Good lord, it's closing time!

[Sapphire Silk]

Saw some suck unfolding this evening when I went to pick up the pup from the Groomers.

Background: five months ago I adopted a very adorable, 4 year old Carolina Dog from a rescue organization. CDs are generally very clean animals. Juno's nails were very long and she was somewhat stinky when I got her, so I started taking her to the Smartypets down the road for a bath and nail grinding, once a month. Yes. I'm lazy on the bath, and nearly blind as a bat and too anxious about hitting the quick to do her nails myself. /bg

So I dropped Juno off this evening for more of the same. I always go after 4 because they offer a discount for evenings. I dropped her off about 5:30 and two hours later they call to say she's done and I can come get her. Note: they close at 8 at the groomers, but the store is open until 9. This is important.

I get to the Smartypets about 7:45, I get the bill and go to the checkout to pay. I have to stand in line (briefly, moved quick). This older woman comes in with a little white black mop of a dog. She's trying to walk into the store, but the dog just wants to sit on the carpet by the door. She tries to cajole it but it won't move. Finally she goes and picks it up and walks to the aisles while I pay up.

I go back to the groomers to get Juno. She looks great and she's really happy as she always is (she loves getting groomed). The groomer is gushing about what a sweet girl she is (and she is) when the woman with the white and black mop dog comes in.

SC: Yes, I came in because I have a coupon for a free nail grinding for Pibblekins . . .

The look on the groomers face was priceless. It said plain as day, "Lady do you SEE what time it is???"

I ducked out before I could hear her answer. They'd just about had the place cleaned up when I got there, but my guess is they gave her what she wanted since we all know what corporate is like. And left late.

[Seshat]

She sounds like a total sweetheart. The dog, I mean!

Last minute customers who want a service which takes time ... ergh. When my parents ran a driving school, we gave our times as 'the last lesson starts at.....'. That prevented people from 'hearing' our times as the last lesson starting when it actually finished.

The pet store might be better off saying that 'the last grooming session starts at X, and pet pickup ends at Y'

[taxguykarl]

That reminds me of a convo I had with a nurse (now one of my regulars) some years back.
N: What are your hours?
Me: We're open 'til 6 tonight.
N: When do you start your last return?
Me: 5:59 [Per franchise owner's orders].

I dated nurses before and can boast of a familiarity with their unusual work shifts.

[Strathclyde]

As annoying as that probably was, it wouldn't have taken the groomer more than 5-10 minutes to do the dog's nails at least. Speaking from my experience as a Smartypets employee who does nail grinding. And it wouldn't have been an awful clean up.

But all that fur would have been annoying to work around... *mutters*

[Lace Neil Singer]

The way I see it, it's annoying when a customer shows up at the petrol station five minutes before closing time; however, they are within their rights to do so, so I just grin and bear it. However, showing up at the dot of closing time or afterwards, and expecting to be allowed in, is a no-no. Yet there are loads of customers who expect us to just let them in, and be happy that we get to work for extra time unpaid, and who throw major tantrums when this doesn't happen. One of my favourite daydreams is of finding out where these people work and turning up bang on their finishing time to stop them from leaving, and see how they like it.

[Sapphire Silk]

What bugged me was she didn't even go straight to the groomers, which is right by the front door. She went aisle shopping first.

[Ironclad Alibi]

As annoying as that probably was, it wouldn't have taken the groomer more than 5-10 minutes to do the dog's nails at least. Speaking from my experience as a Smartypets employee who does nail grinding. And it wouldn't have been an awful clean up.

And what makes you think that was all she wanted to get done? Once the staff agreed to the nail clipping, she would have asked for a few more services. Just like SCs everywhere always do.

[Teefies2]

We had this Sunday night. We're not a pet store, but a drugstore. So you can imagine we get ALL kinds of weirdos.

Sunday night was kind of slow, which was good, because I had <kid who is only working because his mom made him>. At 10 minutes to close, one of our troublesome regulars waltzes in, grabs a shopping cart and goes at it. I instructed <kid> to make closing announcements then and every 3 minutes thereafter. Knowing full well that regular wouldn't pay any attention, but at least we've done what we could.

At close, I lock the doors. <kid> is anxious to go home, as he has school in the morning. I sympathize, but I can't let him leave, as policy requires 2 employees in the store when there are customers. I give regular 5 minutes after close, then I go chase her down. I tell her we are closed and she says "I'm hurrying! Sorry to keep you late!" HaHa what a laugh.

