I was wondering why certain businesses in Farmville close between the hours of 2 a.m. to 4 a.m. My daughter said it is on the weekends and it is all businesses that sell alcohol. Can you please explain this policy/law?

While there are some Farmville businesses that operate 24-hours a day that have closed their doors during the early-morning hours on the weekends, there’s no town law that says they have to do so.

“There’s no town ordinance,” Farmville Town Manager Gerald Spates said of a law regulating early-morning closure of certain businesses.

“I can’t tell a business when you can open and when you can’t … That’s entirely up to them,” he said.

Absent an ordinance that regulates being open during the early-morning hours on Saturdays and Sundays, both Sheetz and Fas-Mart have closed, citing the town and an ordinance, while Walmart has had security present.

Jason Brown, the store manager of Sheetz on South Main Street, said the store closes between 2 a.m. and 4 a.m. on Saturdays and Sundays.

When asked why, he cited a town ordinance.

“We’d have to have security here to stay open, and I can’t find anybody to do security for two hours on a Saturday morning and two hours on a Sunday morning,” he said.

According to the store’s website, Sheetz is open 24-hours a day.

FasMart on South Main Street, another 24-7 operation across the road from Sheetz, has also closed during the early-morning hours.

“If certain clubs are open or if it’s activity down here they’ll ask us to shut our store down to avoid too much traffic coming through,” said Erin Gray, the store’s manager.

FasMart closes every morning between 3 a.m. and 4 a.m. for operational purposes, she said.

According to Walmart spokesman Brian Nick, the supercenter does not close early Saturday or Sunday mornings and is open 24 hours a day. “There is additional security at that store during a few hours overnight on the weekends,” he said. “We make operational decisions like that on a store-by-store basis and so, that’s just something the store decided to do for operational reasons.”

When asked about early-morning closings, Farmville Police Chief Curtis Davis said it wouldn’t be appropriate for him to speak on behalf of businesses “as there could be any number of reasons that they decide to close. I know that many late-night businesses utilize this practice in other jurisdictions as well, for a variety of reasons, usually based on some type of historical or recurring problems specific to a particular time or day.”

According to Kathleen Shaw, a Virginia Alcoholic Beverage Control (ABC) spokeswoman, the agency doesn’t regulate business hours, “but it does regulate hours during which alcohol may be sold. Convenience stores or other off-premises licensees could be open 24 hours a day, but must refrain from selling alcohol between midnight and 6 a.m.”