Chick-Fil-A does the same thing domestically with their respective Sabbath on Sunday and it's reported to cost them over $1 billion a year in lost sales. Remembering the Sabbath day to keep it holy is extremely expensive, especially when the business is online and serving a worldwide customer base.

> but there is a cost.

It may be less than you suspect because the regular bubble in their ordering pipeline might give them time to deal with suppliers, maintain stock, improve their website, maintain systems, relax and refocus, etc.

I doubt it works out better than not doing it at least economically, but there may be enough benefit to offset most of the costs.

The times I've run into the B&H sabbath outage, I just waited and ordered later. There are more thing in my life than just ordering things as fast as possible, and I respect a business for having other priorities. (Plus, B&H is just generally a really good supplier)

This is actually my favorite thing about B&H, because I'll be impulsively browsing on a Friday night or Saturday online, and sure enough coming back one day later is enough to re-evaluate whether I did really need to have that gadget.

I also find it charming that they've managed to become a massive retailer while sticking to their religious values, although there are plenty of examples of that in other chains in the US that don't sit as well with me, personally (Chick-fil-A, Hobby Lobby, etc).

Every single time I've walked by the physical store location in NYC on a Saturday (or holiday), there's always people approaching the entrance expecting it to be open. They're certainly losing business at the store too.

B&H also has a stellar reputation for service, support, and selection. Lots of people will choose to wait another day in order to do business with someone they trust.