Read The Damn Sign...

[AdamAnt316]

Some background: I work at a small mom-and-pop convenience store, located in the only plaza for at least a mile in either direction on a road mostly made up of houses. Due to this, we don't get a whole lot of business late at night, and therefore, typically close relatively early (8:30PM on most nights, 9PM on the weekends). We don't have posted hours for some reason, but I at least make it fairly evident that the place isn't open during my closing duties.

Now, on with the story...

Tonight was a special occasion, in that we were getting our floor waxed and polished. The floor cleaner arrived shortly before 8:30, our usual closing time on Tuesdays. Normally, once closing time rolled around, I'd switch off our sign, turn off most of the lights, and lock the door. However, due to the fact that the front door to the store lacks a thumblatch, I had to leave the door open so that the cleaner could get stuff from his car as he needed it; also, I had to leave all of the lights on so that he could see what he's doing. Anyway, to try and reflect the fact that we're supposed to be closed, I turned off our sign as usual, and taped a crude sign to the front door indicating that we were closed.

The floor work delayed my closing duties, so I ended up staying there later than usual, figuring that I could do as much work as I could around the floor cleaner, then leave. I couldn't have been more wrong. Around 9PM (our closing time on weekends), a regular customer sees me standing near the counter, and walks right through the door. What has he barged in to do? Get change for a hundred dollar bill! Being the nice guy I am, I changed the bill, talked to him for a couple of minutes, and then he left.

At 9:30, a half-hour later than we've closed in the past decade or so, yet another regular customer blatantly ignores the sign, breezes in the door, goes right up to our ATM (which decided to malfunction at that exact moment ), then walks up to the side of the counter (the front having been totally blocked off with floor cleaning equipment), and asked for a pack of cigarettes. Being the nice guy I am (arrgh...), I decided to help him out. I had to turn our register back on to punch in the amount, then walk to our back area to perform the transaction, since I had turned the thing off and taken care of the till an hour ago. He took his change, and went on his way, having delayed me even further.

All this despite the sign. Do some people happen to lose their ability to read signs after 9PM or so? That's about the only explanation I can think of at the moment. Maybe nobody would've tried to enter had I not posted it...

[Dave1982]

The First Rule of Being an SC: Signs do not exist.

[Dave0523]

The First Rule of Being an SC: Signs do not exist.

You're mistaken there. The signs exist; they're for everyone BUT the SC.

--Dave

[Jack T. Chance]

My 2 cen... uh, I mean, my 2 DOLLARS worth!

AdamAnt316, here's my $2.00 worth, as someone that's worked in retail pretty steadily for the last 17 years (yegods, has it really been that long? )

1. Even though you're a small, mom & pop type operation, tell your boss they MUST buy the following items for the store: Business Hours Sign (with the Lighted Version being more expensive, but even more effective), Open/Closed Sign (with "Will Return At" Time Indicator) and, if you have a big enough window to display it in, an LED OPEN/CLOSED Sign (because one that only says OPEN and is turned off at closing time gets ignored when off, but one that's brightly lit-up with the word CLOSED might actually stop the customers from getting out of their cars to walk up to the door!) These things are absolute MUST-HAVES!
2. Whenever the store is CLOSED, the door absolutely MUST be locked! A behavioral study that was done a few years ago has found that when someone is walking up to the door of a building to enter it, they sub-consciously block out everything except the door handle! It's a form of tunnel vision that they're not even aware of, because their brain does it automatically. So ALL they see is the door handle, until the moment they reach for it, grab it, pull it, and find that the door is LOCKED! If you're closed, but the door is UNlocked, all the signs in the world won't stop them from walking up and pulling the door open!
3. In the case of the floor cleaner, my words to him would've been more or less as follows: "There's no way in HELL that door will be unlocked after the store is closed, so you have 2 choices: either get EVERYTHING you need and bring it in NOW, or you will have to have me let you in and out every time you need something from your vehicle. Your choice." That's what I recommend you do in the future, as well.

That's my story, and I'm stickin' to it!

[bigjimaz]

Do some people happen to lose their ability to read signs after 9PM or so?

Yes they do and it will continue unless store employees, managers and their corporate offices quit being 'nice' to them. Remember the first rule of dealing with SC's:

Give them an inch and they'll take a mile.

[cloudiko]

Then he blurts out the dumbest frickin thing:
WELL, I DON'T READ SIGNS!

Well, at least he was honest. You have to give him at least half a brownie point for that one.

