Checking out an hour after close

[Despina83]

Our store is normally open 24/7, but we close at 7 on christmas eve and remain closed through christmas (thank God). Anyway, they made announcements every once in awhile warning that we were going to be closing at 7 "in order for our team members to enjoy christmas eve with their families." My respect for the store director went up a few points with that announcement. Anyway, we had a hard time getting the customers out. I was shocked when I thought the store was empty of customers and a lady was checking out at about 7:45. And topping that, the very last customer of the night decided to check out...at 8:00. That's right, an HOUR after close. WTF?! This is just blatantly disrespectful, and it's obvious this lady has control issues. And I hate to say it, but for some reason it's always a certain type of person who insists on staying in stores well after close. I saw it all the time at Target too. I won't say any more because I don't want anybody to think I'm prejudiced against a certain race. But it's pretty hard to ignore.

[EvilEmpryss]

Managers should have had the guts to shut down the registers no later than 15 minutes past closing. EWs should have some consideration for other people, and if they don't, they don't deserve the consideration themselves.

[bainsidhe]

I'll give *big box grocer/retail* props when it comes to Christmas Eve. Any other time of year, the company goes spineless and caters to the unreasonable whims of the public. But not on Christmas Eve. The store gives MANY announcements about the closing time and that all purchases need brought up front because the tills close at 8pm on the dot. Not done shopping? That's too bad, you have two minutes to get up front because the cashiers are leaving and then NO ONE will ring your purchase.

Ten minutes after close, the store is a ghost town and half the crew has already left. The only drawback is employees don't have time to grab that last gallon of milk before the holiday. I think there was one year a manager stayed about 30 minutes past so employees could ring out, but I saw it only happen once. The store took it's holiday closing seriously.

[LillFilly]

Those customers should have just been told 'sorry, all registers are closed, we made several announcements.' Because that was just BEYOND rude!

[Peppergirl]

While I agree that this is disgusting behavior, I'm not at all surprised.

I think your management is MORE disgusting for allowing this to happen. If they were any kind of true managers, they wouldn't have tolerated this nonsense.

*They* are the ones primarily responsible for the blatant disrespect that *they allowed* those assholes to show toward all of you.

Hope you had a wonderful Christmas anyway, hon.

[chainedbarista]

sadly, i'm not surprised either. management should have the right (and cajones) to go up to these individuals and tell them, we have closed, please make your way to the registers for checkout now.

if not, they can be escorted off the premises for tresspassing. yah, unrealistic, but i can dream, can't i?

[Aethian]

I remember those nights, had over five of them. Did you ever do the cart races too?

[Despina83]

Luckily her actions didn't really affect us too much (not that she would have known that). It wasn't like anyone could leave after the customers were gone. We had to clean the store until about 9:00 anyway. So really it didn't have much of an impact on us, but that doesn't make her actions any less infuriating. I just remember when I worked at Target and the cashiers couldn't leave until the very last person was rung up. I remember us standing around waiting to punch out while a cashier rung up the last person, checking out several minutes after close. Now that was annoying.

[Ben_Who]

The temptation to experiment upon these stragglers is strong. The oblivion must be wilful; I've seen people like this in supermarkets furtively glancing over their shoulders waiting for the cold hand of the manager to turf them, pretending that they haven't heard the torrent of "get your shit and get out" messages. I recommend the following. As a control, try each of them one at a time before combining them.

1) Start turning off the overhead lights.

2) Install gates on the front doors and windows. Bring them down. NOISILY.

3) Everyone stand around the lone straggler and just stare...No hostility, no vibes, just a steady, unblinking, solid wall of GAZE from every remaining employee.

4) If you can determine which car is theirs, have two closing employees stand near the straggler and begin a loud conversation: "Yeah, the tow truck's on its way; I can't imagine who might have come shopping and forgotten their car, but since we're closed, it can't possibly be a customer...If anyone comes looking, be sure to have the number for the impound lot ready for them..."

5) Loud heavy metal music over the intercom. Mathcore ought to clear the place pretty quickly. (This actually worked at a burger joint I worked at.)

6) As the customer approaches the register, hide all the other employees and have two people step outside at just the right moment, kill the lights, and pretend to lock up with the customer still inside. (Take measures to secure the merchandise before pretending to lock a customer in the store overnight.)

7) Let two employees have an air-horn fight one aisle over.

8) Another invented "conversation," again taking place one aisle over, between two employees who talked about the customer who was arrested for not leaving the night before and how they'd called the police, and how angry she was that she had to post bail on trespassing charges.

Many of these turn the tables on the customer, pretending that her imaginary please-don't-turf-me invisibility shield is functioning at full capacity and that the staff in general is unaware that the customer is there. (I once blundered into a Wal-Mart because I thought it was open, and it was actually quite a while before I was discovered and, rightfully though politely, turfed. In my defense, the front doors were wide open.) The worst thing you could possibly do is check this customer out. Unless they're buying a flatscreen, your store probably won't earn the money back that it's spending on the overtime to keep a till open.

If you pretend the customer isn't there and simply go about the business of closing, will that help things along?

Love, Who?

[pitmonkey]

Is there a way of killing them with kindness. "May I help you find anything" or "Are you looking for such and such." Or just being right there as they are shopping.

[I_Hate_SCs]

The sad is that these spineless managers will wait until a straggler finally decides to check out 2 hrs after the store closes because they know they'd lose a sale if they made them leave. The people who stay after closing usually always have a full, heaping cart of crap, so (in the manager's eye) it'd be better to just ring them up than make us put everything back. I'd rather put back a cart of reshop just to get the satisfaction that a customer couldn't purchase anything they chose if they were still in the store after it closed...especially if it was Christmas Eve and the cart was full of last-minute presents.

[guitardude1987]

When I worked at Wal-Mart, it was always a pain in the ass to get people to LEAVE on Christmas Eve.

[Mytical]

When I worked at Wal-Mart, it was always a pain in the ass to get people to LEAVE on Christmas Eve.

Fixed that for you . Don't get me wrong, Wally World wasn't ALL bad (there were some good managers, coworkers, etc) .. but sadly the bad far outweighed the good.

[MadMike]

The supermarket down the street from my house is the same way. Normally open 24/7, closing for Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Easter.

They closed at 6 p.m. yesterday. I stopped by around 5:30 just to fill up my tank for our trip to my dad's, and the parking lot was full. I'm sure they didn't get the customers out of there easily.

[Daemonmonkey]

Most shops here turn off the lights exept for guiding lights 15 to 30 minutes after closing time. You didn't check out until then? Sorry, and G(TF)O!