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

[Aisling]

Manager who was a bit taken aback: "No, no, go ahead."

While, yes, it would have been nice if they'd hurried up or left non-essential shopping for another time, the customers were given permission by management to go in and shop. The fault is (mostly) with the manager, not the customers.

[TonyF]

The fault is (mostly) with the manager, not the customers.

I think in this case, I bet she thought they'd be in and out in a few minutes.

Still, our management always bends over backwards for customers, I hate it. A very painful reminder of why I'd never make it in management. They're a good group of people, but damn, have a spine.

That being said, I feel the customers shouldn't have snapped at me and I had this sinking feeling that they ate up the clock on purpose.

[Catwoman2965]

I too wonder WHY people feel compelled to come in at 8:40 - when we close at 9, KNOWING they need an outfit for something the very next day, or they're leaving for vacation at some ungodly hour. And corpoprate policy is such that we ARE NOT ALLOWED to tell customers I'm sorry, but we are closing/closed. If they ask waht time we close,we can tell them, but we can't do anything to hurry them out. It would be BAD customer service.

So many times we all stand around twiddling our thumbs, waiting for them to fnish so we can clean up after them, and do all the other closign stuff.

[vloglady]

At the public library, the computers automatically shut off like 10 minutes after closing. We can't start them up again.

[SourRobot]

I've been very lenient in the past with shoppers like that, but due to people really taking advantage of me because I was too nice, I have no problems with telling people that they only have X minutes until all the cashiers start closing down their registers, and once that happens the customers won't be able to purchase anything until the next day. Do they listen? Sometimes, but once I start to close my register I don't have to do anything for the customers. I'm supposed to be out of that building exactly 15 minutes after the store closes or else risk being bitched out by the managers, so the customers really can't complain.

[StarsAreFixed]

God I hate last-minute customers!

St. Patricks's Day- ie. most shops are closed not least because of the extortionate public holiday rate (yay for getting paid €170 for a 7 hour shift)

Customers rifling through the PERFECTLY folded knitwear tables..
Manager: I'm sorry but the store is closed...*gestures sort of to door*
Customers: God it's very quiet for Paddy's day! Thought it'd be crowded

Ehh..we have been closed 15 minutes! While you ignored ALL of the closing announcements!

I love being near the front door and either getting to tell customers we're closed or hearing security tell them. Great therapy.

Token staff/security: Sorry, the store is closed

Customer: I NEED nappies!
Customer: I just need to grab some milk!
Customer: I'll only be a few minutes, I know what I want!
...ehh, we also close our registers! There are other shops still open!

Two classics stand out..8:25, store had been closed 25 minutes. For some reason the shutter was only half down.

Customer comes out of nowhere and grabs umbrella from the stand
Me: I'm sorry, the store is closed
Customer: I just need this! It's raining!
Me: The tills are closed, sorry
Customer: But I just need this! I have exact change
Me: ????? The tills are closed (annoyed tone).

Foreign customer had massive pile of clothes in a basket, had come into the store around half an hour before closing. So the usual closing announcements go on which might be incomprehensible but the emptying of the shop, shutters going half down and lous sound of tills closing should have been hint enough. Customer continues browsing like a good thing. Is told before 5 to closing and a few minutes before closing that we ARE closing and that the tills will close 5 minutes after close. Customer brushes this off. Dissapears..we think she's gone...comes up to the tillbank at 20 past and dumps her basket down. When informed that the tills are all closed she acts like it's a giant surprise and insists that we open one for her and goes mad when told that isn't possible. Rants and rages about it not being good customer service. Ugh the RAGE!

Customers who want to try stuff on AT closing are hilarious too. Seriously, I would not go into a shop if it was closing shortly. Would be mortified to hear a closing announcement or being asked to finish up.

[saturnz_dragon]

Ugh. I hate when customers do that. I had this one lady in the store shopping for SIX HOURS. How do you even do that??? I watched her flirt with some random guy for 2 hours. Wtf! And we make 4 closing announcements, yet this stupid woman waits until after we are closed and half the lights are off to come up to my register. She has a huge pile of clothes and other stuff she didn't need and it took me forever to ring her up and get her out of the store. This has happened with several other people too, mostly on weekends. I hate it so much.

