On most Sundays, the sidewalks of downtown Wausau are empty. The same is true after 6 p.m. most weekdays. With few shops that are open at those times, Wausau shoppers have little reason to head downtown.

As we enter the Christmas shopping season, some local vendors will extend their hours. Some will open on Sundays, which remains relatively unusual for downtown shops.

Almost inevitably, that holiday phenomenon prompts a question: Why don't downtown merchants extend their hours if it works so well in December?

"The reason people aren't coming down (on Sundays) right now is because stores aren't open," said Mark Craig, general manager of downtown property owner Compass Properties. "If you look at the traffic counts at the mall, people are shopping downtown on Sundays -- and that's why the mall's open on Sunday."

So which hours are best for downtown Wausau -- for shoppers and shopkeepers alike?

The subject has been a topic of discussion since at least 2001, when a study conducted by the advertising firm Kinzie & Green (now called Kinzie Green) suggested that stores should have uniform hours and should stay open later.

That study didn't yield much change. But as we look ahead not only to the holiday season but also into 2010, some observers think downtown business hours finally might change.

"It's something that's been talked about for many, many years, almost to the point of being a joke," Craig said. "It's like Red Lobster coming to Wausau -- we all talk about it, but is it ever going to happen? Well, I don't know about Red Lobster, but I do believe that downtown will eventually get to the point where we're going to have some extended hours."

One new downtown business, Polito's Pizza, is targeting the after-hours crowd by staying open late. And Craig said that if downtown is able to add a couple of new tenants outside the mall with the power to draw foot traffic, it could change the culture.

"If we were to get a couple of other tenants that have some real power and aren't in the mall and their hours are longer and they're open enough on weekends, that gives other retailers incentive -- they want to capture that traffic, too," Craig said.

Of course, one of the key differences between the stores in the mall or in Rib Mountain and the downtown stores is simply that most of them are family-run, independent businesses.

"(Mall stores) are national retailers as opposed to independent retailers, and independent retailers typically have a smaller payroll, and things are tighter, and all those considerations go into effect," Craig said.

The Downtown Grocery, which opened in 2006, hosts a Sunday brunch, and co-owner Kevin Korpela said that part of marketing the meal has been explaining to potential customers that the store is actually open that day.

"We wanted to be open on Sunday because that was just an important thing to do for a grocery store," Korpela said. "They're groceries, and if someone needs a sweet potato or chips on a Sunday (we'll provide that)."

Downtown Grocery also found that there was a marketing benefit to having simple, standard hours, Korpela said. The shop is open between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m. Monday through Saturday, then 11 a.m. until 5 p.m. Sunday.

"Having too many categories of hours can be a detriment -- it's too many words to say, too many things to put on a business card or on the door," Korpela said.

From at least the time of the Kinzie & Green study, that's been a general critique of downtown, with the argument being that they could attract more customers if hours were standardized across shops.

Part of the problem faced by downtown merchants is that without a collective push to change hours, it is hard to attract enough business to make it profitable for one or two shops to change their practices. Some shops, including Janke Book Store, Downtown Grocery and the Talent Shop, already offer some Sunday hours, as do some of the restaurants.

"In order to market it and make it effective, it has to be more than just a couple of retailers," Craig said. "It helps that we have a couple already doing it. I'm hoping we're going to get further along in 2010, and I think there are some great opportunities."