdown, being home by a set time.

• 

  plmko on 01/04/2022 - 23:23

  +2

  There's an extreme shortage of hospitality staff going on. Did that not cross your mind?

  • 

    Iwantthebestprice on 01/04/2022 - 23:55

    There is always an unlimited amount of 16 to 18 year olds ready to work that time… maybe I’m different but in outer suburbs always availability, maybe being an inner suburb they can’t find any staff?

    • 

      AustriaBargain on 02/04/2022 - 01:35

      +3

      They could hire adults if there are no teens. It's not like a few dollars more per hour can make a huge difference if it really is packed with customers.

      • 

        RockyRaccoon on 03/04/2022 - 07:23

        You serious? (😀)

        3-4% unemployment rates, where are you going to find these mythical unemployed adults who are willing to work midnight to dawn?

        And thats not criticising this or any age group.

        BTW

        After 22 years, researchers found that the women who worked on rotating night shifts for more than five years were up to 11% more likely to have died early compared to those who never worked these shifts. In fact, those working for more than 15 years on rotating night shifts had a 38% higher risk of dying from heart disease than nurses who only worked during the day. Surprisingly, rotating night shifts were also linked to a 25% higher risk of dying from lung cancer and 33% greater risk of colon cancer death. The increased risk of lung cancer could be attributed to a higher rate of smoking among night shift workers, says Schernhammer.

        So those willing adults who like night shifts are probably already dead or dying…😂

• 

  Jimothy Wongingtons on 01/04/2022 - 23:36

  +4

  When I think late night fast food I always think maccas…

  Though I actually prefer HJ.

  • 

    altomic on 02/04/2022 - 10:19

    +1

    The burgers are better at hungry jacks

• 

  [Deactivated] on 01/04/2022 - 23:37

  as far as i'm aware, they've always closed at 10 where i am.

• 

  BewareOfThe Dog on 02/04/2022 - 09:26

  I noticed that in Newcastle, which given my new job is a pain. So servo pies or maccas.

• 

  MrFrugalSpend on 02/04/2022 - 09:49

  +13

  I am a manager of a 24 hour business.

  It is really hard to make a business stack up 24/7 with the additional entitlements that are required for permanent night shift workers, public holiday workers etc. It is not worth our while to stay open 24 hours if we break it down and its been a really tough decision to keep it open and not lay off staff. However we keep it open for other non-monetary reasons I won't go into. I am all for worker's rights and I get why they are needed, but everyone should understand there are consequences of this which can result in less work for people overall when business shutdown more hours because it doesn't stack up.

  The loadings are higher on the pay rates, higher again on Sundays, Public Holidays. Permanent night shift workers (those that work at least 50% of the time at night shift) get an extra week's paid leave too. We have unskilled staff that work these shifts that get paid more than teachers, people with engineering degrees on 38 hour normal weeks etc.

  Then there are other benefits for these staff - e.g. after surveying staff for preferences, we settled on overnight running the maximum 12 hour shift we can (with fatigue management procedures) so permanent full time workers work 4 days on 4 days off (48 hours work in 8 days). That has its benefits and many staff like it as you get 4 days off in a row constantly. Plus every ~two months an extra RDO day off to get it back to 38 hours/week average. Some workers also shuffle their shifts with other staff so if you want to go away you can work say 2 days then have 6 off to go on holidays then work 5 days when you get back (plus align with your RDO) and use no annual leave at all (if you choose). Most of the staff like it. However despite this there is still 5 weeks paid leave as well. Most people struggle to take it all and so we accumulate financial debt to them. Add personal leave and overall you need a 5th staff member to cover for leave plus 4 'full time' salaried staff to make a single full 24 hour rotation of the same 1 role!

  So they work 50% of days in the year less 5 weeks + sick leave + RDOs (works out at least another ~6 blocks) = approx 208 days off/year = work 157 days/year = 43% of days for above-average pay due to loadings as well.

  I haven't checked lately but overall you are probably paying circa $400,000 p.a. with on costs to have a single unskilled role staffed 24/7 - then multiply that by the number of roles you need (at least two overnight) = $800,000 p.a. - then on top of that you need people on call for escalations for incidents or injury, people calling in sick etc.
  Attribute at least half of that to being open the extended hours that you could otherwise optimise, that's a lot of HJ burgers at 3am to make it stack along with the cost of actually making your burgers, your extra electricity and other things.

  • 

    ihbh on 02/04/2022 - 12:33

    +1

    What's your distribution of customers by time over night compared to during the day?

    I assume during dead times, the staff are stacking shelves, etc?

    • 

      MrFrugalSpend on 02/04/2022 - 14:56

      We get them to clean and other things such as review safety / operating procedures, check stock levels, and provide feedback for improvement etc to keep them active. Some nights can be very dead. I've even had a staff member successfully learning to play guitar on the job by watching lessons online with their guitar and music sheets behind the scenes and would not get interrupted - but that's okay if they've done their other tasks, cleaning roster etc.

