[PaulHoule]

My nearby city had two all night diners and an all-night sub shop before the pandemic plus the Wegmans supermarket was 24 hours and the Wal-Mart supercenter was 24 hours. Now it all shuts down.

My Gen Z son is a gearhead and is proud of his '96 Buick. Although he finds "anti-woke" politics attractive, he won't listen to people carping about the price of gas, he thinks the current price is a bargain and even if we got the $400/ton CO2 tax I advocate he says it would be worth it to him to pay $7-$8 a gallon. He gets what a miracle fossil fuels are [1]

I got my driver's license when I was 21 which was slow for my generation (there was the time I borrowed a Cadillac de Ville from a hung over friend to take the driver's test, clipped a curb and failed it, then got back in and drove home) he wasn't in a hurry either. Many of his friends are in their early 20s and still don't drive.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_slave

[wrp]

We had that same change in my town, though for seemingly unrelated reasons. Even before COVID, the 24-hour Wal-Mart supercenter started closing from midnight to 6 AM because of shoplifters. The 24-hour restaurants closed at night during COVID and the customers didn't come back after normal business resumed. I do wonder where night owls go these days.

[PaulHoule]

Our homeless colony has 10x'ed in recent years and been moved away from a spot owned by the Norfolk Southern railroad to one owned by the city, immediately behind the Wal-Mart. The area is now saturated by untreated schizophrenics and security alone is a reason for reduced hours.