So why is the store in the OP honorbound to allow you to shop after they’ve closed because you can’t be bothered to know the correct time, but the movie theater is allowed to start their movies on their schedule rather than the general public’s?
I guess the type of business matters. Convenience store customers are in and out in 5 minutes. Same thing with someone in the drive up lane at Burger King. They’ll be gone 60 seconds after you hand them the sack. A hardware store has a fast customer turn around too.
A big grocery store or Walmart are places where customers linger. I have to agree locking the door 10 minutes before closing is necessary.
Starting time for theaters has never been negotiable. Unless there’s a big line of people getting seated. I’ve seen them delay dimming the lights. They don’t want lawsuits from people falling. Thats pretty rare to have 15 people getting seated at the last minute unless the movie was a sell out…
Ehh, even in fast food it’s a pain in the ass. People ordering right at or after closing slows everything down. The after closing work can take at least an hour and scrubbing the grill clean is one of the bigger pains.
Ditto (and that was 30 years ago). And that one customer or straggler certainly did not pay anyone’s salary. If they push back clocking out time 15 minutes, they likely cost the store money. Sure, there’s that 1-in-10,000 who will spend like money is going out of style, but in my few years, that person never showed up right at closing time.
This. There’d been times where the drawer was out of balance and I’d be there at 5 a.m. trying to figure it out (which typically meant a driver had deleted a delivery run to pocket all the cash, so I got to stay late one day and fire someone the next - great). Anyway, I’d be amazed that the phone would just keep on ringing. The thing is, one order every hour after close would still be a losing proposition because labor costs would be nuts. Dominos tried 24 hour stores in Chicago in the 80s and quit because it wasn’t worth it, but my super hadn’t been around for that. I’ve had a small laugh lately as Starbucks tried it as well and stopped after a year or two, though their problems were more sociological and economical.
I actually don’t know what my company’s policy is. I go by my own policy until told otherwise.
I nearly always work alone and nearly always am closing the store. I have to clean the store, count my own register, do all the closing paperwork. Every single browser to walk through that door is counted and compared to how many actually become purchasers (conversion). The only thing the company seems to care about these days is how high the conversion is so my theory is that if a customer has affected my conversion by walking through the door, I’m going to give them a chance to buy something.
About 5 minutes before we close I tell all customers that I’ll be locking them in but not to rush themselves. I explain that I still have to clean and there’s no reason I can’t do that with company. As soon as closing time comes, the doors are locked and no one new is allowed in but I NEVER rush the people in the store. When they’re all gone I count my register and do my paperwork and then I leave as well.
There are a few reasons this doesn’t work for everyone.
- My store is very small
- It’s rare that anyone is with me to get annoyed
- Even if someone is with me, I can still let them go when the scheduled time comes while I stay with the customers
- We only have one register to count
- As long as no customers complain, no one seems to care what I do
- At the moment we are short staffed and have an excess of payroll so my manager really doesn’t care if I leave late as long as I don’t go more than 6 hours without a break
Think of it this way: the amount of money you are going to make on that person who comes in 5 minutes after closing will likely be far, far less than what you’ll have to pay your employees for an extra 5 minutes of work - or if they are on a set half-hour after closing time schedule, you’ll have 5 minutes less of clean up done which may have a greater negative effect than the positive effect of the money made on those bag of chips or whatnot.
From Close minus 15 minutes I’d announce the store was closing at 5 minute intervals.
At Close I’d lock the doors to prevent new customers from entering and station someone there with a key to let customers out and start turning the lights off.
I’d announce the registers will be closed at Close plus 10 and for people to bring their purchases to the cashier now.
At Close plus 10, I’d finish ringing up whoever is waiting in line, have escorted out anyone still shopping, and close out the register. If they’re persistent, I’d call security to escort them out.
Here’s how it works at my store:
Posted closing time we lock the doors, no new customers. It’s a judgement call for the manager on duty for desperate doorknockers.
We inform customers still shopping that we’re closing and they should please finish up their browsing. This process rarely takes more than 15 minutes and we don’t have to “make” people stop very often.
We leave at least one register open until all the customers are gone. Once we’ve started that process on the last register, nobody is let in no matter how desperate they are.
Fortunately for us, we don’t get too many aimless customer browsing without a specific intent to buy, and those that are like that are understanding. For those with a list, the correlation to the time it takes to gather the items corresponds well to how much it’s “worth it.”