  • 

    bobbified on 02/04/2022 - 12:51

    …you are probably paying circa $400,000 p.a. with on costs to have a single unskilled role staffed 24/7

    Not that I'm doubting you, but that figure seems pretty high. That'll be what… about 10x FTE annual salary? How does that work?

    • 

      Presence on 02/04/2022 - 14:29

      That sounds ROUGHLY right. He needs 4-5 people to achieve this, and it normally costs double a staff members salary to employ them.

    • 

      MrFrugalSpend on 02/04/2022 - 14:47

      Think about a role being a continuous thing that needs to be staffed 24/7 - e.g. we need someone at the front counter 24/7 to greet people, watch the door etc. We have to pay 4.5 people (i.e. becomes 5 people but you need the overlap to send them on training etc) to fill that role around the clock 24/7/365 and it still requires a lot of juggling for leave / sickness / now COVID isolations. So the bare minimum it costs for award wage is circa $80K each with on costs such as super. So for the number of days they actually work (157) it works out more than $40/hr cost for entry level (we provide the training; then pay some people extra if they have extra skills, take on some extra responsibilities etc). That's basic on costs before you consider the larger costs you incur for having a larger business - more software licenses, more training fees, more payroll taxes, more insurances, more equipment and consumables etc.
      i didn't work it out exactly, it may actually be more. I'm being fairly rough without checking actuals.

      • 

        RockyRaccoon on 03/04/2022 - 07:29

        So much to digest, so you might have covered this, but I am sure there would be extra costs to employ someone who could make sure all the rules where adhered to.

        No wonder many corporations have been stung for compliance issues with pay given your descriptions above.

  • 

    AsukaST on 04/04/2022 - 03:57

    I'm curious about the "other non-monetary reasons" you keep your store 24/7 despite huge cost.🙄

• 

  fantombloo on 02/04/2022 - 10:07

  2 times in the last couple of months I've tried to get HJs in Sydney's George St cinema area after a show, around 2230, with no luck. Took the tram to circular quay, the maccas is buzzing and HJ is shut. I don't get it. I'm not expecting 24hr but closed before 2300? That said there's a pub at circular quay that I wanted to go to both times too - Mary's - and it was shut too, so definitely something bigger like a wholesale downturn going on, but still, with the amount of people in maccas surely some would spill over into HJ if it was open.

  • 

    Soluble on 02/04/2022 - 14:14

    +3

    As a business operator who opens longer hours than similar businesses in my area, if everyone did it, it wouldn't be worth it because the amount of people would be diluted.

    • 

      fantombloo on 02/04/2022 - 17:58

      Understood. But i just think HJ at George St would sell much more on a Friday night between 2200-0000 than a weekday 1500-1700. As I said, maccas was overflowing.

      • 

        AlienC on 02/04/2022 - 19:46

        I noticed this too but years ago.

        This is like one of few areas where I said to myself you know if I had a business open at this time every weekend or certain days and times I would make a killing it's just a missed opportunity.

        Anyone who has had a big night out and went looking for food knows this and usually it is either maccas Kebab or woolworths (or any other supermarket).

        Your last resort will always be a convenience store or servo haha which are not bad for a late night hot chocolate or coffee imho.

        I personally think a late night Lebanese pizza manoush place should just open from like 2:30pm onwards or maybe slightly earlier to also catch the office lunch crew and then maybe stop at 3am or 3:30am or after few months of operation whenever the traffic really dies down because yeah many times after a show or concert or just get together your options really only are McDonald's or as already said above convenience store and maybe a Kebab place or two.

• 

  AdosHouse on 02/04/2022 - 12:07

  All the HJs around me stopped being 24/7 long before COVID.

• 

  iNeed2Pee on 02/04/2022 - 12:17

  Oakleigh bruv? 24/7.

• 

  bobbified on 02/04/2022 - 12:54

  The HJs on the corner of Russell and Bourke St in the city had weird and erratic hours for a while (even after other shops were reopened) and now just seems to be shut completely.

• 

  AlienC on 02/04/2022 - 19:37

  Can't really confirm or deny but I think the Kingswood NSW one is 24 hours still but drive through only like after a certain time be it 10pm or midnight until like 6am.

  I rang them like a year or two ago to confirm and this is what I was told by staff.

  But with covid since then who knows what their new revised times are.

  I personally wish there was a manoush late night in my area.. Don't need to sell me anything else just maybe soft drinks and manoush and I'm happy.

• 

  aestheticsltd on 08/06/2022 - 05:46

  Only a couple of weeks ago the Hungry Jacks in Ascot/Belmont (Perth) changed from 24hrs 7 days to 6am-10pm apart from 24hrs Fri/Sat which is something at least. I think the Canningtom Drive thru is still 24hrs 7 days. All other Perth stores seem to be 6am-10pm except 12am Fri/Sat.