Are you closing down? *headdesk*

[Lulu]

Ok, so this one may be something specific to my shop, but that doesn't detract from the annoyance factor...TRUST ME on that! I've been meaning to put this one on here for ages and just never got around to it

The centre we're in had a rent hike about 2 years ago, because of that, the previous owner of my shop decided to call it a day and sold us off, lock, stock, staff and shelves to someone else. The locals were deeply miffed about this and actually got up a petition in an attempt to keep us open. It didn't work, but we were touched by the thought nonetheless.

I'm not even going to get into the disgusting behaviour of the vultures picking the closing down sale dry. Suffice to say, it was worse than anything I'd seen before or since at Christmas time and something I will never forget.

We were closed for a month during this change over so that the place could be re-fitted and re-stocked without customers messing it all up again. We had 4ft long banners in the blanked out window explaining in detail that we would remain a bookshop, but that we would be changing names and management.

Naturally, we're quite eager to move on from the entire incident and we have done our best to forget it all since death threats and poison pen letters aren't a nice thing to deal with when you're trying to open a shop up again (and yes, the police were involved in that one and it's a story for another day!), but the local population seem to either not realise just how RUDE they are, or, they just don't care!

Not a DAY (sometimes hour) goes by without someone saying something like:

"You're not closing down are you because I seem to remember you were going to..." *insert pause where they look at us with a raised brow like they fully believe the whole thing was a scam*

We closed the old company down TWO YEARS AGO! We were closed for a MONTH! we opened again under a NEW NAME! Why do people think that the same staff behind the counter = same company?! What part of this are they just not getting?! Someone actually came in last week with a book they'd brought from the previous company and wanted a refund! Honestly, when someone accuses me of lying about the old place closing down, do they not realise they're insulting me and completely missing the fact that I was lucky to keep my job?!

So yeah...they all suck...

/rant off

[Demonoid Phenomenon]

Annual Going-Out-Of-Business Sale...

Actually, I used to get this all the time from my days in the toy biz.
You might need to sit down for this one...

It's our first open day after Christmas.
Shelves are somewhat empty for obvious reasons.
Or so you would think...
I can't tell you how many people walked into the store that first day after the Christmas holiday was over, looked around, and asked, "Are you guys going out of business?"
And they were SERIOUS.

I could never come up with a smart-@$$ comment clever enough, but I guess stupidity like that needs no follow-up.

[bean]

Along the same lines...

Awhile back Papa John's closed a LOT of their corporate owned stores here - probably 1/3 - 1/2 of them shut down, leaving a lot of the metro area *gasp* without Papa John's delivery service!

At the time I was a shift manager at one that wasn't shut down - and took a call from someone really pissed off that the store near her (2 towns away) closed. I apologized and offered to make a carry out order for her. She went off on a massive tangent about how inconvenienced she was having to drive a whole 4 miles and how we should all be fired for closing HER store. Not one of my prouder moments, but I returned fire and told her that several of my friends were out of work thanks to the store closing and I was sick of dealing with people yelling at me about it, especially since it wasn't even the same franchise (ok so I made that part up, we were corporate owned at the time). I may have asked her why she was screaming at me about roughly 15 people losing their jobs as well.

She started to cuss me out, I told her I marked her phone number as one not to take orders from and hung up. Damn, I hate when that happens. Never did hear from her again though.

(yes, I'm an asshole)

[Canarr]

Naturally, we're quite eager to move on from the entire incident and we have done our best to forget it all since death threats and poison pen letters aren't a nice thing to deal with when you're trying to open a shop up again (and yes, the police were involved in that one and it's a story for another day!), but the local population seem to either not realise just how RUDE they are, or, they just don't care!

Oh, please do tell. Please.

[Zombi]

We're having major issues with the local council at my store at the moment. Apparently, we're in the wrong zone for some of the things we sell (meat, fish, groceries, etc.), and we have to stop selling them from the new year onwards or face legal action. There's a great big sign at the front end telling people that (making it out to be the council just being dickwads, rather than the owner being an arrogant jerk who pisses people off left, right and centre). It specifically says "Don't worry, there's plenty of market gardens to keep us supplied!", but people still keep asking if we're closing down. You've just spent five minutes gawking at that bloody sign while I was waiting for you to pay me! Don't tell me you didn't even read it!

I had to laugh at one woman, though:
Her: "Isn't there a petition we can sign? 'Save the *store name*', or something?"
Me: "Well, it's a legal issue, so I don't think so."
Her: "But people like you could lose your jobs!"

It was a valid point, but I didn't want to explain to her that I'm moving to England in 3 weeks, so I really don't give a rat's behind about my job.

