My #1 biggest pet peeve

[scroob]

My biggest pet peeve of all time is when a customer comes into the store, just assumes the time we close, get it wrong and then complain loudly about it the whole time. I make announcements beginning a half hour before closing time. What irritates me is that these people have several ways to avoid this situation. They could: Look on the doors where our hours are clearly posted, listen to the announcements, or ask any of the 5 workers on the floor and they will gladly tell you what time we close. Just don't assume we close at 9 instead of 8 and get annoyed when you find out that you are wrong.
As a corollary to this, yesterday a woman came in around 715 and was shopping until she heard my announcement at 730 that we closed at 8. Her husband asks "Do you want to continue shopping?" She says "NO, i feel RUSHED!" That annoyed me because she had several ways to find out when we closed, and she also didn't have to come in that late to buy clothes when we stay open for 10 hours, which should be more than enough time. Bottom line was, she was right in that she was being rushed, but not for the reason she implied by her complaining.
I need a beer

[Supermarket Slave Girl]

I know how you feel, but at my work we are not allowed to do closing announcements, can't have the customers being rushed now can we

Nor are we allowed to do security calls, had a couple of thieves last night, they came in at least 8 times going straight down the confectionary lane then walking out, had numerous customers complain about them so I put a couple of security calls over the PA to deter them only to be told by management that it wasn't allowed.

So I don't get it.

[Pagan]

I know how you feel, but at my work we are not allowed to do closing announcements, can't have the customers being rushed now can we

Yeah, at Dillard's we weren't allowed to make a closing announcement until 9pm, when we closed. Fat lot of good it does then.

[saturnz_dragon]

We make 4 closing announcements. One at 9:45, 9:50, 9:55, and finally 10pm when we close. This still does not sink in with some people, who decide to continue shopping after half the lights automatically turn off... sheesh. I need a beer too!

[Food Lady]

We make 4 closing announcements. One at 9:45, 9:50, 9:55, and finally 10pm when we close. This still does not sink in with some people, who decide to continue shopping after half the lights automatically turn off... sheesh. I need a beer too!

What about 9:30? Oh, and since we're attached to a mall, we have to make announcemets that the mall entrance will be closing. (The mall closes 1 hour before we do.) That adds 3 more announcements to the list.

[Alyssie]

At the Hannaford I worked at we weren't allowed to make announcements either. I remember all four years I worked there I was scheduled to work the 4th of July evening so i'd always miss the afternoon parade AND the fire works. They would advertise in the paper that we were closing at 10pm that evening and post signs on the outside of the door. Yet we'd still get people coming in at 9:50. Someone would say"don't we need to hurry, aren't they closing soon?" and the friend would say "No, we have an hour, it's all good". I wanted to tear my eyes out because I wanted to go home and we weren't allowed to say anything and these damn people had just enjoyed the 4th of July festivities and now were gonna come in and rub it in and make me stay LATER LOL

[Department stores *sigh*]

We dont even have a PA system, we just push everybody out with forklifts :P

Im serious, we do a sweep and sometimes i get on a fork just to make sure they know we're shutting down.

[dbblsanta]

That's just so disgusting that they don't allow you to do closing announcements. I have never walked into a store, heard a closing announcement, and been offended by it. I hate being rushed as much as the next person, but I'm certainly not going to blame the store for closing when they're supposed to close.

That's just a prime example of management bending over backwards for unreasonable customers. Then who loses out? The employees of course.

[KellyHabersham]

Hearing some of this definitely makes me appreciate working at the library, as we can (and do) make closing announcements - either the security guard (or if he's not working, the librarian-in-charge) will make an announcement at 15 minutes until closing, then 5 minutes, then the "final" announcement.

Of course, we do still get some people lingering around, but fortunately those of us who work at the page level don't have to deal with them, and can leave.

[SourRobot]

A couple nights ago after closing time some guy came in and asked a security guard if she could page a manager because he had a question concerning a purchase he'd made. You have a problem with your stuff? That's great, come back in the morning. As if the lights off and no customers around weren't big enough hints that we had closed down for the night. I don't even know how security let the guy in; after closing time they stop people at the door and make sure they don't come in.

[Jay Fear]

That makes me glad that I work at a store legally bound to observe its closing times (we're a big drycleaner, so our machinery and parking lot are noisy and therefore face similar limits to factories and construction sites).

Management used to be more loose about closing, but after the local government threatened us with fines, I've had the distinct pleasure of being able to close the doors on people running/driving up to our doorway.

The best example of this would be about 6 months ago when a rather spoilt middle-aged fellow comes to the store on a Tuesday, complaining about being locked out on a Saturday.

THE CAST

ME: Oh so jaded retail monkey
MANAGER: Decent guy with a *GASP* spine!
CUSTOMER: Perfect example of the "lots of dollars and no sense" types who frequent our store

HOW IT WENT DOWN

CUSTOMER: I only live nearby and I desperately needed my dinner suit before a party on Saturday evening, and YOUR staff member *points at me* locked the door on me before closing.

MANAGER: Jay? Is this true?

JAY: It was ten minutes past closing, I'd already clocked out and we've got proof on the front counter's security cameras. Besides, that suit's been here for a week, if he lives nearby, why did he wait til after closing to come?

CUSTOMER: That's not the point! You should stay open as long as someone's waiting! And the way in which you closed it right in front of me was unfair! If I were your employer I wouldn't want someone as rude as you working for me!

MANAGER: Well it's good you're not his employer then. We post our closing times, and you've had all week to come get it. Jay was observing policy, and protecting us from fines that'll cost us far more than any business we'd get from you.

At this point the customer stopped whining and went, yay for that! To be fair, my manager did ask that I be a little less gleeful in locking them out, as it used to be the case that someone showing up then probably would have gotten service. Still, it's nice to be backed up on policy, I see it happen so rarely in retail.