Closing time is non negociable

[Lace Neil Singer]

Yes, even if you have a petrol voucher which expires at end of trade today. I have to wonder how many of these SCs would react if someone strolled into their place of work right as they were getting ready to leave and told them to stick around for an extra twenty minutes? Not very well, I bet, and yet they expect retail drones to do exactly that.

But the voucher runs out today!

This is the parrot cry of many an SC who, for some reason, has waited til the eleventh hour to use his/her petrol voucher. I understand that people do have other things to do, but there's two weeks on that voucher; I doubt that the only time you can come here to use it is five minutes after closing time. To be honest, I don't give two shits if your voucher runs out today; I've been here eight hours today and I want to go home, eat my dinner and chill out before going to bed. One more time, repeat after me; a lack of planning on your part does not constitute an emergency on mine.

But I'm driving on a dry tank!

My immediate (and forbidden) response is to say, "Well, if you can drive on a dry tank, why not keep on doing it?" My actual response is to point the SC in the direction of the twenty four hour petrol station just two minutes up the road. I got an SC the other day who refused to entertain any thought of going to this petrol station and said, "But I don't want to go to Seacreature Lid! I want to buy my petrol here!" Look, all the fuel comes from the same place; a depot up Scotland somewhere. All the petrol stations in the town get their fuel from there. So there's no reason why you should avoid that place, cept sheer bloody mindedness.

I'll only be five minutes!

If I had a fiver for every time I've heard this, I'd be a billionaire by now. Look, it's exactly on the dot of ten. It's going to take you any time between five and ten minutes just to fill your car up; depending on the size of the car and whether you're going to keep to your promise of only sticking a tenner in or, once you've gotten a foot in the door, you're actually going to fill your car up to the brim. Then give another five minutes for you to walk to the kiosk, pay and leave. Then I and my collegue still have to cash up the last till, lock up, and do all the little chores like setting the alarm that we have to do before we can leave. Thanks to you, we'd be about twenty minutes late, so forgive me if I don't believe your estimation of the time it'll take and instead direct you to the petrol station down the road.

In conclusion, I never see the point of letting a customer in after closing time. For one thing, you're not going to get anything out of it save a lot of bother; the customer will only return the next week with the cry of, "You let me in after closing time last time!" to the hapless drone on duty. Not to mention the fact that we're not actually allowed to trade after closing time; we could actually get into trouble for this if Trading Standards sent someone round. And finally, as I said in my first example, I've been there all day and I really don't see why I should stay later just cuz someone can't organise their time and show up when we're actually open.

[Kristev]

How pathetic. What is it with people?

[Pixilated]

What it is with SCs is they feel the whole world revolves around them and anyway the "drones" don't actually have a home to go to; they just doze on the cartons in the back room of the store, so what's another five or 20 minutes?

Friend of mine used to criticize people who were slow in getting out of Expensive Coffee Franchise (With Incomprehensible Names ) when someone she knew worked there ... but once this person no longer worked there, she was not averse to hanging around until 30 seconds before the staff had to set the alarm ... browsing amongst the goods or just sitting at the table. Apparently this sort of thing is only rude when it happens to someone you know.

[bainsidhe]

Well until you mentioned that Trading Standards would have an issue with it, I was going to suggest telling customers it's a minimum of X amount of money to stay late. To cover base salary, taxes, insurance, operating costs & fees, etc. Just to say ten minutes late.

[Teefies2]

What I love are the ones that come in just as we are locking the doors ......

"It's an emergency !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" <bossman, why oh why do you believe this?>

And then they buy - and I kid you not! - two or three pregnancy tests! Now I may be mistaken, but if you're pregnant (or not) tonight, won't you also be pregnant (or not) tomorrow? If you're pregnant and don't want to be, I can guarantee you that there are no doctors that perform abortions open at this time of night. And if you're pregnant and want to be, can't you celebrate in the morning, when you're getting up with morning sickness or to pee anyway?????

Sheesh!

[Lace Neil Singer]

I usually throw in "Well, you could be from Trading Standards; we're not actually allowed to trade after ten" if an SC is persistant.

And they won't get any joy if I'm closing with one of the managers; both hate being held back after finishing time and want to get out as soon as possible. XD

[Kyree]

That's awesome that your managers won't stay open. I hate when customers call (or show up) and beg for you to stay open. My manager did that last night. We have no rules against staying late, so a customer called at 6:02 (we close at 6) saying he was 15 minutes away, about to leave his house can we stay open PLEASE?

So of course my manager stayed open. He comes in just shy of 6:20 and buys a 5lb bag of dog food. That was $10. He cost the company money by doing it, and we ended up having to stay there until after 7pm because he didn't even start the closing work until the guy left.

