SC Protests Our Closing Time

[RetailActress]

This is related to my previous "10 Minutes Before Closing" topic, and I cannot even put into words how FURIOUS I get with these last-minute entitled SCs!

Saturday night is usually the DEAD ZONE in our mature women's apparel store, but not last night! Apparently many of them had sprung free of their domestic traps and were giddily available to shop until WHENEVER!! Or, in the case of our store, until 8 p.m.

This ending time did not go over well with the two sets of kick-up-their-heels-gal-pal shoppers we had in the fitting rooms at 7:50 p.m., near our closing time.

"Can we get you anything else? We're closing in 10 minutes!" we cheerfully offered.

"Nope - we promise we're almost done!" they responded.

............................time passes ..................................................

It is now 8 p.m., closing time. "Sue, here's the key - would you lock up?" I loudly sang out.

Then I went about closing one of our two registers, rattling coins loudly.

They're still trying heaps o'clothes on.

We've already made our sales goal for the day. I am sending intense vibes: "GET! OUT! GET OUT! GET OUT!"

One of them sez: "Oh, you girls probably want to close up & go home." ["GIRLS" --- grrrrr ------ we're both over 50.]

But does she hustle her ass out of the fitting room? OH HELL NO. It's all about her!

Keyword: ENTITLEMENT.
UH - YEAH!!!

Finally, at 8:15 p.m. (and closing will take at least 30 min. after they actually leave), standing outside the fitting rooms, I firmly announce: "I'M AFRAID WE REALLY HAVE TO CLOSE NOW. IT'S ACTUALLY FIFTEEN MINUTES PAST OUR CLOSING TIME."

This bitch sez: "You used to be open until 9!"

Me: "I'm sorry - we've always closed at 8 pm, and that's posted on our signs in the window."

Bitch: "NO - I know I shopped here later than that!"

Me: <blinking in polite disbelief but calmly reiterating> "Actually we've always close d at 8 pm."

Bitch: <skeptically eyeing me as the liar I must be> "I KNOW I've shopped here until 9."

Me: <stretching for diplomacy> "Maybe that was before Daylight Savings Time?"

Bitch: <disgruntled; snorts; grudgingly concedes; buys a lot, which is good, but still takes up our precious time>

End result: we get home an hour later than we should have, and our manager is gong to want to know about the extra time.

Can we say: NO WIN SITUATION??

R.A.

[Anakah]

I used to HATE when people wouldn't hurry the hell up when we tried to close. I remember my manager turning the lights off at one point. We used to lock the doors at a certain time, regardless who was in the store. They better pay you the overtime.

[MadMike]

And if you were open until 9, they'd want to stay until 10. And if it was 10, they'd want to stay until 11, and so on. You just can't win.

[chainedbarista]

addressing what mad mike brought up, the evil green apron has a 'ten minute' policy that allows for us to keep serving ten minutes after the official close, which means...they'll keep showing up later and later.

guess who follows this particular policy? not our store; we're supposed to be GONE at x time, and that's that.

corporate needs a reality vaccination, to boost their ability to live in the reality we all share, instead of that buffer (buffoon?) zone they all seem to exist in.

[MrSunshineState]

When I worked at the movie theatre, we closed approximately 15 minutes after the last show of the night began. Almost every weekend we had people showing up 45 minutes after the last show banging on the doors and asking if we would sell them tickets.

[MiloMorai]

It's 5 minutes to close. We will be SHUTTING down ALL registers in 5 minutes. If you are getting anything you need to purchase it NOW or come back another time.


No lady, I'm paid hourly so I really do not care if you get the stuff you want tonight or another time or even somewhere else.....What's that? You'll have my job? OH! Goody, that means I'll be able to come in when you are trying to get out and go home to your family and make you stay late....No ma'am, I'd have to care about my job just a little bit to stop talking to you like this and I am sure someone somewhere at sometime HAS spoken to you like this before, you just chose not to hear it. Buh-bye.

[paige]

Confession: I was once asked to leave a mall bookstore because they were closing I was waiting for a friend who worked at one of the clothing stores, and just got lost reading book jackets and wandering aisles, completely lost track of time. Totally embarrassed, apologized to everyone.

Had to wait another 20 minutes for my friend because her store had stragglers and she had to check them out.

[karath]

addressing what mad mike brought up, the evil green apron has a 'ten minute' policy that allows for us to keep serving ten minutes after the official close, which means...they'll keep showing up later and later.

guess who follows this particular policy? not our store; we're supposed to be GONE at x time, and that's that.

corporate needs a reality vaccination, to boost their ability to live in the reality we all share, instead of that buffer (buffoon?) zone they all seem to exist in.

Good God, like last-minute customers weren't bad enough already. There used to be a group of people who had a 50/50 chance of arriving ONE MINUTE before closing every other night (somewhat related; this starbucks was in a purely business area and closed at 7). My manager and I had to have the keys ready to lock the doors the instant it hit seven on the nights the little party arrived too late, otherwise they would settle in for a good long while.

Good for you guys for sticking to your guns though!

[fish3k1]

We had some guy once (before I was working at my current job, thankfully) who wouldn't leave at closing because he was playing on our PS2... took about 20 mins for management to decide to call a fire drill. Why they didn't just cut the power to the machine I'll never know.

[Dorath]

I miss the days when closing time meant everyone got kicked the hell out.

[rts]

corporate needs a reality vaccination, to boost their ability to live in the reality we all share, instead of that buffer (buffoon?) zone they all seem to exist in.

The worst part is that they don't care.

As long as they can get their bonus for making sure the stores they run are scraping by because they cut payroll past the bone, as long as they can justify their jobs, as long as they can go to meetings and waste company time and money to try and figure out how to stick it to the stores, they'll do it!

[fish3k1]

I miss the days when closing time meant everyone got kicked the hell out.

Yeah... when we have the area manager (or anyone higher) in the store at closing, we're not even allowed to make store closed announcements - god forbid we might miss a sale!

[Boochan]

Indeed..
Always a bother when people try and run into the store despite on having a door and a half closed, especially if it does happen to be something really petty (i.e a sale under $10 or so), and they decide to take their time despite how much they know we want to go home. The stores around us in our mall have got tired of that these days and generally close 10 to 20 minutes early for this purpose.

I think the latest we've had a customer in would be around 5:15, which is bareable, though makes us about 15 minutes late. We generally have cashed up one out of two registers, if they literally run in just as we start declaring the second register (happened many times due to us been slow with the door) we just have to give them a handwritten reciept and hold over the cash until the next day..

[rts]

We had some guy once (before I was working at my current job, thankfully) who wouldn't leave at closing because he was playing on our PS2... took about 20 mins for management to decide to call a fire drill. Why they didn't just cut the power to the machine I'll never know.

Just pulling the plug would have been my approach. Start mopping the floor around him and on him....but I do like the fire drill option!!!!!

[rts]

Yeah... when we have the area manager (or anyone higher) in the store at closing, we're not even allowed to make store closed announcements - god forbid we might miss a sale!

One store I worked in we had a manager who wouldn't even lock the door till 30 minutes after closing, to try to get the stragglers money.

A phone call to loss prevention hotline from several associates put the kabosh on that practce!