"SIGHTING STORY TIME: "We're closed!" edition

[cindybubbles]

It's story time! Did you, as a customer witness another customer banging on the windows of the closed storefront? If so, did you confront the customer?

I'll go first:

My friend and I were finished visiting the mall yesterday. Now this mall has a connection to the subway, and as we were heading there, I spotted a guy in front of a closed jewelry shop appearing to plead with one of the employees to open up. I could only hear what the guy said, and not the employee because I was outside.

Guy: Open up!
Guy: What do you mean you're closed?
Guy: You mean I can't even buy a gift card?

I turned around to see my friend beckon me to come to him, and I did. It's probably a good thing that I didn't say anything to the guy; it wouldn't have helped his situation, and I would have been in danger even if he had spotted me, which he hadn't.

He ended up going to the store's other entrance, which, surprise, surprise, was also closed!

Now I will say what I had in mind yesterday. To the guy who desperately wanted to come in while the store is CLOSED, I say this:

Failure to plan on YOUR part does not constitute an emergency on THEIR part!

Now it's your turn.

[KuariKaydrith]

When I used to work at a call center based in a mall every holiday was the same. Yes, there would be cars parked in the parking lot (a majority over to the far side where most mall shoppers would never park because it's too far for them to waddle), and there would be people walking towards a set of doors at the mall and going inside. Doors that were clearly not the regular customer entrance to the mall as they had signs up that indicate they were for the call center.

Cue the cat butt faces of pretty much everybody that would try to get inside the mall. "Why are the doors locked?" "Why can't I use these doors to get into the mall?" "Why do YOU get to go into the mall and WE can't?" So on, and so forth.

Mall is closed, but the call center isn't - the call center doesn't get Canadian holidays off due to the nature of the clients we serve. This particular set of doors doesn't lead into the rest of the mall, and the doors that we do have that lead into the rest of the mall are locked so even we can't get out into the mall. WE CANNOT GO INTO THE MALL EITHER, FUCKWIT!

I totally do not miss that place at all. It's nice working in a building that is not open to the public, and most people don't even realize is there unless they know somebody that works there or used to work there themselves.

[MoonCat]

I remember seeing someone yank on the door handles at the local Woolworth's branch, many years ago. The store was closed for the night; the interior lights were all off and I don't think there were even any workers left inside. This guy yanked several times on the handles, pushed his face up against the glass to peer inside, then tried the handles again. All while standing two inches away from the sign listing the store hours.

I didn't say a word. I may be crazy but I'm not stupid.

[AnaKhouri]

I have two I have told before, but here they are again.

Some years ago the bookstore tried staying open an hour later during the Christmas season (they only did that once because it turns out that if a person can't come in any time during the regular 13 hours we were open, they couldn't come in during the 14th hour either. It was dead that last hour). This meant the store was open until 11 on weekdays and midnight on weekends.

One Saturday it was 12:30 am and the employees had cleaned up etc, and we were all standing in the entrance waiting for the manager to check everything and give us permission to leave. Now, the way this store is, it doesn't have a locking front door. Just a big open entrance (it was located inside a mall so the mall doors were locked after we left, as our store was open the latest).

This woman and man come strolling in, the woman is yapping away at him. They enter the darkened, quiet store. Still yapping away, the woman waltzes right past a line of employees in coats and scarves. The man at least seemed to notice something was off and stopped. The woman just kept going, yap yap yap, until she FINALLY realized he was no longer there and turned around to see her sheepish companion and a double row of bemused employees staring at her.

Another time, again during the holidays. We closed at 10, but the cafe attached to the bookstore was open another hour, so patrons there had to leave through the cafe's outside entrance. One night, about 10:30, this woman got past the cafe staff and wandered the (darkened, silent) store after we were closed, picking up stuff to buy (it was a huge store and we were perpetually understaffed, so no one saw her in our scurrying around to clean up). She approached the registers, where our manager was finishing up closing the registers down. She was OUTRAGED she couldn't buy her stuff and made the most boneheaded suggestion ever: that we take the stickers off her items and take a blank check and in the morning we could ring her stuff up and fill in the amount on the check.

Yes, this genius wanted to hand a total stranger a blank check.

Of course the manager refused (who knows if the check would bounce too) and offered to hold her things. She threw a fit and declared she would leave all that stuff, presumably as a way to punish us.

So those are the best closing stories I have. There are others, of course, but they're more run-of-the-mill "I just need one thing why can't I come in".

[KellyHabersham]

When we had a major remodel a few years back, I remember we had one customer apparently miss the signs about us being closed, and he tried to climb over the large bins we had in the doorway.

