Abstract
The present paper proposes a new model to discuss the efficiency of
optimal business hours for retailers. The model can be applied generally for any
retailer and especially exercised within the newsvendor problem framework. Under the
proposed model, the customers’ residences are uniformly distributed over the Hotelling
unit interval and each individual customer departs from her residence for the store at a
finite velocity. Customers purchase a single product only if they arrive at the retailer’s
store during business hours. Under these circumstances, this study explores efficiency
of the model to obtain optimal business hours for retailers. Numerical examples are also
provided to illustrate the theoretical underpinnings of the proposed model formulation.
