Customers who come into the store to shop......10 minutes before closing time!

[Noelegy]

Been there, done that

Hi! I'm a new poster but have been reading CS for some time. I don't currently work in retail, but I did work in various customer-service positions for many years, including 10 Christmas seasons spent working retail. So I've got the scars to prove it...

My most recent retail gig was over 10 years ago, where I was the manager of the book department of a chain store comparable with Borders or Barnes & Noble, although this chain avoids opening in the same towns with either of those. If you've ever been in one of these stores, they put on a tape at 5 minutes to close that plays "Happy Trails" and announces that the store will be closing in 5 minutes, and then in 3, and then in 1, and finally that the store is closed. Customers used to ask, "Don't you HATE that song?" We'd say, Nope, we love it.

And believe me, trying to round up all the people browsing video as though they've got all the time in the world is not the easiest of tasks. I've even been on the receiving end of complaints from customers who drove up past closing time to drop their videos in the drop box outside. Since we were still visibly working in the store, they reasoned, their videos shouldn't have been late!

[Food Lady]

I have a story from my shoe store days. I worked in this sad little mall that was just dead all the time. In fact, one morning I couldn't get in the store for a couple of hours because I inadvertently broke the gate--another story--and the DM's reply was, "Oh, so-and-so's store? Well, we're gonna lose $11 today." So of course, one night a bunch of people decide to come in 10 min. before closing (9:00). Now, keep in mind I had no car and had to catch the bus at 10:00. We weren't allowed to kick people out, so at 9:20 I pulled out the vacuum and started doing the store. I was vacuuming around people and they were blithely stepping over the cord. It was ridiculous. We'd had the store straightened and now there were shoes all over the place and toddlers running around. Shortly after I started vacuuming my coworker was announcing that it was past closing and people needed to finish. Didn't seem to faze the SCs, so she turned off the lights. Only then does someone notice we are CLOSED, and COMPLAINS, very loudly. Are you kidding me??? At this point we've been closed for half an hour, and this loudmouth has been in there 40 minutes. I mean, did she wanna pay my cab fare?? I was so angry by the time it was all over that I walked the 6 miles home, in the dark, in southern California, by myself, at 10 pm.

[DesignFox]

Food lady that's awful! I'm so glad you don't work there anymore...
Honestly, closed is closed. I think at that point, you had a right to call mall security... OR your co-worker should have let you leave. Although, I think it was great of you not to leave her by herself to clean up the entire store...
But, no one should be forced to miss their bus home because of rotten customers!