[MoonCat]

When we had a major remodel a few years back, I remember we had one customer apparently miss the signs about us being closed, and he tried to climb over the large bins we had in the doorway.

And if he'd fallen and hurt himself, he'd have sued you because "the bins were in the way!"

[Mr Hero]

My brother and I went to the store to get a game that was coming out that day. We got there about 10 minutes before opening, so we're just chilling. My brother then opens the sunroof and the snow that was on top of the car drops down. I call him an asshole, then get out and brush off his car kill time.

Anyways, there was still a minute or two before opening, so I go up to wait by the door. There's already another guy there and he seems upset with the store.

Guy: Don't you think it's unfair they make us wait out in the cold before they open?
Me: They're not making us wait in the cold. It was our choice to come here before they were open.

That killed the conversation pretty quickly.

[Dreamstalker]

This happened when I was working for The Jerk. The weather was horrible; very cold and snowing pretty hard. Store is supposed to open at noon, I get there just at noon to see a small knot of grumpy gamers outside. Jerk isn't there, and he never gave me a key. After a few minutes of trying to contact Jerk, we decide to put a sign up (something snarky to the effect of "[Jerk] has the only key, any customers have to wait for him") and head to the coffee shop across the street.

15 minutes later, someone sees Jerk approach the store; we all exit the cafe and head over.

He starts to berate me for not opening the store, and several regulars then jump down his throat for not only not opening on time, but not giving me a key if he expected me to open. So in that case, the store (Jerk) did in fact force people to wait in the cold. I may have encouraged a few of them to complain to the local merchants' association

[Pagan]

The USPS near me closes from 2pm-3pm so the sole person working there can get something to eat.

I'm walking by one day about 2:15, see some old fart come up and yank on the door that was locked. Stopped, read the sign with the hours (I know this because his lips were moving), looked at his watch, and...

yanked on the door handles again...

[notalwaysright]

The USPS near me closes from 2pm-3pm so the sole person working there can get something to eat.

Whenever I watch tv shows which show a small shop owner cavalierly flip the sign on the door to "closed" in the middle of the day I want to yell "NO! Would never work in real life! You'd get 20 people banging on the door immediately." Okay, I realize it's a tv show and not real, but still.

Since you mentioned the post office, I guess it reminded me that I HAVE seen this happen. At my old job I did many errands, including doing deposits, getting the mail and sometimes sending certified letters or various things which meant I had to go to the counter. Until they put in the electronic... kiosk? Not sure what it's called, but basically the SCO of the post office, which I adored. It was a retirement town (elderly people!) so I was one of the only people to know how to use it.

So the post office stayed open until 5:30. Rule was, you had to be in line at 5:30. At that time, they locked the inner doors. The outer doors had to stay unlocked so people could get to their PO boxes. Even if the line was so long it went outside the inner doors, you all had to move inside somehow, end of story. So there'd be like 15 people shoved inside, and someone would come up and try to open the locked door. They'd often try to get inside when a person left, since the doors still opened to let people out. The post office people did not allow this! "Sir, the doors are locked, no one else will be helped today." And nobody was sympathetic to those people, either.

[Kogarashi]

Until they put in the electronic... kiosk? Not sure what it's called, but basically the SCO of the post office, which I adored. It was a retirement town (elderly people!) so I was one of the only people to know how to use it.

I love the APC. Always makes me sad when there isn't a convenient one near me.

[Lace Neil Singer]

The USPS near me closes from 2pm-3pm so the sole person working there can get something to eat.

That was me in the charity bookstore that I worked at after finishing college and realising that qualifications mean nothing in the real world, as opposed to experience. Anyway, I worked at another branch at first but then the manager of this branch called my branch to plead for someone to go there and work all day cuz she had zero staff (they'd all quit for paid jobs) and she had to get a backlog of admin work done. I volunteered cuz I could get the bus there.

Anyway, I'd close the shop and lock the doors from 12:30 to 1:30 so that I could go and get some lunch. I'd normally head down the road to buy lunch, then come back and sit upstairs to eat it. There would nearly every time be people glaring resentfully at me as I let myself into the shop and didn't let them inside, and banging on the door after I locked it and went upstairs. Sometimes people would be outside all thru my lunch hour, shaking and banging at the door. Since I had a sign on the door stating that I'd closed for lunch, I never bothered going down and telling the idiots.

[Ironclad Alibi]

That was me in the charity bookstore... Since I had a sign on the door stating that I'd closed for lunch, I never bothered going down and telling the idiots.

You'd think that they would be able to read the sign if they were trying to get into a bookstore. Or maybe they only wanted to look at the picture books?