Why would the Hardware Store close at 12 noon?

Two things about the hardware store scene that always bothered me: First, I thought the store had closed for only an hour, so that doesn't justify them wrecking the place to get out. I don't think any court would overlook all the damage they did. Second, the storage of all that dynamite in the cellar of a business inside a city. That wouldn't have been legal, would it?

"All necessary truth is its own evidence." - Ralph Waldo Emerson

Yeah, back in the day....the 60s....in smaller towns, hardware stores would close during the middle part of the day for lunch; especially when most businesses were family-owned. As for Wednesday afternoons; most family-practice doctors would take the whole afternoons off for golf. You don't see that anymore! (Either taking off for Wednesdays, or doctors that make house calls).

Yeah that's a good point. The employee Doodles told the Crumps that Dinkler was still inside. The Crumps went into the basement. Dinkler then locked the basement without at least calling out "anyone down there?" or something.

Now for sure Doodles told the Crumps that the store was closing, but the Crumps went in anyway. Dinkler likely figured nobody would go downstairs at closing time, and just locked the basement door like he had done hundreds of times before. What probably should have happened is that Dinkler would lock the basement door before Doodles would leave. Then the Crumps would come in and find the basement door locked, and call for Dinkler to open it up.

You are sorta right. The store owner didn't know the Crumps were in the basement to begin with. We really aren't shown what transpired with the store owner between the time he locked the basement until the Crumps came out of the Chinese Laundry. Perhaps he went to lunch, came back at 1PM and was delayed by the cops who told him what was going on. When the Crumps emerged, the owner became upset and wanted to stop the Crumps, but was held back.

I agree that the Crumps should have been let out of the basement; the cops knew they were locked in but kept them there because it was a "race". A cop could have pretended to be an employee and let them out. But that was part of the comedy, to have the Crumps try to get out of a locked basement in a hardware store.

Uh.....you're saying that to an 8 year old post?

Should there be a statute of limitations of spoilers?