[mattm04]

It is ALWAYS wore on Holidays where we close early, no matter what. The 4th of July< I want to see fireworks not be here. Easter, I want ham dammint. Christmas Eve, well self explanatory.

[kokopuff3]

Ugh. I hate when customers do that. I had this one lady in the store shopping for SIX HOURS. How do you even do that??? I watched her flirt with some random guy for 2 hours. Wtf! And we make 4 closing announcements, yet this stupid woman waits until after we are closed and half the lights are off to come up to my register. She has a huge pile of clothes and other stuff she didn't need and it took me forever to ring her up and get her out of the store. This has happened with several other people too, mostly on weekends. I hate it so much.

:O..six HOURS? How was she not kicked out for loitering..?

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

The lingerers I hate the most, and want to condemn to the deepest darkest pits of Hades, are the people who dash in right before close and buy stuff that needs to be carried out.

Not too terribly long ago, the closers one night got stuck trying to load a recliner into somebody's van well after close. Had to take the pieces out of the box and everything. I can't figure out why these people waited until close to buy the damn thing, when they could've come at an earlier time the next day, when the people who'd have to do the carryout wouldn't be so tempted to tell them "Here's your fuckin' recliner, load it up yourself, we're closed, we're going home now."

My supervisor worked out in lawn and garden years ago, and she tells us the story of this guy who rolled in just as she was closing up the compound for the night and wanted to buy one of our heavy plastic storage sheds. Except the shed was now on clearance and the display was all that was left. So she was stuck dragging somebody else out from inside the store to help her disassemble the shed and stuff the pieces in the guy's garbage-strewn van, as he and his family cemented themselves in their seats and helped out only by offering their advice on how everything should be fit into the van. She ended up staying an hour later than she should have.

By the end, she was ready to just deck the guy, she says.

[saturnz_dragon]

:O..six HOURS? How was she not kicked out for loitering..?

They didn't kick her our because she had a cart full of stuff and she was gonna make us money! Like a billion dollar corporation is relying one stupid woman to survive...

[EricKei]

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.

I've been at stores where we told customers this before. Almost invariably, it yields a blank stare.

And corpoprate policy is such that we ARE NOT ALLOWED to tell customers I'm sorry, but we are closing/closed. If they ask waht time we close,we can tell them, but we can't do anything to hurry them out. It would be BAD customer service.

It was like that at the grocery store I worked at. The best part was, there were a few people who actively abused this bit of stupidity -- they KNEW when we closed, and openly stated that they liked to come in at 15 mins til closing time (and shop for an HOUR PLUS! ) because it was quieter and there were fewer other people around when they did so...All we were allowed to do was turn off the lights/sweep up aisles as they left, watching them like hungry vultures. Half of us were highschoolers, too, which meant that they were keeping us in-store beyond the time we were legally permitted to work when this happened. I don't care how much overpriced crap they buy when they're keeping a cashier, 3 baggers/stockers, ALL of the managers and porters on the clock for an extra hour just for them -- that crap adds up!

They didn't kick her our because she had a cart full of stuff and she was gonna make us money! Like a billion dollar corporation is relying one stupid woman to survive...

Stores do seem to act that way at times, ESPECIALLY the megalithic ones.

[TimmyHate]

My favorite was my old manager at the Cafe

Manager: I have to ask you to leave, we are closed
SC: But we brought this before closing
M: Yes but we are now closed. Get out.
SC: You can't speak to me like that
M: My shift ends at 7pm. It is now 7:15. I am a member of the public now and can say what I like. No kindly get the out of the shop.

[Marmalady]

I have always been told that the public indemnity insurance only operates during the store's trading hours - so if anything happens to a customer outside those hours, the company wouldn't be covered. Therefore the customers MUST leave the premises when the store closes. Might be worth pointing out to managers etc.

[Geek King]

Now kindly get the out of the shop.

Only really works on folks from Rapture, sadly...