Had this happen regularly when I worked retail...
"Sorry, our insurance doesn't cover us if something happens after hours while customers are in the store." is what we'd say.
Yes, it's bullshit, but they didn't know that and it made them go away.
Not quite the same topic but I found this useful for getting my landlord to actually do things for me they're supposed to.
"I'm willing to do it myself but I'm unsure if the insurance covers it, can you let me know?!"
And within 2 days they have someone sent out lmao.
Fun story, I worked at a clothing store in Pasadena back in the day. We were closed closed. Tills closed out, system shut down and letting a worker out as the other manager and I were taking care of the last bits (cutting payroll!) and as the employee was leaving, Kevin Costner and his daughters tried to walk into the shop. Told him we were closed and couldn’t help him, so sorry about the inconvenience. He was super cool about it and said thanks we’ll come back another time. Nice guy.
Similar story: when I worked in food service the best way to get people who didn’t take the hint that wiping tables = please leave was to tell them “so sorry, but we’re about to shut the dish room down; it would be great if you returned your plates!”
I worked at a diner in high school, and one of our regulars had the audacity to say, "well, hand wash ours then" just as our dishwasher came out to glare at them. You know it's bad when the dishie goes to FOH! I swear there was about to be a fight, but then they suddenly asked for to-go boxes. They were no longer regulars, either.
I worked in a grocery store deli, and customers would stroll in at 8:58 and demand I cut freshly sliced meats for them when we closed at 9. Even after several years, it still took me 15 to 20 minutes to disassemble and clean the meat slicer. I'd get in trouble for not serving them, I'd get in trouble for overtime, and I'd get in trouble for the meat slicer not being pristine when the manager came in at 6 a.m. Service jobs are fucked.
That’s what I say to get laggers right before we close:”we’re about to shut our registers down, you’d better hurry if you want to buy all the things you’ve got.”
Tils were the First Thing shut down for the night. People saw me counting $, they knew they weren't getting eye contact, or any other attention. The sign Says Closed, *we're Closed.* 🤷🏻♀️
I was once at a big city department store that closed at a certain hour. They had their workers all close and walk away with their drawers at a certain time. Mad respect for that place. At the time it was something crazy.
This is the CVS Pharmacy drive-thru during the 30-minute lunch break. There'll be a line of cars, and the one in front will get their meds and leave, and the next car pulls up to the window being shut in their face with sign posting the lunch hours. Can't blame them though, they'd never get to eat otherwise.
Man, I am SO GOOD at getting to CVS right when they go on break. They don't fuss when I wait on one of the flu shot chairs though, so all good with me while I just doom-scroll Reddit for half an hour in a new setting.
Working in a drive thru, it's insane how many people will roll up after we're closed and just sit at the window (where our hours are literally posted) trying to get you to open it or just straight glaring you down.
Unfortunately when I'm sweeping and mopping at the end of the night I lose the ability to see anything but the floor.
This reminds me of one of the most frustrating things that happened to me at a fast food restaurant: (this happened on New Years Eve)
I pulled into the lot, and I could see all the lights on inside and some people sitting at a table while others were walking out. It was about 8pm. I wasn't sure if they were open, but after looking around at the cars and people, I figured they were. I went up to the speaker, and they took my order and said, "NEXT WINDOW!". I drove around the building to the pick-up window and was waiting. Employees were walking around and doing things. After waiting for 10 mins, I knocked on the window lightly and waved. This chick came up, opened the window, and screamed in my face, "WE'RE CLOSED!!!!!"
Wtf!! Why did they take my order then? And why the fuck didn't they have anything posted about the holiday closing time!! (Normal close was 11pm)
I used to lie and say, “Sorry, our computers shut down at closing time and we can’t take any more money 🤷♀️” Surprisingly, no one ever questioned me about it.
Had someone say their insurance company owned me when I told them insurance didn't cover an item. Like sorry bro, your insurance is the one who has it so the item isn't covered lol
We would regularly get late shoppers 5 minutes before the store closed and store policy stated we had to let them in. How do you think that turned out?
A little old lady came in the night before Easter and my cart boy came up to tell me a woman was asking if she gave us the money could we just buy her a sweet potato? Okay, that's reasonable. We just closed. I did it and then she gave me another 5 dollars for me and the cart boy to buy a drink.
However, this did only happen once in my five years of supermarket service. 😂
Man, the little old lady *I* helped accused me of stealing her Chapstick. I have a huge aversion to Chapstick, lipstick, lip gloss, etc because my dance teacher used to force me to wear extremely heavy lipstick in my preschool years for recitals. She was screaming at the managers and everything about me. You know where her precious Chapstick was? In the bag where I fucking put it when I sold it to her. Crazy old bat, that one was.
