If a restaurant is open until 10pm and a person(s) walks in at 9:52pm, generally they can order an entire dinner and take their time as they would if they came to eat at 8pm. What do you think? and what happens realistically?
A store (box or smaller) is open until 10pm and a customer walks in at 9:55pm to look at computers. Should he be allowed to take the same amount of time as he would be allowed if he had come into the store at 8PM for the same purpose?
In short, it would seem to me that if a bank, store, restaurant or what have you is open until a certain time, anyone who comes into that place of business before closing time should not feel rushed into leaving quickly. Please comment.
I used to work in food service. I can’t speak for everyone, but I wasn’t paid any overtime if somebody came in right before closing time. We had to serve them, so I had to stay late, but I was not compensated. I thought it was damned inconsiderate of someone to come in and expect to be able to loll around for half an hour when there were people who wanted to close up shop and get home to their families.
If you walk into any restaurant I’ve ever worked at, you are going to earn the ire of the kitchen staff (who are breaking down in preparation for close) and your server will be standing over in the corner giving you the evil eye. As a former cook/bartender/waitron, I respect the fact that the employees would like to clock out and get home at a reasonable time just like everybody else gets to do, and never order anything from the kitchen ('cept maybe a P&J sandwich) after half-till-close. If I’m an hour or less until close I’ll ask the server if the kitchen is still taking orders. OTOH, at a corporate place, like Applebee’s or Chili’s, they are mandated to stay open and serving until stated hours, so…you can order, up until close, but don’t be surpised if the food and service is of subpar quality.
Retail operations will usually run you out unless you are finishing up a sale. It just isn’t worth their while to remain open trying to sell something long after close.
Phew! I’m guessing you don’t work in any kind of service industry. In an office job, or working construction, or such, you can just up and leave (most of the time, depending on situation.) While service people may not, by virtue of the type of work, have that option, it’s (IMHO) extremely rude to insist that they continue to serve you after hours, especially in a commission or tip situation where they can’t expect to earn as much serving a single customer as they would during normal hours serving a variety of customers.
I’ve worked those kinds of jobs, and thus, I have a respect for how hard they are (even the ones that look easy). The pay is low, the hours are variable, and the last thing you need is some lunk coming in at five to close to “look around” or order a steak and linger over coffee. These people have lives, too. Have a heart, or at least basic compassion, and let them close and get home.
It totally does not seem that way to me. Rather, it seems obvious to me that if they’re open until a certain time, you should plan to finish your business with them by that time. If I walk in at 9:55 p.m. and the store closes at 10:00, I’ve got just 5 minutes before I’ve gotta be out of there.
Speaking for pretty much every restaurant I know of (and that’s quite a few): they make you work off the clock. Yeah, it’s illegal, but your choices are deal with it or complain and get fired (or, alternatively, scheduled for horrible shifts and sections). Given that the standard server’s salary is $2.13/hr, and, after taxes on tips are taken out, the average server’s weekly check is something on the order of $0-$10, most don’t view an hour or two of “unpaid” labor as anything worth raising a stink about.
My little 2-person post office has a handy rule. Anyone who isn’t at the window three minutes before closing time gets a nice raised eyebrow from the postmistress (who is a Long Islander and can raise a mean eyebrow, believe you me). You can skid in later if you want and be served, but she’ll remember you…
I used to be a waitron, mostly at chains like Red Lobster and Cracker Barrel. I’ve never (at any job I’ve ever had) been asked to work off the clock. And you know I’d raise a stink about it, cuz that’s how I am.
I once had this couple that would always come in 5-10 minutes before closing, order the biggest steak/seafood dinners with all the trimmings, linger for an hour and a half, and leave no tip. None. Those bastards! :mad:
In some stores, the computer systems shut down at a certain time-so even if you came in while they were still open, you can’t wait an hour or so to check out. Every retail place I’ve ever worked they start making announcements on the PA system starting at fifteen minutes before closing, then at ten, then at five…etc.
Some stores (bars, restaurants) have shifts set in such a way that “opening up” and “closing down” are done before and after hours. It makes legal compliance easier, when you get those drag-their-feet customers, and also many of them have the kind of hours that require two shifts (or you will get that visit from the nice fellas at Work Inspection). In those places, you usually get some “15 minute” warning.
In other places, “closing down” is done during regular hours. I know a cafe that closes at 8pm and has delicious handmade shakes: if you ask for one at 5 to 8, you will finish it with all the chairs except yours placed upside down on top of tables. It’s the waitress idea of a “15 minute warning.”
When The Olive Garden was a fairly new chain (at least in Cleveland) they earned a lot of good will and several repeat visits from the tomndebb clan. Deb and I (pre-kids) showed up at the door after a long day at a cultural festival and saw that they closed in 15 minutes. As we turned to walk away, the hostess ran out and invited us to come in anyway.
If I see that a place will close in less than a half hour, I generally do not go in to order food. There are places where I know (from previous visits) that their posted closing hour is when they stop accepting orders, but that their policy is to serve for another 45 minutes to an hour. If I know that that is their policy, I may go closer to their posted time.
What does it mean for a business to say, “We’re Open from 9AM TO 5PM.”? It’s not an exclusive bound on when the employees will be, or ought to be present. After all, the boss can order everyone in at 8AM and ask everyone to stay till 6:30PM.
It’s a bound for the customers, and ipso facto, a minimum bound on the employees expected to service them.
Now, you can divide into two cases:
1)The posted hours signify when a customer may initiate business.
2)The posted hours signify when a customer may expect business interaction.
In many cases, the total interaction time is small enough that business hours can be treated as if they signify the first case. In other cases, like restaurants, there’s no clear demarcation. A guy looking for a quick snack is welcome at 9:50, but a party of 4 isn’t. A simple solution would be, for such extended interactive businesses, for the closing time to denote last call for orders, with the employees prepped to expect to work for some mean service time after that.
Back in the 70s, before many of you Dopers were born, I worked in a Lafayette Radio Electronics store. Like clockwork, some SOB would wander in at 8:55PM and want to spend the next half hour testing tubes. Tom (the owner) got tired of that nonsense and posted a sign that tube testing was not allowed after 8 PM. Those folks would drive us nuts-do you think I should replace it-the tester says ‘weak’? We wanted to say stuff it, we want to go home.
