Nobody comes in after closing time. You lock the door, and only reopen to let people out. (See my previous post.)
If customers are already in at closing time, they shouldn’t be shopping anymore. They should be waiting in line at the register. You will have given them a number of announcements to that effect as closing time approaches. At closing time, one employee starts turning out lights, working from the back of the store towards the register, to herd the customers out of the store to the register.
If there is nobody in line at the register at closing time, you close the register. If there are people in line, you ring them up. As soon as there is nobody left in line, you close the register. If anyone’s still wandering the dimly-lit aisles, you shepherd them out at this point.
Pfft! When I worked overnights at Safeway, we closed at midnight. We’d routinely have people knock on the doors at 3AM wanting to come in “for one item.” I’d occasionally let them in if they had a good story, like the new father who desperately needed diapers (he did actually buy just diapers). OTOH early on I made the mistake of letting in that bitch who desperately needed “one item” them proceeded to start slowly sauntering up and down each aisle doing her normal shopping. I kicked her ass right out.
To address the OP, the doors close at the posted time. If you’re already in the store, you’ve got 10 minutes max to finish your business and get out, checkout included.
Customers don’t like to be told to leave, even if the store is already closed. So rather than saying something that could be misinterpreted as rude, just smile and spray them with the fire extinguisher.
Why would there have to be overtime pay? I’ve worked in very different types of jobs that had a posted closing time ( everything from fast food to banks to a college financial aid office to government offices ) but it was never the case that the posted time was when employees were expected to leave. The posted time was always when the doors were locked to people coming in and employees were expected to be working somewhat later than that. Employee schedules ( and therefore overtime ) took into account the time worked after the doors close. For example, at my current governent job we close the door at 7:30 on Thursday night. Employees are expected to be done seeing those people by 8pm, so they are scheduled to work until 8pm. But if someone calls up and says " what time do you close today?’ the answer is “7:30”. People calling to find out when a government office closes or looking at a sign to find out a store’s hours are not interested in when the employees are expected to leave- they are interested in when they need to be there by.If you want your employees to leave by 8 and the customers out by 7:30, then you need to post a closing time earlier than 7:30. How much earlier is going to depend on the business.
Some businesses make this very clear- I’ve seen restaurants that post both a closing time (they want you out by then) and an earlier last seating time (as long as you are seated by this time you can order and will have a reasonable amount of time to eat) and I have never seen a laundromat with a posted closing time. It’s always a “last wash time”- as in they will allow customers to wash and dry clothes that were in the washer by the deadline. I’m sure there are indeed some businesses where the time on the door is “kick everyone out and close the register” time , but I just don’t see the advantage of it over posting an earlier "no new customers allowed in " time.
I would have said, at closing time you release the hounds. (Or the bees, or the robotic Richard Simmons, or whatever you have on hand.)
Seriously: I, personally, would feel like I was doing something wrong if I were on the premises for any reason after the official closing time. If I can’t finish shopping before closing time, I’d leave and come back another day (or go somewhere else). As for what the store should do, well, I’d say that’s their decision.
In every store I’ve worked in, the closing announcements start a half hour before closing time and are made every 10 minutes.
Five minutes before the official closing the manager on duty locks the “in” door.
Those remaining in the store have X minutes to finish up before heading to the registers. There’s usually an announcement to that fact. If not, the manager on duty and another front end person will canvas the aisles looking for the stragglers. Most of the stragglers will apologize and start heading up front.
A few times I’ve seen the bang-on-the-door customers. They are turned away.
No new customers after closing time. When I worked retail, doors were locked at closing and no one was allowed in. We never made customers leave who were in the store, even if they were taking forever. We would start vacuuming, dusting and other closing stuff before they left if it was after closing.
I work for Dominos and I am so glad this is not our policy. Yikes.
Call at 11:59? We’ll make you a pizza and deliver it, which will take 30-45 minutes roundtrip. Call at 12:00? You’re SOL.