Thought in the case of a liquor store (or grocery store that sells alcohol) it may literally the case that it’s illegal to ring up a sale a minute past X-o’clock even if the customer was already waiting in line.
My favourite was to just start turning lights off (even the lights that normally stayed on all night for the overnight crew).
The computerized cash registers won’t accept beer sales after 1pm Weeknights and midnight Sat in my state. I know because I was in a slow line at the grocery store at 11:40. Idiots had one cashier working for that big grocery store. Had 4 or 5 people ahead of me. It was after midnight before I was allowed to check out. No beer for me. I did get my other items rang up.
I quit going to 24 hour grocery stores that late. They always close all the cashier lanes except 1.
Closing time is when the entrance door is locked. You show up after that too bad for you, you’ll know better next time. People that are really upset over that aren’t reasonable people and losing their business is probably better in the long run. There is always a certain percentage of customers that think good customer service means a business should suffer a loss anytime they deal with them.
Anyone that has made it in before closing gets to do their shopping, an associate will even walk them along to expedite the process.
Same goes for restaurants, closing time is when you stop seating new customers. the kitchen and wait staff has to remain until the seated customers have enjoyed their meal. I avoid being a seated customer after closing however as I know their will be unhappy restaurant employees who would much rather go home then serve me.
A large ice cream stand in my areas policy is they stay open until there is no one in line. Their official closing time is 10pm. I’ve gone by at 1am and have still seen people in line. If people keep showing up the line will never end. Closing shift is horrible for people that want to get out on time and great for people looking for more hours.
The store I work at closes only twice a year - 3 PM on Thanksgiving and 6 PM on Christmas eve - and our contract specifically states that all employees must be off the clock no later than 30 minutes after closing and that no customers are to be rung up after closing time.
The management makes the first announcement an hour before close and every 5 minutes after that. At 30 minutes to close, they seal the steel gate at the entry door and post security at the exit to stop any new customers from coming in. At closing time, the registers begin to shut down automatically and will not accept any new transactions after the current one, so if you haven’t checked out by then you’re out of luck, and security will sweep the store to escort out any stragglers.
It’s a very efficient system and it works well.
Yeah I would have no expectation of getting in after closing time, and have no issue with being hustled to the tills if I’m there 5 mins before and still choosing items.
Actually, I’m just happy if I get in before closing time. Plenty of places (in the UK) define closing time as time where the shop is locked and/or shuttered, so they stop letting people in 10 or even 15 mins before closing.
10 minutes? That’s ridiculous.
I wouldn’t expect the store to stay open past their closing time no matter when I arrived. If I arrive at the store later than that, that’s my problem, not theirs.
Nobody should be coming into a store at or past closing time. Those inside should be given about 10 minutes to get checked out and out of the store.
We close promptly at 6 and go home. Trespassers will be shot. Thanks for shopping.
As I said in the related restaurant thread, opening and closing times are for customers, not staff. I would be livid being locked out of a store 30 minutes before the posted closing time. What’s the point of claiming that you’re open at a time you are going to refuse letting customers in?
Internally, feel free to have whatever time you want as closing time, just don’t post it on the door for your customers, put the customer-relevant closing time on the door.
Very recently I went to a local lumber yard, 5 minutes before closing. I had no idea they were closing at that time, but got lucky. Since I had a lumber order that involved multiple cuts and would take probably 20-30 minutes to process, I happily agreed to come back on a different day, and just got their advice. However, if I had been buying a box of nails, and they said they couldn’t take my money because they closed the till early so they could go home at exactly 6pm, I’d have been pissed, and thought about why Home Depot is putting local guys out of business.
“This is terrible customer service!” = “Waah, you won’t give me what I want, I am more important than anyone else!” You did the right thing.
When I worked at a Tesco supermarket in the UK, no-one would be let in the store after the posted closing time, and those in the store would be told to checkout immediately at closing time (after 15, 10, and 5 minute warnings before closing). Naturally, this meant that us cashiers often had to spend 15 minutes after the posted closing time to check out the last customer before would could cash out and tidy up. For this reason, your shift (and pay) was generally until half an hour after closing.
When I worked in retail it was stop letting people in and start herding everyone inside to the last open register(s). It was a “soft” close, not a “hard” close. The goodwill this engended was worth the miniscule amount of extra work it required. If we would have shut the registers down exactly at close time there would regularly be a large number of irate customers.