Last-minute suck

[XCashier]

Today was uncomfortably hot, the AC was barely working and sweat was pouring off of me as I was working. Needless to say, I was not in the mood to put up with BS.

I had the closing shift, and as we got closer to closing time, we made the announcements. Surprise surprise, at ten minutes 'til, a customer comes up to the cutting counter with TWO carts full of fabric bolts!!!

First come the partial bolts, ones with less than three yards but not small enough to make remnants (less than one yard). She had me measure them out, then told me to give her the last yard for the remnant price. Each and every time. Like I don't know how to do my job.

Then come the cuts. She'd want 1 yard of this, 1.5 of that, 2.5 of the next. Not a big deal, business as usual. Until she says, "You should get your manager to do the cutting, she's much faster!"

I had to bite my tongue to keep from giving a reply I would've regretted.

Finally, at twenty minutes after closing, her order is done and she goes to the register where my manager is, and apparently took great pride in telling her what she told me. My manager, bless her, told her to never say such things about her employees again and next time come in earlier!

We ended up closing the store forty-five minutes after we were supposed to.

We were open eight hours today. Eight hours. Even though Sunday is the shortest day of the week, eight hours is still plenty of time to do your shopping. There is no reason she could not have come in the morning or early afternoon. If you have a large or complicated order, basic courtesy dictates that you do not wait until the last freaking minute!

[Not Lillith]

If you have a large or complicated order, basic courtesy dictates that you do not wait until the last freaking minute!

Oh, if only I could have that printed in giant letters at the front of my store.

Not that anyone would actually read it

[Teefies2]

Saturday, we had a lady come in JUST AFTER we made the "We are closed" announcement, but before we could physically get to the door to lock it. Okay, our bad.

Anyway, she was in the store 20 minutes ... to buy? A 12 pack of soda and 3 candy bars. Fine, I ring her out, manager locks the door behind her as she leaves. We all head to the back to clock out, get our stuff, etc. This took about 8-10 minutes TOPS!!!

As we head to the door to leave, she is standing there. She needs back in the store. Why??? She needs to return one of the candy bars - her kid doesn't like it. Uhhh, lemme think about it .. NOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!! We have all worked an 8 hour shift before she came in and kept us 20 minutes late. Manager tells her she can return it tomorrow .. cue the CBF and the whining kid. So sad, too bad!

Uggghhhhhh

[Merriweather]

I bet the lady with the fabric had it all planned out. This obviously isn't her first time having fabric cut, if she's had to done enough times to decide that she thinks the manager is faster at cutting. She probably decided she didn't want to take a chance on showing up when there might be other people wanting fabric cut, she's much too special a snowflake to have to wait in line, so she'll go when it's almost closing and she'll have cutting staff all to herself.

[XCashier]

Well, she wasn't the only last minute shopper, just the one with the most fabric. My other coworker, bless her, stayed an extra half hour past the end of her shift to help the other customers I couldn't help due to that one SC and help restock the store afterwards.

SC had about sixty different bolts of fabric. SIXTY. You do not spring that on the employees at ten minutes to closing!

[AmbrosiaWriter]

Your manager is awesome in this scenario by the way. It's my opinion that managers should be mama (or papa) bears. Employee messes up, give them a bap (well, metaphorically speaking) and correct them. Customer starts to harass and insult employees? ANGRY MAMA BEAR.

Well, at least that's how I would be a manager.

I've gone to fabric stores that are so large and busy that you need to take a number in order to get your fabric cut! Of course I don't mind, it just means I grab the fabric I need, snatch a number, then scurry over to notions and grab the other things I need for the project. The announce numbers over the intercom.

I have to be REALLY careful to stay away from the craft area where all the fake flowers and stuff are though, I just can't resist.

