A Winnipeg Wal-Mart has become the first in Canada to be open 24 hours a day. The round-the-clock service, which started a few weeks ago, is a pilot for expanded hours across the country.

"It's actually exceeded our expectations," says Barry Pederson, store manager at the Garden City Wal-Mart. "We're really happy with how it's going. It's been excellent so far and it's always good to be pioneers."

The north Winnipeg location was selected as a test market for 24/7 shopping in Canada even though it can technically only open 24/6, thanks to provincial bylaws that prohibit retailers from ringing up sales on Sunday outside of noon to six.

Nevertheless, the store's strong showing during Wal-Mart's extended hours this past Christmas made it an easy choice for the Arkansas-based retailing giant.

"People really responded to the (overnight) openings," Pederson explains. "A lot of our customers are shiftworkers, there's a hospital nearby and so it's really a lifesaver for a lot of our customers. It's basically a response to customer feedback."

The response of customers is now being monitored closely not only by Wal-Mart's Canadian head office, but also the local business community, which is concerned about the impact it could have on small business.

"For a small business, it can really drain off some of your customers, especially if you're a direct competitor," explains University of Manitoba business professor Rob Warren. "With the longer hours, it opens up an opportunity that's hard to try to compete with."

In fact, most experts agree that there's really no point trying to compete with a big-box store when it comes to how late it stays open and price.

"Don't try to go head to head with Wal-Mart," Warren warns. "Don't carry the specific brands they do or try to have a lower price - it's just too tough. They can drive you into bankruptcy if you try to compete in price, so you need to compete in other areas like service or specialty items they don't have."

It's something small-business owner Robert Benson knows all too well.

When Home Depot opened a Winnipeg store in 1997, Benson saw sales at his family-run hardware store drop by about 20 per cent.

"There were lots of businesses bigger than me that went under when Home Depot came in," Benson says.

Corydon Hardware survived the influx of big-box competitors and has now been a Winnipeg institution for 57 years.

Benson says his location in a residential neighbourhood played a big role in that and believes he wouldn't still be in business if Corydon Hardware was near a big-box store on a busy street.

"You can't be located right beside a box store - you're going to lose," Benson says. "We're located in an older neighbourhood with lots of apartment buildings nearby, so that's definitely one of the reasons we're still here."

Another reason for Corydon Hardware's success is service and diversification.

Benson started doing repairs on windows, lamps and even vacuum cleaners to keep the business going.

One thing that didn't work for the store was extending its hours and staying open Friday nights. Instead of boosting sales, Benson says he lost money and he's not convinced there's a huge demand for shopping late at night, let alone in the middle of the night.

"Unless you're on shiftwork, I don't see people going out at 3 a.m. to buy jeans, at least not me."

But if the latest retail trends are any indication, consumers want choice. Even big banks are getting in on extended hours with CIBC announcing that it will open select branches in Vancouver and Toronto on Sundays starting later this fall.

"We recognize the changing needs of Canadians and the increased demands on their time," says Sonia Baxendale, senior executive vice-president of CIBC Retail Markets. "By offering Sunday branch banking hours, we're providing our clients with greater flexibility and access to better meet their banking needs."

It's no coincidence that the Sunday CIBC openings and the Wal-Mart 24/7 pilot coincide with the busiest shopping season of the year.

Wal-Mart has also opened five new "supercentres" in Alberta in the last month, just in time for the retail rush.

The supercentres, which are about 30 per cent larger than a regular Wal-Mart, have full-service grocery departments and carry 120,000 products, compared to about 80,000 at regular stores. While expanding to fresh produce is the biggest change, the stores go beyond bargain shopping to also stock higher-end merchandise.

But it's the number of jobs, up to 500 at each store, that is the real concern for small-business competitors - especially when 11 more supercentres are slated to open in Canada by early next year.

"It really puts pressure on the market as a whole," says Shannon Martin of the Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB). "Well over two-thirds of our members in Alberta identified a shortage of labour as their primary concern. In Alberta, it's very, very acute."

The situation is so severe in Alberta that some businesses have had to close while others are paying top dollar to attract staff.

"I was at a McDonald's in Medicine Hat recently that had a sign up that said, 'Experienced Manager wanted, name your wage', and I had to take a picture," Martin says.

"It's something I've never seen before and it's only going to get worse."

As for 24/7 shopping, Wal-Mart says it's still too early to tell if the pilot will be expanded across Canada.

In the meantime, last-minute holiday shoppers will get the chance to shop until they drop again this year with round-the-clock openings planned at even more locations in the days - and nights - before Christmas.

(Tess van Straaten can be reached at tess@businessedge.ca)