Selfish people at closing time-first post (sorry-long!)

[wannaliveinmayberry]

I have been enjoying reading this SC forum for months now.........I am agitated enough to register and share in the stories tonight. Let's just say I've done retail stores and banking for 25+ years now. I used to have some faith in humanity, but lately I'm feeling pretty soured. One of my real pet peeves that is bugging me a lot is the SC that comes in- not 15 minutes to closing, not 10, not 5,4,3, or 2 minutes to closing, but the ones that come running or sneaking in at 1 minute or less before the door is locked. Like when the last customer (you think) leaves, and the door is slowly gliding shut...and they grab it and slink in! I am talking about the type that wants to START shopping just before the store closes and grabs a shopping cart or basket on the way in. Then it keeps the staff working and waiting longer because the inconsiderate person has to be rung up, and the drawer balancing is thus further delayed as well. I am thinking about the jerk coming in at 3:59:40 who goes to the teller window with a check for $6000.00 and expects their transaction to somehow be done "faster" or "with less ID checking" or something ridiculous like that. I am so pissed off at these inconsiderate morons that cause the whole business closing to be delayed because "they have a surefire-way to get what they want faster 'cause the staff wants to go home" or feel we are obligated to serve them because they want to feel a power trip over us. Believe me, I'm not talking about someone who got held up in traffic/works crazy hours/got sidetracked occasionally.....I have no problem with those folks. There is a type of jerk out there who does it just to be a selfish jerk!!! I swear...they sit in their car watching the front doors and then...tick...tick...tick....off they go....run to the door at just the right moment. I see the SAME PEOPLE doing this!!!!! Not just a one-time thing. God help me..............I just need to vent tonight............. I'm really hoping someone out there can relate and respond.....it cheers me up to read other people's retail horrors!!!! GAAAAHHHHH!!!!!

[powerboy]

Welcome to the board BTW.

I had that once, where I am working now. We were closed, the drawer was counted, all $10 of it. The main owner told us to open, for the sake of the all mighty $. And what happened, they didn't buy nothing. After that, the main owner kinda said not to do that again.

[journochick]

Gah, I remember that well. I used to work at a PC superstore and there would ALWAYS be some moron who'd want to shop the minute we were due to close.

By that I don't mean grab a paper pack, pay for it and leave, I mean shop for a WHOLE COMPUTER PACKAGE. Which takes a minimum of half an hour, as people often have the 'buy now pay later' scheme, which has to go through. All their details need to be put in...insurance needs to be explained...the sales guy has to go get the PC...and not only that, but the till would need to be cashed up.

...needless to say, we'd be livid, as nobody could go home until they've left. Some managers would say 'no, we're closing' whereas others would see the money and let them do it.

So I COMPLETELY know how you feel!

And of course, there were the even MORE selfish folk who'd pull up in the car park after we'd closed. We'd all be there in our coats and bags waiting for the manager to lock up, and some guy would come out of his car.

Staff: 'We're closed, sorry.'
Guy: 'You WHAT?'
Staff: 'We're closed.'
Guy: 'Bloody typical. I only want a keyboard/mouse/game/whatever. Can't I just get it?'
Staff: 'We're locking up now. You'll have to come back tomorrow.'
Guy: 'Like hell I'll be coming back here.' *slams car door and drives off angrily*

There are opening/closing times ON OUR DOOR. I just can't believe the cheek of some people.

[workerbee222]

For two summers I worked in a convenience store. It was open from five in the morning to eleven at night. One night a customer was absolutely insistant that he had to make a purchase as I counted up the till. Begging, pleading that he just needs this one thing, and couldn't I sell it to him? He'd slide the money under the door, I didn't even have to unlock it.

And what did he need? Milk for the kids' breakfast or tuna and bread to make sandwiches for lunch?

Nope. A deck of cards. When I told the manager the next morning, he just shook his head. We're open eighteen hours a day. People need to be better organized.

[Rapscallion]

A guy who taught me and the Boss much about fruit and veg retail was convinced that if you opened twenty-three hours a day, you'd get complaints about the remainder.

