How to handle businesses on Google Maps with different departments with different hours

[KahaleI]

I have an issue with the Sam's Club (https://goo.gl/maps/Dgkd68wKk7u) near my house. They have the main store with its own hours, and a tire center which may have different hour, but I'm not sure, and a gas station which I know has different hours from the main store. What is the best way to inform Google Map users of these different hours? I am thinking of adding a Sam's Club Gas Station as a seperate business.

Also, the gas station hours (red sign) are in my contributions (see image below), but when I click on the images for the store, the image is not there. It's like the Google Gods are trying to mess with me. Aghhh!!! LG Problems.

[YanniY · Accepted solution]

Hi @KahaleI

Thanks for raising this point - I agree that there should be different POIs for Sam's club, gas station, and possibly the tire centre too since they serve very different purposes. This can also help solve the problem of having different opening hours for different places.

I was able to click on your picture with the red sign on mobile and desktop though which means your picture is visible and public. We can share your feedback with the team. 

[Chris360]

I add each department in individual example Sams Club, Sams Club tire center, and the info for each one by its self.

[Flash]

To show the different hours it would be necessary to map the individual departments.

Please be aware that a department for a business can only be mapped under certain conditions.  Most departments in a store, for example, are not mappable; that is to say we don't map the Men's Wear, Women's Wear, Automotive, Housewares, Electronics, etc. departments within a Walmart.  But if there is a department that has some seperation, it's own staff, perhaps it's own hours, and it's own phone number then it can be mapped.  The most common example in a department store is that the Pharmacy is normally mapped separately.

Due to the gas bar having some separation, if it does have separate hours then it can be mapped even if a separeate phone number does not exist.

[JacekNK]

I think that official Google My Business Help Center article "Guidelines for representing your business on Google" would be very helpful in that case:

https://support.google.com/business/answer/3038177?hl=en

Regards,

Jacek

[Benjet415]

What is there is only 1 business, but hours differ by type of service offered?

For instance: 

A Bar/Restaurant which stop serving food (the restaurant closes) at hour X but the bar remains open until Y.

A fast food/coffee shop which has a lobby/store and a drive-thru, one closes at X but the other at Y.

This has happened to me several times now.

[Mark_W]

Thank you JacekNK, that is a very helpful article (Guidelines for representing your business on Google)that helped me understand this and related issues much better. The article also contains links to other articles of interest, which I also found helpful.

For other Guides - In the article, be sure to click on the Learn More links under topics you wish to fully understand.

~ Mark

[Flash]

Please be aware that while most of the guidelines between Maps and GMB correspond, there can be some differences.

For departments you should consider things like different staff, it's own space, perhaps it's own hours, etc.; but a very necessary element is it's own unique phone number.  The one exception I have seen for the requirement of a separate phone number are gas stations in the parking lots of Costcos, Targets, Walmarts, etc.; otherwise it is a necessary element.