Closing Time Suck

[Jay 2K Winger]

Okay. We all get these people. The last-minute shoppers, the clock vultures, whatever epithet-- er, nickname-- you wanna use. They show up within the last five minutes of your operating hours, will argue with you about how long they have, etc.

So I'm FDLP tonight, which means I get the dubious distinction of telling people we're closed, or how long they have, etc. Our FLS tonight, NS, is either reading the clocks up by the customer service desk wrong or the clocks up there are five minutes fast. Either way, according to the clock on my cell phone, it would be, say, 9:25, and she would be calling out the time as 9:30, with thirty minutes left to shop, etc.

I'm going to assume she's not just trying to close us up five minutes early, given that the MOD didn't try to correct her, and assume therefore the clocks were fast.

So it's 10:00pm (by the "store time" that's being called out), when this guy walks up. He's on his cell phone, as he's got it to his ear. I tell him we're closing up.

CPG = Cell Phone Guy
J2K = Yours Truly

CPG: What time do you guys close?
J2K: (Impending Suck Alarm!) Ten o'clock.
CPG: (lowers phone long enough to check time) It's not ten o'clock yet!
* CPG puts phone back to his ear.
J2K: (Suck confirmed! Danger! Danger!) Sir, they've already made the closing announcement, I can't let you in.
CPG: But it's not ten o'clock, I still have--
J2K: Sir, I understand your clock says otherwise, but the clock she's using up there (point toward desk) says it's ten. She's made the closing announcement.
CPG: This is ridiculous! If you guys aren't going to let me in, you should change the time on the sign to 9:50 instead of 10:00, now let me inside!
J2K: Sir, again, they've made the closing announcement, which means I can't let anyone else into the store.
CPG: What's your name?
J2K: (flips name badge down so it's readable) My name is Jay, sir.
CPG: (storms off, still complaining as he goes)
J2K: I'm just doing my job, sir.
CPG: Asshole!

Now, the entire time he's complaining (perhaps with reason), he hasn't taken the cell phone away from his ear. I would have loved to have called him on that, but like most retail workers, when Suck has been confirmed, I do my best not to make the Suck worse.

[mattm04]

I love the "my watch/phone/whatever" says id only <what ever time that the store is still open>" people. we use the store time (the time our Phone system says it is) which is synchronized to some official clock.

[Jay 2K Winger]

That's part of the problem at the wholesale club.

Let's put it like this. Let N = Cell phone time. Everyone's cell phone these days more or less synchs up.

The clocks on the cash registers at the club list the time as N-2, two minutes slower than N.

The timeclock in the break room, where everyone punches in and out on their shifts, lists the time as N+2, two minutes faster than N.

The clocks on the phones in the club vary. Some days they read at N, some days at N-x (where x = any number), some days at N+x.

Personally, I think all of the store's clocks (registers, phones, etc.) should all read the time on the time-clock. But then, that would make sense.

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

"Sorry, you and your atomic watch/cell phone will need to try again tomorrow. We open at 7:50."

[Lace Neil Singer]

This is a perfect example of what I call Customer Standard Time. Holds no connection to actual time at all. XD

[gaspode]

Aaahh "customer lets go by my watch time" thats why the first thing I bought when I ran the pub was a radio controlled clock, acurate to the second ,soon shuts them up when you smack them around the head with it.