At one of the SPREE sessions I attended last week, a retailer, wholesaler and mall developer took various questions from the audience.

One topic that came up was whether or not malls should extend their hours during the holiday shopping season to 18+ hours per day. The mall representative argued that he thinks it's in the best interest of the consumer to offer as many hours as possible. The retailer countered that it's hard to staff your store for that many hours and maintain profitability.

I think a happy medium may fall somewhere in between… say from 7:30AM to 10:30PM for the last two to three weeks of the season.

What do you think works best for your business?