How would you feel if you got to a business 10 minutes before their stated closing time and it was closed? For the purpose of this, imagine a small, owner-operated business like a computer repair shop.
Poll to follow.
If it had a sign along the lines of “Owner is sick”, I wouldn’t mind, but if there was no explanation, I wouldn’t be very happy.
For the purpose of this poll, assume there is no note.
I would be annoyed but I’m a sucker so I’d end up going back.
I’d be fine with it, especially if it were a Friday afternoon.
In actual practice, I’ve been to dozens of small businesses, very close to closing time, and they universally have stayed open a little past closing time, to provide full service.
Small business in America is service oriented. The competition is fierce. They want your business, and they take all sorts of extra efforts to get it and keep it.
If a small business storefront closed early, right as I was getting there, I’d assume there was a damn good reason for it, and would smile, wave, and come back another time. I know how very, very much they do not want me to go and shop at the competing store just across town.
I’ve had it happen. I find it incredibly irritating. If it’s a business I’ve never been to before, I’m not likely to come back.
It wouldn’t bother me unless it was something extremely important, and even then I’d blame myself for my poor planning. I don’t tend to go into a business if there’s only 10 minutes left. Asimovian has direct experience with this quirk of mine. 
I might feel a bit of disappointment, blended with a pinch of exasperation, but I’d probably just go there the next day.
Depends- the deli closes ten minutes early? I walk another block or two to the next deli for this trip. The dry cleaner - I’ll be a little annoyed but it wouldn’t stop me from using them again unless it became frequent. The mechanic closes 10 minutes early and I can’t pick up my car till tomorrow ( or worse yet, Monday)? Gonna find a new mechanic.
Wouldn’t care; it’s their business.
It depends. If it was a place, like a repair shop or the dry cleaners, where I was going to pick something up, I’d be very irritated. Something like a coffee shop or a bookstore wouldn’t bother me. When I was in high school, I worked for a little carry out food place. We closed early one Memorial Day and had a sign on the door stating that. This guy walked up and pulled on the locked door and became irate that we were closed, pounding on the door and screaming (we were inside cleaning up). My boss opened up for him, but I thought his decision was a questionable one considering how nuts the guy was acting.
I’m sort of shocked that the poll results are as close as they are. I would be extremely annoyed I made the effort to go someplace, only to arrive to find them closed before their closing hours.
You ever have to leave work early for an appointment?
You ever go home sick in the middle of the day?
If there’s no note, I’d assume that the owner/manager didn’t care about my business.
Of course, I’ve been the one working in a retail store, and have had customers wander in 10 minutes before closing under the assumption that they could spend the next half hour browsing the store, whether they bought anything or not. We had a few people who would do this on a regular basis, so we took to locking the doors about 15 minutes before close for a while. They eventually found somewhere else to loiter. If we saw someone who wasn’t one of our regular timewasters, then we’d unlock the doors, let them in, and relock the doors, explaining that we were about to close.
In a computer repair shop, I would assume that a customer is not there to browse, but to pick up that <expletive deleted> computer and pay the bill, and trying to do this before the place closes. Or possibly drop off that computer. Since most computer repair shops are open from 10 to 6 (in my area, anyway), most customers have to take off work or rush over to the shop in order to get that computer into the shop, or out of it. So I’d tend to think that this was a very bad business practice.
She said there was no note. Usually, there’s enough time to write a note. Not always, though.
I would be disappointed but ok, unless it happened to me more than once. Everyone has something they need to leave for once in a while. They should post a note, but people forget.
Now, if it happened all the time, or if it were a cleaner or repair shop who had my stuff, I would say something or not come back.
Depending on the severity of whatever I needed, I might curse in the heat of the moment and make one or two imprecations about their parentage but I’d leave, calm down and blame myself for not being more responsible with my scheduling.
Actually I usually don’t enter a business if it’s within 20 minutes of closing. I’ve too often been to stores that close early or try to rush you through to expect a good experience if I wander in with ten minutes left.
In Britain, early half-day closing is usually on a Wednesday; but occasionally one goes to a town where it is a different day. In which case, with most shops shut, one rolls with it.