Rapscallion

[Catwoman2965]

That's one of my pet peeves as well; the worst time is the last half an hour or so we're open. We always get someone who comes in the last 15 minutes we're open, brings a ton of stuff into the fitting room, and proceeds to go about their merry way, trying on etc. Or will ask us to look for this size, get that, call this store to see if they have what they want, etc. Which we have to do, as technically, we're still open.

And our policy is, we don't ask them to leave. We will lock the doors, and do as much as we can, but still can't close the last registers, or vacuum. And our policy is we won't kick them out. We have to wait until they are done...we can't say we are closed, etc. What we will do, is keep asking them if they need anything, in hopes they might get the message, but ususally not.

And don't get me started on the ones who slink in 2 minutes before we lock the doors. We sell clothing, and unless you know exactly what you want, and simply want to pick it up, and pay for it, there is no way you'll be done by closing. It's just inconsiderate, and there are certain customers who do this ALL THE TIME, knowing we will have to accomodate them.

And then there are the ones who try the doors after 9, when they're locked and we are closed. I guess they think if they see us moving around, we are still open. I generally ignore them, or if i happen to be close, will simply point to my watch and mouth "we are closed"

I work full time, as well as part time at this job; when the doors close at 9, i want to be able to put the store back together, vacuum, and get out. On a good day, takes 30-45 minutes...so you add the SC who won't leave, i've been there until 10:30 and later.

Memorial Day, we closed at 5; normal closing is 9. Had one customers ask, in kind of a snotty tone "and what time do you close normally?" i said very nicely to her, 9pm, but today its 5, since its a holiday, a point which seemed to escape her. She then said, "oh, i guess you're entitled to the holiday too" - really? thank you so much for understanding....

[blas]

The worst part about last minute SCs is that they are like flies on roadkill.......once one shows up and you try to calm yourself and say it will be alright, then 5 more show up and pretty soon you're forced to stay open an extra hour.

[CSR Kim]

Unfortunately at my store, I don't have a door I can shut on customers. I work in a kiosk, so I'm pretty much at the mercy of whoever walks up to my counter until 9:30 hits and I am able to turn my lights off.

Since I have to take all the jewelry out of the towers/cases, I usually start with the small stuff at about 9:10 or so, because if I don't I'd be there all night. It never fails, though. 9:25 or so and someone will walk up who's "just looking"...and they won't go away. But I can't turn off my lights and finish closing until they leave. What really gets me is the customers who ask to see stuff, seem like they're shopping, and then have the nerve to say "Oh, I'm so sorry! I know you're trying to get out of here..." and then they keep asking to see stuff, and in the end don't spend a f&%king dime.

A couple of saturdays ago, I had a lady come up about 10 minutes before 9. She had gauged hoops in her cartilage, because that's what she was pierced with, and she wanted the same kind of hoops in her earlobes. Problem being, she'd never gauged her ears. I had to repeatedly tell her that I was not 100% sure, since she'd had her earlobes pierced for about 20 years, but I doubted a 14g (what she wanted, after I pointed out a few styles to her) would fit in her ears right away. She persisted, bought a pair, and attempted to put them in right there at the counter (one of my biggest pet peeves is people who change their body jewelry at the counter. I had a lady try to change her nose stud at the counter, and ended up bleeding all over the place.), and amazing she succeeded. So she wanted to go bigger and bought a 12g pair. She spent the rest of the night trying to shove this earring in her earlobe. She was there until 9:35. I had to start putting things away with her still there, hoping she'd take the hint.

Yeah, people suck.

[DannyboyO1]

I've been that SC. Not that bad. I just turned out to be a gateway. I knew I was cutting it close, the guy was getting set, I just said "Oh, ok, I'd just wondered if you had FFX in." And started to leave. Clerk said "Wait." and he sees it on the computer... but it's not on the shelf, we wasted a few minutes before he turned it up in the back. Checked into inventory but not shelved. And then someone else shows up as I'm being rung up and the guy realizes the door still isn't locked... eep.

