No, no. Go ahead and take your own sweet time.

[TonyF]

This isn't the first time this has happened, but this is the first time it was this extreme....and rude.

Our store closes at 10pm sharp, not a minute after. Our manager plays doorman when the five minute countdown begins.

Our district manager came in himself a week ago and told management that we have to be out at 11pm exactly. No overtime will be tolerated.

So, I'm on the register when we're about to close. It's 9:59 and we are practically counting down the seconds. Lo and behold, a couple walks in and grabs a cart. Our manager politely tells them that we are closing in one minute.

How do they respond?

Girlfriend: "Ok..." In the 'Your point is...?' tone.
Boyfriend: "What? So, we're not allowed to shop?"
Manager who was a bit taken aback: "No, no, go ahead."

The manager sneered after the couple disappeared into an aisle. We hope that this won't take longer than a few minutes.

So, it's now 10:10pm and the manager is still standing at the doors becoming increasingly irritated. I asked her if we could force them to leave. She told me to go ask them nicely if we could do anything to speed this up. I put my nicest face on and load up my nicest voice, but I get hit in the face with a bottle of rudeness.

Boyfriend: "Dude, we ain't gonna be much longer."
Girlfriend: "If you guys weren't always stopping us, we'd be quicker."
Boyfriend: "I know. Damn, man..." As I was walking off.

Oh yeah, I'm irritated now.

10:20pm now and I notice the couple taking their own sweet time in one of our cosmetic aisles, reading the back of shampoo bottles and hair dye. And, yep, my manager is standing there fiddling her thumbs. She can't get started on her paperwork until all registers are closed out.

We saw them look back at us. Yes guys, we are staring at you. Hurry it up.

They finally came up at 10:25pm with a load that was too little to have needed twenty five minutes. They officially are out by 10:32pm. That left my manager twenty eight minutes left to finish closing the registers and all of the manager paperwork and computer work that normally takes the whole closing hour.

Now, you might think they bought necessities. Wrong. They bought candy, drinks, hair coloring, shampoo, magazines, and some other cosmetic stuff.

If our district manager wants to rip us a new one, he can look at the cameras and the register transaction history.

It's been a few hours since and I have a few beers in me so it's not bothering me much anymore.

Question though: Is there anything businesses can legally do to get a customer out of the store if it's past closing time? Or do we have to let them finish?

[Seshat]

Yes - you can refuse service to anyone at any time for any reason which is not a discrimination/legally protected reason.

"you're here after closing time" is NOT a protected reason.

(Protected reasons are stuff like 'you're black/jewish/disabled/gay'.)

So yes, you can tell them they're to get out, and call the cops to enforce it.

[Bright_Star]

Who the hell goes shopping one minute before the store closes? We get that a lot at Sam's Club. I think it's because they do it be a smart ass.
IF I was management then I'd tell someone that .."NO, you're not allowed to shop now cause we're getting ready to close...Go to Wal-Mart, they're open 24/7!"
This sense of entitlement that a lot of customers seem to think they have is nothing short of amazing. Managers need to get a back bone & FORCE people to leave when it's time to close the store.
What could be so important to buy one minute before the store closes that they could have gotten at a more sensible time?

[casey13]

If your hours are posted, you can tell them they have 1 minute to shop but at 10 pm, the cashiers are leaving so they have to leave too. Then maybe five minute grace period and if they don't leave, in form them that you are calling the cops for trespassing. If the store isn't 24 hours, then purposely staying in it and refusing to leave at the posted time is no excuse.

[Fly]

I'm not sure about larger places, but we reserve the right to kick anyone out, and its in our lease, so if they don't leave we can call center security on them. Essentially our lease= our land. We get half hr to close, so they get 15min to get out before I kick them. NOTHING gets sold at all after we hit that sweet time

[BowserKoopa1]

Ah last minute shoppers HOW I HATE THOSE FUCKING BASTARDS!!! Everywhere I have worked at that is retail, we have the same dam problem, and then these morons just take their sweet time. I personally think they do it deliberately just to test us and see how far they can push their limits.
Your manager should have given them an extra 5 minutes or so, and then gone up to them and tell them they either have to check out right now, or leave. If they start bitching and moaning about how the store is being pushy and rushing them, remind them that they had all day to come shopping.
1 manager I had while working at a store wasn't about to tolerate that at all, and he said he was actually going to go up to them himself and threaten to kick them out if they didn't speed it up.
Another thing you may want to do if your store has a security guard or a police officer assigned on duty, just have them approach the customer. I personally guarantee they'll be gone in less than a minute.