All these "last minute" SC stories tempt me to go to my favorite stores and hang out around closing time in order to holler at people who stay too late because the staff can't. I think it would be pretty amusing

[EricKei]

XC: While I doubt they'll let you guys do it, maybe a partial solution would be to make an announcement to the effect of "The cutting table closes 30 minutes before the store does"

[manybellsdown]

Most of the fabric stores here do the "take a number" too, which always pisses off someone who thought they were standing in a line and didn't need a number.

I did my own last-minute suck last night when I realized it was 10 after 5 and the pharmacy closed at 5. The poor pharmacist was in a panic because she thought I was going to demand it right away. I told her I'd get it tomorrow.

[hinakiba777]

I am notorious for being at a store past closing. However, this is often when I have to walk there instead of driving. I have no concept of time when I walk, even if in my head I know how long approximately it should take to walk somewhere. I am always super late. The few times I try to be early? I am super early. Like an 1.5 hours early for a movie or something. Which is why I only shop at the 24 hour store, because then I'm not keeping anyone.

I am so notorious for shopping last minute that at one of the grocery stores I used to frequen, on my grocery night the man who locked the doors would wait for me. Sometimes unlocking the doors for me, to go shopping. All the staff were super sweet about it. I always felt like a wretch. I think they knew that it took me an hour to get down the hill and 2 to 2.5 hours to climb back up. So waiting 5 minutes for me to grab orange juice didn't bother them.

[Skarredmind]

Heh, My high school summer job at a video rental place (not the blue box fortunately!) we had these types all the time. Waltz in 3 minutes before closing, and expect to be given all the time in the world to browse and pick out the exact right movie.

I just started telling people that the computer shut itself down for automatic maintainence at 12:15am (15 mins after closing) and that if they didn't have their movies to me by then, too bad. (This was the late 90's so enough people had no clue that it didn't work like that, that it ALWAYS worked.)

I told my manager about it, she thought it was great ;-) I still kinda miss that job sometimes.

[Draco]

As a fellow Pennsylvanian (and I'm assuming the South Central area), Skarredmind, you're probably familiar with the "G" supermarket chain. The gas stations of our stores have their computers automatically lock out the pumps after a certain time. We can still print out needed reports, but we couldn't open the pumps up on our end even if we wanted to.

So your early bluff actually can work in fact!

[XCashier]

Your manager is awesome in this scenario by the way. It's my opinion that managers should be mama (or papa) bears. Employee messes up, give them a bap (well, metaphorically speaking) and correct them. Customer starts to harass and insult employees? ANGRY MAMA BEAR.

You're absolutely right about the Mama Bear management style. Put the blame where the blame belongs. And she is an awesome manager. All of my managers are awesome like that, that's why I returned there after the office job went sour. I'd rather make part-time minimum wage with a good boss than twice that with a bad boss.

Our new, bigger store will most likely have a take-a-number system. The current store is a little too old and too small to have one. I look forward to it, it should eliminate queue-jumpers and people arguing over who was first. Then, all we have to deal with are people who wandered off, went into la-la land and then demand to know why their number "was skipped". (No, it wasn't, you just weren't paying attention!) Nothing is perfect, I guess.

[depechemodefan]

This reminds me of Tues. night were a guy and woman were on the third floor from 5pm to 8pm. Guy wanted to know how to log into a computer. I explain he had to use a library card. He said, "she needs a library card." I tell her, (with him listening) how to get a card and how to get on a computer. He then pulls out his card and says, "so how do you get on a computer?"

7:30 I make an announcement that we close at 8, in 30 min. I don't see guy and woman for 20 min, but see the books they are using. I figuered they went to get woman's card. 10 minutes till I see them at the copiers. 8pm, they are waiting for an elevator.

It's after 8pm and I see them on a different elevator the only, one that goes to the garage. They ask, "Is it too late to get a library card?" Luckily the manager I was with said, "yes, it's too late."

[Draper Mel]

Awesome manager is awesome!

Man, I hate getting stuck behind the ladies getting fat quarters at the cutting table. They've always got 2 or 3 carts of fabric. I try not to go on Saturdays, but sometimes it's unavoidable.