And yes, most SCs seem to forget how to read signs. They are just one more thing for them to ignore - which is annoying for everybody else to endure. Example:
SC: (obviously ignoring the sign at the door that states: PLEASE WAIT TO BE SEATED) *barges into the restuarant and grabs a chair*
Me: What are you doing?
SC: *looks like a child who just got caught sticking his hand in the candy jar* What? Don't I seat myself or something?
Me: No.
SC: It's not like there's a sign or anything. You can't expect me to know what to do if there's no sign.
Me: *points at large sign directly in front of the door* Um, there's a huge sign at the front that states you must wait to be seated.
SC: No there isn't!
Me: *walks to sign and turns it toward the SC* See? Please wait to be seated.
SC: OH!! It said 'thank you for coming' when I walked in.
Me:

[blas]

We had the same procedure with floor cleaners at the gas station.

I do hope they were being properly paid and compensated, because I had to leave the lights on. Even though I could lock the door so no one could get in, everyone driving down the road that night thought "OHMYGOD they changed their hours to 24/7!" and went to reef on the door.

That poor floor cleaner!!!

[Andara Bledin]

A behavioral study that was done a few years ago has found that when someone is walking up to the door of a building to enter it, they sub-consciously block out everything except the door handle!

That's kind of interesting. When I'm approaching a building, as soon as I've identified the door handle and how the door opens, I stop paying attention to it.

^-.-^

[crazylegs]

I share your pain, (but slightly differently)

One of my *BIGGEST* bugbears is people who park on the bright yellow, two inch wide School keep clear zig zag markings, these aren't small people, they extend a good three-four feet towards the centre of the carrigeway (sp?), what, you dont think they apply to you? So tell that to the grieving parents who loose their children because you're blocking the view when the kids crossing the road!

[Jack T. Chance]

That's kind of interesting. When I'm approaching a building, as soon as I've identified the door handle and how the door opens, I stop paying attention to it.

^-.-^

Yeah, but remember, you're like myself and a lot of the other people on these boards: smart enough to THINK about what you're doing, and override your "auto pilot"!

But this behavioral study was aired on a news program a few years ago... I wish I could remember which one, so I could find a clip of it online. They rigged the people up with some kind of camera system that supposedly aimed right at what their eyes were focused on, which is how they could tell that the people were focusing on the door handle and blocking everything else out. When they asked the people in the study about it, most were completely unaware they were even doing it. Pretty interesting stuff.

[BookstoreEscapee]

AdamAnt, don't take this the wrong way, but you are WAY too nice!

Although, when they clean the carpets at B&N (mind you, much bigger than a convenience store) they had to leave the doors open because the cleaners had hoses that were hooked up to their truck parked in front of the building. Of course, if you were to try to get in, you'd have to climb over a tangle of hoses and cords, and maybe, just maybe, it might dawn on you that you weren't supposed to be there. Maybe...

[jrh215]

Although, when they clean the carpets at B&N (mind you, much bigger than a convenience store) they had to leave the doors open because the cleaners had hoses that were hooked up to their truck parked in front of the building. Of course, if you were to try to get in, you'd have to climb over a tangle of hoses and cords, and maybe, just maybe, it might dawn on you that you weren't supposed to be there. Maybe...

It probably won't.

[Jack T. Chance]

AdamAnt, don't take this the wrong way, but you are WAY too nice!

Although, when they clean the carpets at B&N (mind you, much bigger than a convenience store) they had to leave the doors open because the cleaners had hoses that were hooked up to their truck parked in front of the building. Of course, if you were to try to get in, you'd have to climb over a tangle of hoses and cords, and maybe, just maybe, it might dawn on you that you weren't supposed to be there. Maybe...

See, if I were the Store Manager there, I'd tell them they had to park in BACK and run their hoses in through the BACK door! But that's just the kind of practical guy I am!

[BookstoreEscapee]

See, if I were the Store Manager there, I'd tell them they had to park in BACK and run their hoses in through the BACK door! But that's just the kind of practical guy I am!

That wouldn't work very well...they'd either have to run everything through the length of the Receiving room (and wade through all the boxes and carts), or in the case of Store 1, through the fire exit, down some stairs, through a hallway, and out into the store, or in Store2 they'd be walking back and forth through the landscaping (including wood chips and mulch) to get in through the emergency exit. Not very practical in either case.

[Andara Bledin]

But this behavioral study was aired on a news program a few years ago... I wish I could remember which one, so I could find a clip of it online. They rigged the people up with some kind of camera system that supposedly aimed right at what their eyes were focused on, which is how they could tell that the people were focusing on the door handle and blocking everything else out. When they asked the people in the study about it, most were completely unaware they were even doing it. Pretty interesting stuff.

It's probably the same study, or a similar one to the one they used to check people who would drive while talking on their cell phones. During the initial "fumbling with the phone" period where you are either trying to dial or answer, it's much, much safer to have a hands free device. Once you get to the point of actually talking on the phone, however, it makes absolutely zero difference to your ability to operate a vehicle safely whether you're holding the phone or using a hands free. In both cases, people dropped their gaze notably once they started talking and are just as big a menace, regardless.

^-.-^