[Department stores *sigh*]

We've shut down the registers and made customers unable to check out before *shrug* That was only twice and it was 30 min after close

[CrazedClerkthe2nd]

Your manager should have told them that the registers have already been shut down. I often tell late customers that. They can't buy anything if the register isn't working.

[Snowbird]

I really hate when people do that, it's beyond rude, particularly when they were told straight up the store was closing.

I've closed registers and turned off sections of lights that weren't necessary after giving the wanderers a fair five minute warning. I had one SC get snippy, shouting as she walked out, "This is ridiculous! How am I supposed to shop with all of the lights going out!!" ...You're supposed to shop during open hours, lady, that's the point.

Of course, I did turn them back on after we locked the doors behind her so that we could finish closing procedures too.

[Jay 2K Winger]

Clock vultures. We all hate them.

Had one recently at the wholesale club. We'd completed the closing routines. Self-checkouts were closed. Reshops were done. Trash and damages had been taken to the back, water bottles schlepped to receiving, clothing cart stationed in the clothing section for the overnight clothing lady, the inside and vestibule were fully stocked with carts for the next day. All the customers were out, so we were packing up the tills.

Oh, wait, there was one customer left who managed to avoid detection and hadn't made his presence known during the five different closing announcements and two "we are now closed" announcements.

He got upset that no one was left to ring him out, and tried to complain about it, but the MOD and FLS both pretty much said, "We made several announcements that we were closed and the cashiers were pulling their tills. You have no one to blame but yourself for taking too long."

Fortunately for the clock vulture, one of the managers had a till still in the SCO podium, so we were able to ring him out and shuffle him right out the door. But he got his complaint shut down at word one.

[MadMike]

We had three managers at my last job. Two of them had no problem with telling people to leave when it was closing time, but the one not only let them take their time, there were a few occasions where he actually unlocked the door and let them in after we had already closed. Why none of the employees came at him with one of the many power tools we sold, I'll never know.

On my last day, I was working until closing, and a group of these idiots came in at the last minute and proceeded to paw through our batch of cheap lumber, looking for a couple of "good" pieces. I was so pissed! I was supposed to go out with my friends and celebrate my new job, and now I was being help up. That is, until my one friend pointed out that it was my last day, and it wasn't like they could fire me if I just left. So I punched out, left my smock and keys on the front desk, and walked out. If the manager likes it so much when customers stay past closing, he could deal with them himself.

[Kristev]

People tried all sorts of tricks at Wal-Mart last Christmas Eve. We shut down early that night, 7 pm to be precise, and we didn't open at all on Christmas (the only day the store is blessedly shut down.) The only one working that day is the security guard.

But people still try to come in. And people have tried to hide in the departments, too.

[JLG]

We close at 9:30pm and a couple of times a month we will get a customer that walks in at 9:25 with returns. One item on one receipt, two items on another receipt, four items with no receipts but tags still attached, five items with a receipt but no tags attached.

We can't start any closing procedures until all customers are gone.

I have had these type of returns take 15 minutes and all of the associates are finished with their work and are standing around waiting for this customer to leave and for me to do the closing procedures. I can't send anybody home. We all have to leave together.

We have several regulars that do these type of returns and sometimes I wait by the door and if I see them coming I lock the doors.

[Teefies2]

People tried all sorts of tricks at Wal-Mart last Christmas Eve. We shut down early that night, 7 pm to be precise, and we didn't open at all on Christmas (the only day the store is blessedly shut down.)

My awesome WalMart manager would start the closing announcement 1 1/2 hours before closing time on Christmas Eve, then do it every 15 minutes until 1/2 hour before closing. At that point, he would do an announcement every 5 minutes (and lock the doors at 10 minutes til close). At zero hour, he would announce "we are now closed ... you must leave your items and exit the store NOW ... our employees want to enjoy the only holiday they get!!!!!!!!!!" He was soo awesome!!

And the best part was, after all the customers had left and the CSMs would tell us cashiers to put up returns, he would allow this for only 20 minutes, then he would announce "I am locking the doors, if you don't want to spend your Christmas Eve & Christmas Day here, drop what you are doing and clock out now" The stampede to the time clock was something to see!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Did I mention he was awesome??

[Anakah]

I hate that! I always make sure I look at the time places close just to make sure I am not one of those people. When I worked at family dollar we'd announce it a few times and if nobody got the hint we used to turn the lights off and announce it again.