She continues to wander up and down the aisles, but does eventually make her way *towards* the registers. Notice I said *towards* ..... All of a sudden she decides she needs a new phone. Now we are a drugstore, we have a total of 3 phones for sale. She spent another 10 minutes dithering back and forth about what phone to get. If you're keeping track, we're now 15 minutes past close. She has questions ... oh so many questions! But none of them were pertinent to the purchase of a phone. I finally said "look we are closed, he (meaning <kid>) is a high school student and I need to let him go home, he's got school in the morning" Did that matter? Well of course not.

FIFTEEN minutes later (now 30 minutes past close) she finally gets to the register. There are coupon issues .... she has a bunch of expired ones, gets angry we won't honor them yadda yadda. The whole time she's being rung up, she's whining about how poor she is. Really??? You bought a phone, a phone card, paper towels, some other stuff I don't remember, and SIX packs of cigarettes!!! Her total was $148.00. Really? Too poor???? Excuse me while I feel just this <> much sorry for your poverty. We finally get her rung up and paid and she's headed out the door. Again she says she's sorry for keeping us but "at least you got some money out of me HAR HAR HAR"

Trust me, her $148 purchase didn't *begin* to pay the light bill for the store, much less the temperature control system and hourly wage of the two of us. SMH

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

At the swamp, we have these wonderful wonderful people, let's just call them "assholes," who will come dashing through the doors as the five minutes until close announcement is going over the pa, and buy a bulky furniture item like a recliner or sofa.

Which then means somebody (probably two people) have to retrieve it from the backroom, deliver it to the customer, spend whatever time is necessary to cram the thing into the customer's vehicle, and return the cart and any garbage to the backroom before they can leave.

Once it took two people half an hour to do such a carryout right at closing. That's an extra hour of payroll spent that will have to be made up later in the month. It's not "free" because it came after closing time.

But the swamp would never dream of turning these people away, because bad customer service.

[Lace Neil Singer]

Now I feel lucky about being able to tell people to come to the till if they're in the store at closing time. Once, this woman came in five minutes to, and spent those five minutes wandering round the kiosk looking at stuff. When closing time came, she was reading a magazine as tho she had all the time in the world, so my colleague went up to her and told her that we were closed, so she had to make her purchases now cuz the tills go off automatically in five minutes. (Note: They don't, but we keep that as a last ditch anti-SC.) The woman put down the magazine, stared at my colleague for a minute with a deer in headlights look, then said, "Oh, I wasn't going to buy anything. I just wanted to wait for my husband to collect me."

"Well, you can't wait in here, cuz we are closing now."

"But it's cold outside!"

"Sorry, but we're closing."

"It's your fault if I freeze to death!"

She then flounced out and my colleague locked the door. Seriously, did she really believe that we would stay open just for her convenience? And for the record, it's not cold outside. Jeez.

[AmbrosiaWriter]

As someone who works at a vet... it all depends on the temperament of the dog how long a nail grinding will take. While it may have looked pretty passive in mumsies arms, who knows if it became a little hellion once its paws were touched. And based solely on her attitude, and it's a dog small enough for her to carry...

I'd put money down that it would be a little hellion.

Often we get the clients who come in for a nail trim, or anal gland expression, and go "Oh and can you quick do <XX> too?" Of course we say yes, they already have the appointment and such, but it wouldn't put it past this lady to do that to the groomer. Especially if the dog was a "mop".

[Cia]

put down the magazine, stared at my colleague for a minute with a deer in headlights look, then said, "Oh, I wasn't going to buy anything. I just wanted to wait for my husband to collect me."

"Well, you can't wait in here, cuz we are closing now."

"But it's cold outside!"

"Sorry, but we're closing."

"It's your fault if I freeze to death!"

We'll just dump oil and spices on your corpse and set it on fire. We haven't had a free barbecue in months! Yay!

[Kit-Ginevra]

Often we get the clients who come in for a nail trim, or anal gland expression, and go "Oh and can you quick do <XX> too?" Of course we say yes, they already have the appointment and such, but it wouldn't put it past this lady to do that to the groomer. Especially if the dog was a "mop".

'...sure,if you want to see my unhappy anal gland expression...'

[Jay 2K Winger]

We'll just dump oil and spices on your corpse and set it on fire. We haven't had a free barbecue in months! Yay!

Build a man a fire, he's warm for the night.

Set a man on fire, and he's warm for the rest of his life.

[Kit-Ginevra]

Build a man a fire, he's warm for the night.

Set a man on fire, and he's warm for the rest of his life.

Never before has an avatar been so suitable