When I worked in a drug store many many years ago, we closed every night around 9pm.
The thing that sucked about this was when people would come into the store at 8:55pm and start shopping around.
One of the rules in our store was that we couldn't tell them we were closing, we just had to ask them if they needed any help and wait for them to leave the store.
That never worked with me. I had no patience for people 'browsing' at 9 o'clock, especially when the same people did this all the time and knew perfectly well when we closed.
When someone came into the store right before closing, I'd quickly have an inward temper tantrum, and then I would wait until the clock hit exactly 9pm. Then I would go into the back room and start flipping off certain lights in the store to give them a hint that we were closing.
If that didn't work, I'd walk towards the front of the store and yell out to my coworker that it was 9 o'clock and that she could lock the doors now.
If the customer still hadn't gotten the hint, I'd walk up to them and ask them if they needed any help. Most of the time I heard, "Nope. Just looking." which pissed me off even more.
Since I didn't really care about the rules, I'd then tell them that we were closed.
"Oh, you are?" was what I usually heard, and that's when they'd glance around at the store, finally noticing that we were standing in the dark from all the lights being shut off.
Fortunately for me, (yeah right), the place I'm at now is open 24 hours. So people can come in and 'browse' whenever they want.
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I worked at a the local dollar store part time for a while in the evenings. It always pissed me off when people would do that since I also worked full time and had to be to work the next morning by 6. One time there were two women who weren't catching any of the hints so I yelled out please bring your purchases to the register, the store is now closing. The women walked up the isle looking right at me then turned and went down another side isle.
ReplyDeleteFreaking rude people! "Close" fifteen minutes beforehand, and hope they're hustling out of the store by the actual closing time.
ReplyDeleteUsed to work in a restauraunt and had this issue all the time! REALLY sucked because after they finally left I still had the floors and bathroom to do and tables to wash down!
ReplyDeleteHi
ReplyDeleteI found your blog today and loved it. My daughter works as a cashier both in fast food and retail and she has told the same kinds of stories.
It amazes me that people act the way they do.
now following you.
Sherri
We had a guy like that at Home Depot!! The fucker would come in EVERY SINGLE NIGHT at about 9:30 (closes at 10) and start collecting random unrelated crap to buy. He would engage at least one department head in conversation about said items for the better part of 40 minutes, and completely ignore the fact that we had not only made 5 announcements to say we were closing/closed, but the store lights go off automatically at closing, so it's not exactly subtle. Then, he would come in the next morning and return every single thing he bought the night before, and come back again that night for more BS. They finally put my abrasive ass in charge of his "case", and I had him run off within a week's time. Never saw his ass again. =)
ReplyDeleteOne time I worked the closing shift at McDonalds. I was on the front counter register. We close at 11 but we aren't allowed to ask people to leave and we have to continue to serve them until they leave. This family came in 10 minutes before closing one night, I think it was a church night (ps. it always seems like the church crowd is the rudest and messiest) It was a big family too. The 'grandpa' looking one came up and asked when we close. I told him 11, which as I said was in 10 minutes. So they came up and ordered their meals and then when they'd paid and got their drink cups, that same guy made sure to tell me, "That order's for here." Pissed me the freak off.
ReplyDeleteI especially hate when people come in and stay til after closing, and I'm in the process of getting my closing duties done and they come back to the register to order something else or ask for something. Meaning I have to stop what I'm doing (they can clearly see we are cleaning so that we can close) and take their new order and then fill it. It's worse if they take 10 minutes to decide if they want pie or ice cream. Then they'll order coffee too. In my honest opinion, coffee is for in the morning. I hate having to stop what I'm doing to make a fresh pot for that one customer that drinks it religiously all hours of the day.
Here I go ranting again!