[Spiffy McMoron]

We closed the old company down TWO YEARS AGO!

[snip]

Someone actually came in last week with a book they'd brought from the previous company and wanted a refund!

Look, if the guy was so stupid that he thought that he could return a two-year old book, he's probably not the time who would notice something like a "name".

[Rapscallion]

It was a valid point, but I didn't want to explain to her that I'm moving to England in 3 weeks, so I really don't give a rat's behind about my job.

Oooh! Whereabouts?

As to people and closing shops, they don't tend to believe that you're closing despite all the evidence.

I was pounding concrete to small pieces, the air was full of dust. The dairyman and the Boss were discussing the price of a fixture, the air was turning blue. The lights were out, most of the stock was gone, and almost all the shelving had gone.

"Do you have any organic carrots?" a peroxide Barbie asked from the doorway.

We stared until she left.

Rapscallion

[DGoddessChardonnay]

Oooh! Whereabouts?

As to people and closing shops, they don't tend to believe that you're closing despite all the evidence.

I was pounding concrete to small pieces, the air was full of dust. The dairyman and the Boss were discussing the price of a fixture, the air was turning blue. The lights were out, most of the stock was gone, and almost all the shelving had gone.

"Do you have any organic carrots?" a peroxide Barbie asked from the doorway.

We stared until she left.

Rapscallion

She must have been related to the dimbulb who showed up at the last store I worked at (WD at Lawndale.)

For the newbies, this store shut down almost 2 1/2 years ago. Medium sized grocery store in an area surrounded by apartments/condos (plenty of walking traffic.)

This incident took place 2 days after the last day of business. .

The windows on the front were being boarded up

There was a sign company OUTSIDE with a cherry picker taking down the signage from the overhang above the front of the store

NO cars in the parking lot, except for a handful of employees

NO shopping carts outside (corrals are dismantled and inside the store)

A WD maintenance van is on site, the ara supervisor himself is there to get paperwork signed off on and collect store keys.

Store manager is in the office, waiting for locks to be changed. Office has been cleaned out, inventory of all equipment finalized/closing inventory of store merchandise finalized/remaining merchadise has been transferred out to remaining stores in the area/vendor fixtures are gone/etc. He's just bs'n around until the supervisor is finished and he can leave for the last time.

A car pulled into the parking lot while I was outside w/another employee (we're both in street clothes by the way.) A lady leans out her car window (not noticing that the store is EMPTY) and asks . . .

"Are you taking applications?"

[heather124]

We're in the process of closing down, we have our whole front window painted yellow and saying "closing down sale" in BIG letters and we have signs all over the store saying we're closing down.

At least 1 time a day we get someone coming in who wants to order something in and when we say that we aren't doing customer orders anymore since we're closing down they always look at us in shock saying they didn't know. Like the 100 signs around the store doesn't give it away!

[Demonoid Phenomenon]

[/QUOTE] A car pulled into the parking lot while I was outside w/another employee (we're both in street clothes by the way.) A lady leans out her car window (not noticing that the store is EMPTY) and asks . . .

"Are you taking applications?"[/QUOTE]

You see, now, folks with detachable brains should always doublecheck themselves before leaving the house.
It's just a good idea.

[Zombi]

Oooh! Whereabouts?

Milton Keynes.

[dragonflygrrl]

Our store used to sell two major cellular carriers. Since March of 2005, we only sell one. You would think that our customers who purchased phones from the old carrier might have had time to figure out where the store that actually sells that carrier is in the intervening 20 g#dd#amned months. You would be wrong. To this day, we get customers with their great big chirping phones (hint, hint), coming in asking service questions. To top it off, when we tell them that we don't sell that carrier anymore, they argue!

SC: Hey, I need a new phone!
ME: Are you looking to switch carriers?
SC: *looking confused* Um, no. My work pays for this.
ME: I'm sorry, the [big chirping phone carrier] store is at [street address]. We only sell [our carrier].
SC: No, I know I bought this phone here.
ME: Then you must have purchased it before March of 2005. Since then, we have stopped carrying [big chirping phone carrier]. Sorry.
SC: No, I was just in here not too long ago, and you had [big chirping phone carrier] then.
ME: No, we stopped carrying them in March of 2005.
*Repeat last two lines until either SC gets belligerent or an important chirp draws him out of the store*

[Rapscallion]

Milton Keynes.

Mmmm - reasonably distant. We've been trying to get a Britmeet going for a while, but that's a sort-of manageable distance.

Rapscallion

[Zombi]

Ooh, a meetup!! *likes meetups*
Distance isn't too much of an issue for me - I'm in Western Australia at the moment, and distance means something entirely different for us.

[rvdammit]

I'm in the good old Souf London area.