At everywhere I’ve worked, doors are locked and monitored at closing. One boss even put “Use the bathroom NOW” in her 10 minute annoucement.
Now, I’m the asshole at my local wine watering hole. He closes at 9. I’ve gone in there at 9:15 orevenlatersometimes and asked, “Register closed yet?” and he gives me the pissiest look. But he’ll take the sale if he can get it.
Yeah man, the 32 cents the store makes on that bag of chips you just had to buy totally justifies someone clocking out 15 minutes later because they had to wait for Your Royal Highness to be done with his chip shopping before they could close out their register.
I should be able to walk in a couple minutes before closing or even a couple minutes past closing and get served.
Why piss off a good customer that has a slow watch? He may have drove 5 miles for whatever item he/she wanted. Clock in the car says 5:57 and finds the door locked.
The owners invested a lot of money in that business. Building or leasing the space, bank loan interest, payroll, inventory costs, and advertising. Turning away a customer doesn’t make sense.
I’d agree locking the door 10 minutes after closing is reasonable. That gives stragglers with a slow watch time to get there. Set employee’s clock out time for 30 minutes past closing. That gives time to lock up, close out the registers, and other end of day stuff. The manager or asst manager stays later anyway. Counting money, balancing the registers and preparing the bank deposit.
I understand an employee’s desire to get off work. I turned 16 and got a sacker job at a grocery store. I was the new guy and got stuck working the Sat evening shift. We closed at 9pm. The 2nd feature at the movies usually started at 9:15. Of course I wanted to clock out at 9 sharp. If I clocked out past 9:15 there was no sense in buying my movie ticket. The theater was a 7 min drive away.
I had a part time computer repair shop for awhile. I’ve driven down to my shop just to give repaired customers pc’s back and collect my fee. My shop was in a ratty old 1950’s strip mall and just 5 mins from my house. I’ve seen and experienced both sides of this debate.
Do the store managers still stick around balancing the cash register and getting the deposit ready?
My roommate in the mid 80’s managed a Pizza Hut. I used to drop by at midnight when they closed to give him a ride. It took him 30 or 40 minutes to balance the registers and count out the deposit. He had a few ledger entries to make (by hand back then). The rep from the regional office came by about 12:30 for the money bag and she checked his ledger entries. There were 4 Pizza Huts in a thirty mile area that she collected money from.
I worked at a Burlington Coat Factory for a year or so. We had to count our own registers and balance them against the tapes. Another reason we needed to be able to close the registers as soon after closing time as possible.
Tsk. They shoulda waited til you got there to start the movie! It makes no sense to pay all that money to get a film from a distributor and fire up the projector, and lose out on $4 because one of their customers had to work late!
I worked a long time ago at a convenience store and the employee’s major grumble was management only paid us until closing time, but they knew it took at least 15 minutes after that to do our counts and cash, and then deposit the money in the safe.
So the answer for us was no new people came in the last 5 minutes before closing, we would lock the door, and let people out one by one. People in the store were informed politely but firmly that the till would be closed in 5 minutes, period. Any customer who thought that was poor customer service was welcome to take it up with management.
I always take into account the closing time of the store, and make sure I am there 15 or 20 minutes earlier. I am not going to make some cashier count their cash drawer twice.
Yesssss. For reals, if any business literally stayed open to accommodate their customers, well, they’d never close. I’ve worked at places before when I was younger, that closing duties could take over an hour. Let somebody in 10 minutes after you’ve already closed? No. Because then they could leisurely shop and it take you two hours to get home. Like to your kids, spouse, next job, ailing parent, whatever.
Remember, not planning on your part does not constitute an emergency on mine. And it might cost the business more in the long run to constantly allow people to do that.
15 minutes before closing a “closing” announcement should be made.
a store staff, not doing checkout, start with aisle wide dust mops at the rear of the store. managers are issued cattle prods and move from trouble spot to trouble spot as needed. they need to be polite; “thank you, come again”.