[clockkingfl]

At a retail job many years ago, we only had so much time to clean up, set the alarm and leave or the alarm set itself. Then we'd have to explain to the security company and to corporate why we needed to be there so late.

[Midnight_Angel]

I have to wonder how many of these SCs would react if someone strolled into their place of work right as they were getting ready to leave and told them to stick around for an extra twenty minutes

Happens all the time to me. At some time, usually 5 to 30 minutes before I ought to pack my things and go home, Bossman will drop in, claiming the client mailed in some urgent design changes / rejected a proposal and wants it to be done differently / yadda yadda, and we need it until the conference tomorrow morning, so, could you quickly do the changes (usually, no biggie) and revise the documentation (which tends to take 1 hour upwards).

Bonus points if the proposed changes contradict safety regulations, cause other problems, or are not even physically possible. Extra bonus points if the client who proposed the changes is not available, because, quote 'Well, at this time, of course everyone has gone home. Those people have a life, you know.'

This having been said, when I'm coming into somewhere at or after closing time, I ask nicely whether I still can come in... and if the answer is no, the answer is no.

[Thokas]

When I worked on the till in a store that closed at 7pm you'd always get some one who had ignored all the closing in 30 / 15 / 5 minutes announcements and arrive at your till with a trolley overflowing at about 6:55 making everyne stay late, think one manager used to start putting lights off as a hint but it never worked.

I also have to admit walking into a Chip shop at closing (genuine mistake, thought they were open for another hour as they are the rest of the week), I appologised and was just backing out when they asked me what I wanted and put the chips in the fryer for me, while waiting more people appeared and I think the shop did more business after they should have shut than the entire 3 hours before (I was told on my next visit) still felt bad though he missed his tea

[EricKei]

At a gas/petrol station in particular, you have a VERY good reason for not staying open late to accept people who need to fill up their cars -- profit margins on fuel are typically razor-thin, and there's no way that what they would buy would exceed the cost of the employees' time even for that "five" minutes (that's not counting the electricity, A/C, etc etc)...

[Midnight_Angel]

At a gas/petrol station in particular, you have a VERY good reason for not staying open late to accept people who need to fill up their cars -- profit margins on fuel are typically razor-thin, and there's no way that what they would buy would exceed the cost of the employees' time even for that "five" minutes (that's not counting the electricity, A/C, etc etc)...

True. However, at least here, they make some nice profit with the other stuff they sell. Snacks and smokes are the lifeblood of many a gas station...

[Lace Neil Singer]

But still don't pay for having to stay open after closing time. While I will let in a regular to buy some smokes, that's cuz I know that person will walk in, buy their smokes and leave. A non regular could insist on staying to shop, or despite only saying they wanted smokes, fill their car to the brim. That's why I won't let in anyone after closing time and only regulars get in when I'm closing up, as stated above.

I also hate it whenever I read somewhere like PFB about some SC bitching about not being allowed into a shop/petrol station/food place after they close. I seriously think that everyone should have to work in retail for a month so they can fully understand. At the garden centre one Christmas Eve (think I posted this story before), I and a collegue spent over five minutes with an SC arguing that he had to get into the shop when it was nearly ten minutes after the shop had closed and we all wanted to go home. Then when we wouldn't let him in, he stomped off swearing that we'd ruined his Christmas. -.-

[Mytical]

In some places it is indeed not worth staying open, in others..very much so. I worked 3rd shift (11pm-7am) for a station that took in over $2k an hour. With a whole one person working (me). Sometimes it would be up to $5k an hour. Very little was gas sales though . Anyhow, the big difference is it was a 24/hr store..and I never had to stay over as somebody was there to replace me (normally 3 people actually). The company would rather have a nail driven in their feet then pay a dime of overtime.

Edit: Did I mention that I was the one responsible for taking all that money to the bank and depositing it? Alone. Think about that for a minute. I worked an 8 hr shift...high amount of sales normally..just think how much I was carrying.

[Raveni]

think one manager used to start putting lights off as a hint but it never worked.

At Grocery Store, they installed computerized timers on all the electrical circuits, so half the lights in the store went out exactly at closing time. We would always tell people that they only had a short time before the computer turned off the power to the registers, and that always got them to run up front to check out. Nevermind that there was an override switch in the office.

Did I mention that I was the one responsible for taking all that money to the bank and depositing it? Alone. Think about that for a minute. I worked an 8 hr shift...high amount of sales normally..just think how much I was carrying.

I'm sorry to hear that, especially when I know for a fact that it costs less to pay for a courier pickup than to insure workers for carrying large amounts of money alone. Which probably means that you weren't covered by your employer's insurance while you were making those deposits.