I am sometimes amazed at the time challenged people out there.
Yesterday, the store I worked at closed at 6 p.m. Notices were clearly posted. I made three announcements–one at 5:30, then at 5:40 and 5:50. That’s when we start telling people coming in “We close at 6 p.m.” At 6 p.m. one of the cashiers went to tell the remaining people “We are closed. Please check out.”
Yet there are always the people who expect to come in after 6 p.m. “for one item.” Yesterday it happened at 6:10. The cashiers were busy counting money, and some idiot tries to come in and pay cash for “one item.” When told the store was closed, he responded “That’s terrible customer service.”
What is? Not expecting your staff to stay there forever for every customer that has no respect for our time?
Of all the things customers do, this is the one that pisses me off the most.
So how long would you expect a store to stay open so you can buy “one item”?
It is the balance between settings the terms on which you do business, and maintaining client goodwill. Personally I think they should make every effort to close at 6:00 but should plan to service stragglers until 6:15. That means telling staff their shift is up at 6:15 + time to close out, and paying them for it.
The cash from the “idiot” who wanted to pay for one item is paying your salary. Why turn that away?
About ten minutes. If a store is open until 6, I expect to be able to walk in at 5:59, find my item and pay for it. If a purchase requires consultation or other sales assistance that requires more than a few minutes, then I should show up early enough to complete that assistance by closing time. But it is my expectation that I can show up during hours and complete my transaction in a normal manner, which might take ten or 15 minutes.
If they are open until 6, I’d say the people already in line should be able to check out.
In the stores I’ve been in, there are usually multiple announcements about closing in ten minutes, then five, then the final “We are closed.” It shouldn’t come as a shock to the people.
If the store closes at 6, every customer had better be lined up at the till at 5:55 ready to go. If you come in after 5:50, you better head straight to what you want and then go to the till.
One night, we had a group of seven woman come in exactly at closing time, each one to buy one snack item and pay for it separately. Assuming they all had the right for “ten minutes,” that means 70 minutes of cashier time!
One thing to keep in mind, is that in most retail stores, closing time is when they quit letting new people in, not when they eject already present customers.
I’d say 15 minutes at a minimum, and 30 at the most for people who squeak in at say… 9:55.
I mean, I’ve gone into stores just before they close because I need something desperately (baby medicine and other stuff usually, and it’s taken me a few minutes to find my item, and another 5-10 to check out, so 15 minutes is reasonable.
On busy days, I can see enough people doing this that the checkout lines would need to be open for another 30 minutes to make sure everyone in line checks out.
On the other hand, back when I worked retail in graduate school (Sports Authority), there were the assholes that would roll into the store at 8:55, and then wander around for another 15-20 minutes, and get irritated that we’d want to throw them out at 9:30, as if anyone cared more that they were planning on buying a bike innertube, a pair of socks and a whistle for a grand total of about $15, versus going home after a long shift’s work.
We usually barraged anyone who didn’t seem to be making tracks to and from a particular item with the “Do you need help finding something?” type questions until they made for the door. On occasion, we actually had to get the managers to throw some particularly jerkish types out.
One store I worked at, if they weren’t at the register at 5 minutes after closing we made an announcement that the registers would be closed. If you weren’t already in line, please come back again tomorrow.
Really, idiots will be idiots. Tell them to take a hike - really, “Take a hike!” It has nothing to do with their unrealistic expectations of ass-kissing “customer service”.
No new people should come in after close. 10-15 minutes for folks who are already in would be ok, but its also ok for the employees to go through the aisles and tell folks that the store is closed so could they please check out now.
When I worked for Dominos, closing time on Friday and Saturday was 2 a.m. I was once taken to task for refusing to take orders after closing, and was told “If you’re still there to answer the phone, take their order.” I explained that we’d never get out of there - some drunk will call until it’s time to open the next day. “Tough.” I was told. (This wasn’t company policy, just my supervisor trying to bump his numbers.)
I compromised - we stopped answering the phone after closing. If he said he called after closing and got no answer, who was to say we were still there?
At 6pm, you lock the doors. Station one employee by the door with a key so that customers already in the store before 6pm have someone to let them out when they are done. If anyone wants in after 6pm and before the last customer leaves, they get told, “Sorry, we are closed for the day.”
After the last customer leaves, the remaining employees should (a) make themselves as invisible as possible from outside and make the place look as deserted as possible*, and (b) ignore any noise from outside the door. You are closed.
*Stay away from the door, turn off any lights you don’t need to complete your remaining tasks, draw a curtain across the door if possible, or if you have some movable display near the door, pull that in front of the door, etc.
You definitely shouldn’t let any new customers in. And any customers shopping in the store should be kicked out. The only customers who might be allowed in the store after the closing time are those who were in line waiting to check out - and only if they got in line at a reasonable time before the closing time.
Yeah. Closing time is “last customer let in to start shopping time”, not “we close the registers and kick everyone out time” (unless you are a bar, of course).
When I worked retail it was definitely close registers and kick everyone out time.
We had limited hours to staff the store with and if we stayed open 15 mins later than we were supposed to every night we would quickly be over those hours.
As it was we had a hours worth of work to do at closing time and 30 mins to complete it in.
(Close and count registers, daily sales reports, store cleaning, run returns so the opening shift would have a clean slate, etc)
I agree with the very simple solution RTFirefly puts forth… the doors should be locked at closing time and only the stragglers already inside dealt with. And as stated up thread, even those should be give a time deadline and then expected to leave (either with or without their stuff) by it.