[Retail Slave]

I hated that when I worked in fast food. People would come in five minutes to close and ask what time we close. We'd tell them, they'd say "good, we've got time" and bring in a carload of people. They would sit there for an hour after finishing eating, while we're cleaning up all around them. We'd end up standing at the counter waiting for them to leave so we could finish and go home. Once we stood at the counter talking, they'd get the hint and leave. Then we'd have to stay that extra time to clean up after them because those were the one who wouldn't throw their own trash away.

Yeah, the good ole days.

[KellyHabersham]

We have this happen at the library quite often - patrons will wait until the last minute to decide they need help with printing, signing up for a library card, want to argue about overdue fees, or a kid will suddenly realize that they need to call their parents to come pick them up. So whichever security guard and reference desk staff are working, they have to stay until the parents show up. At Macy's, I don't work the closing shift too often, I remember one Sunday when some customer waited until the last minute to check out, it figures that there was a minor issue with her check, so my co-worker and I had to call the manager-on-duty over, and closing took much longer than it should have because of this one lady.

[Imogene]

At Chesterfield, I remember a particular incident that still bothers me to this day.
I was working alone with Goth AM (who, as we all know, I despise). We had already closed the gate, and locked it. Random customer walks up to the gate, and yells in, "Hey, you guys got *this* season of StarGate?"
Goth looks up from vaccuuming, I look up from pulling receipts and stuff out of the open register, Goth goes to check the wall. Finds one, goes, "Juwl, go open the gate so we can sell this to him." I just kind of stared at him. "I have a drawer here, it's past close. Once the gate is down, it stays down until we leave, according to Old SM."
Goth shrugs and goes to unlock the gate, hands him the DVD, and brings him in to ring him out.
I had walked away from the counter, because I wanted nothing to do with the customer, nor Goth.
Goth finishes ringing him out, sends him on his way, then turns to me and says, proudly, "That's good customer service."
No, you f*cking moron, THAT'S a security issue. There was an open drawer on the counter. How do we know he didn't have a gun? I told TK and Old SM the next time they were working with me. Old SM goes, "This is Chesterfield, that wouldn't have happened."

[Becks]

I am talking about the type that wants to START shopping just before the store closes and grabs a shopping cart or basket on the way in.

I'm so glad that at my store, they have a cop or manager stand by the entrance saying, "The store's closing in 10/5/however many minutes, you can't bring a cart in." It rocks.

[wannaliveinmayberry]

Great to see I am in good company on this board! It is so aggravating to make plans after work - telling people you'll be out by a certain time and then having some loser hold up the whole thing by 30 minutes to an hour. The banking ones really, really tick me off. One time the branch manager is locking the door (which is a vulnerable time for robberies), this jerk puts his hand on the door just before he puts the key in the lock. He begs, pleads and grovels...."oh pleeeeeeeeease....I just need to cash my check!" So the manager walks him over to ME and the jerk wants to cash some $1800 personal check and has no account. He then proceeds to pull out this useless, mangled, crappy, sketchy-looking out-of-state ID. (We need at least 2 more non-expired forms of ID with this "alleged state-issued ID" for non-customer) I said to the manager......."Can ya look at this? This is what he wants to use for ID' The manager looks at the guy and says...."You told me at the door you had plenty of valid ID, and you give us this thing?" Meanwhile, everyone is done balancing and the whole branch cannot be balanced until I am also done, and all the damn checks are ready. We end up calling the little old lady who wrote the check at her home to verify why this creep did work for her, and manager caves and scrounges what ID there is until satified the stupid check won't come back and 20 minutes later, the idiot weasel leaves with his crack/booze funds. We are all delayed getting our jobs done, getting the work out for the pickup crew deadline, and I leave pissed off for hours that only drinking or watching an episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000 can relieve. This happens at LEAST once a week that some freak does this. I HATE,HATE, HATE it!!!!!!

[B&NGoddess]

A guy who taught me and the Boss much about fruit and veg retail was convinced that if you opened twenty-three hours a day, you'd get complaints about the remainder.

Rapscallion

pfft. people want bookstores open 24 hours a day and then want us to have extended hours during the holidays. i can add a day to the week just for you. we'll call it "flursday."

we once had someone demand that the cafe stay open till bar close.