Trail town store opening hours?

[Sodium]

(I guess this question applies to most of small-town America, but coming from the UK I'm not familiar with your 'usual' store opening hours)

I'm guessing that outfitters and coffee shops generally shut late afternoon, around 5pm ish? And post offices shut even earlier - lunchtime or mid-afternoon depending on the day of the week?

How about grocery stores and restaurants/diners ? Are they normally open much later in the evening, 8-9pm? I'm just thinking terms of a long day of hiking, and then squeezing in a quick shop, huge meal and then crash out in a hostel. Rather than doing nero town days.

Thanks!

[BillyGr]

The answer is - it depends. Since the trail covers parts of 14 states, it would be like you travelling through 14 European countries, each having slightly different rules on various things.

There are grocery stores that stay open 24 hours/day, and then there are some in smaller towns that might only be open 8am-8pm (or even less on, say, a Sunday - in fact there are still a few areas in the US that prohibit stores opening on Sunday, though I don't know that any are on the trail).

Bigger post offices will run 8-5, but smaller ones may only be a few hours, or close in the middle of the day.

Same goes with eating places - some will only do breakfast and lunch, others may do lunch & dinner, some only dinner and some (especially those featuring bars) may serve food until midnight or even a bit later.

So - it really depends on what town(s) you happen to be in. If you have a trail guide - might be easiest to search by the town names in there and see what websites you can come up with for places in that town.

[Slo-go'en]

Most Post offices are 9-5, M-F and 9-12 on Saturday. There are a few exceptions with shorter hours or limited days. Stores are typically open until at least 9 PM, many restaurants stop serving at 10, but again there can be exceptions based on the size of the town and time of year. One simply has to read the trail guide which gives this information and plan accordingly as you get close to the next town in question.

[bobgessner57]

Outfitter hours vary. Best to call ahead or find out through the grapevine about a particular place. Hardware stores tend to close at 5 or 6pm as do many other small businesses. Grocery stores and general merchandise like Family Dollar or Dollar Tree and places like Wal Mart tend to be open until 9 pm, some later. Restaurants tend to be open until 9 with some closing earlier and others later. The real problem is post offices. The larger towns are usually open from about 8 or 9 am until about 5 pm. Smaller ones may have shorter hours and may also close for one or more hours at lunch or even for an entire afternoon. Saturday hours are sketchy, and they all close on Sunday.

Some town facilities are more centrally located than others so you may need to build in extra time to get to, from, and around town at times.

[Sodium]

Thanks, some great info there. Really useful :)

[Jeff]

AWOL's AT Guide and ALDHA's Companion lists hours of operation for all Post Offices and most Outfitters.

[peakbagger]

Walmart's frequently open as early as 7 AM. I know the one in Gorham NH does which is the local resupply point.

I used to live where I had to drive by the Gorham NH post office. I would usually see at least a couple of thruhikers waiting on the porch at the post office on Monday mornings waiting for the post office to open as they had come into town on a Sunday.

[ki0eh]

There are areas such as the Valley of Virginia up through southern PA where, while not as a result of blue laws anymore, stores and restaurants are frequently closed on Sundays due to the general cultural milieu. Small town restaurants are often closed Mondays and perhaps Tuesdays, either in addition to or instead of Sundays. Chinese restaurants are often open more days than other small town restaurants.

Purchasing alcoholic beverages varies both by state and by town. In PA for example, you might be able to buy beer from a bar but not from a convenience store. Beer in convenience stores otherwise prevails near the AT. Wine and spirits in PA can only be purchased from state run stores (there actually is one of these on trail, in a mini strip mall south side of Duncannon) that are usually closed Sundays in small towns (like Duncannon).

[mattjv89]

Some PO's can have more diminished schedules if they're in a small town, for example the very popular Fontana Village office which is open 4 days a week I believe even in peak thru season. A lot of people were making last minute calls to bounce their boxes to the lodge, or dashing ahead if they didn't know they could. No idea how common that is overall though