Bars Victimized By Time Change
As some of you may know, I’m originally from Indiana, so local news from my home state still interests me. The major current event in Indiana is switching to daylight savings time. Until April 2006, Indiana (along with Arizona and Hawaii) hasn’t observed daylight savings time. However, a bill was recently passed to join the rest of the USA to spring forward an hour in a few days. The situation is rather complex, though, as several counties will join the central time zone instead. For a good write-up of the situation, check out the Wikipedia article.
Anyway, the relevant tidbit for this blog is that the switch to daylight savings will cost bars a good chunk of change. Last call in Indiana is at 3 AM. However, time springs ahead by one hour at 2 AM Sunday morning, so last call effectively occurs one hour earlier! One owner who has three bars estimates that he’ll lose $10,000 this weekend, because patrons will have one less hour to drink on Final Four weekend.
Of course, he could just brave the legal system and risk being fined $1000 per bar. A net gain of $7000 v. nothing isn’t so bad, especially with everyone out for March Madness.
