Trading Hours aims to let you know when your favourite stores are actually open

How many times have you bust a gut trying to get to your favourite store, only to find that it’s been closed for at least an hour? Or have you ever assumed that the restaurant you’ve heard so much about would be closed only to see pictures of people having an amazing time there a few hours later?

You could, of course, look it up online (although there’s no guarantee that it’ll be there), or you could use a new service called Trading Hours.

The service, which aims to simplify things by giving people a platform to easily access their favorite stores opening hours, is the product of collaboration between entrepreneur/creator, Ashley Dean Mair (MD) and professional poker player turned venture capitalist Darren Kramer (CFO) who has seeded startups such as propertytube.com and iExperience.co.za.

Trading Hours claims that it’s already signed up thousands of businesses in the Western Cape to the service and has fostered an active user community. It also says that business owners can sign up within seconds and that if Trading Hours Co already has a store on its database it can then claim its store.

Trading Hours Co offers both a free and premium service for businesses. The premium service, it says offers added benefits such as:

• A web link service: Add a link to your home page or your current special page to increase traffic to your website, mobisite or microsite.
• A brand identity service: Upload your logo to increase brand recognition and visibility.
• A social media access service: Receive additional exposure for your business via our social media platform

It’s unclear where Trading Hours plans to go next. It seems likely however that the degree of success or failure it experiences in the Western Cape will determine whether or not it expands into the rest of South Africa or even internationally.