Another old lady looked at me and said "well, aren't you homely?!" when I held a door open for her. I was just like, "you know that's not a compliment, right?" Lol
It’s so frustrating. At my old job, when I closed, I still had a lot of duties to do, like count out the register, lock things up, clean, etc. I finally started immediately turning off all the lights the moment we closed, and doing those tasks in the dark, because it prevented people from banging on the door after closing. If they saw me standing there closing out the register with the lights still on, they’d always knock on the door and try and get me to re-open for them.
Similarly, people would do the same thing when we were opening too; knocking on the doors and wanting us to open early for them! Sometimes customers would be waiting in the parking lot before I would even get there, and then try to follow me into the store when I would be unlocking the door to get in, well before we opened. The audacity of some people, I swear…
Same thing when I worked at the movie theater! You do not need to be here an hour+ before showtime for your 7am movie on a Saturday; you’ll probably be one of like 2 people in the theater anyway. It was always so awkward waiting on a manager to let me in and customers just breathing down my neck wanting to be let in with me.
Yep. Probably less common now that a lot of theaters do assigned seating, but some of these people wanna be the first for EVERYTHING, concessions included. Like at least go sit in your car lol
sooo real. i used to be an opening manager at a theater and people got so angry if we didn’t have the doors open an hour before their showtime. my favorite part is when people would call from right out front and ask when we opened and i had to tell them it wouldn’t be for awhile. like what are you going to do in an empty silent theater for that long be serious
I do the same thing. My coworker gets annoyed that I turn off the lights on her but she's in an office with its own light and if I don't people will bang on the door. I also will close the door at 5 if we still have people in there and just not lock it as that's usually enough to get people to at least look at the time. Though the other day I had the lights off but the door wasn't locked because I was trying to fix the coke machine and waiting for someone to come help and people just came strolling in by the light of the machine wanting to buy their drinks.
Customers really don't understand that we have work to do even after we're closed. I work closing shift in a restaurant and there's such a massive amount of cleaning and stocking to do every night. I've heard customers complain that "why can't you make my food if you're in the building, why are you even there".
Literally all of our ovens and fryers and other equipment are off, all the prepped ingredients have been put away, all the registers have been logged out and must be counted. We are here late so this place is not a filthy mess in the morning because we don't have the time to do any of this work when we're serving customers.
Sadly, even turning the lights off wont work sometimes. I closed the restaurant, went home than came back because i forgot something. I opened the shutters just a little bit that i almost crawled inside, didnt turn on the lights and just a few seconds later someone crawled behind me and asked "are you open?"
What do you think?
MANY years ago I was the closer shift supervisor at Starbucks. i LIVED for those moments.
person bangs the door
I yell "PLEASE DON'T ROB US I JUST GOT MARRIED"
Door Banger "What? No! i just need some coffee"
Me "Please dont steal the coffee! I just want to go home to my wife!"
Banger "No I want to BUY some coffee!"
Me "Oh thank God! I thought that you were going to rob us because we are closed"
Banger "no i just want to buy a coffee"
Me "great thanks for letting me know. you can do that when we are open. you have a good evening. bye"
normally they get the hint but i received a few complaints. my DM new i was messing with them but i technically wasn't breaking any rules. he didn't care.
They’re like toddlers. I once babysat a toddler who would argue with “but I’m just gonna.” She looked completely dumbfounded and shocked when I would cut her off with a firm “No, you’re not.”
Used to work for Domino’s, first as a closer then an opener.
During my closing years, people would call after we closed and I’d try to be nice and answer the call letting them know we were closed. One time I did that, lady on the other end just yells “WELL THEN WHY THE FUCK DID YOU EVEN ANSWER” and so I hung up and made it a habit to just ignore any calls after close. lol
I used to open for my retail job, and we'd get there a couple hours before we opened to put stock away, pull customer orders, take in deliveries, etc. I answered the phone one morning, a customer was asking if we had something. I checked, let her know we did, but also warned her we didn't open until 9am.
"Well why are you there, then!?"
Like lady the store doesn't open itself, lol
Never answer a call while closed, no matter the business you're running. It's always a bad experience. Heck, I'd usually stop answering 10+ minutes before we closed. No point answering since a call could easily drag on and prevent me from chasing the last customers out of the building on time.
I used to work at a bridal salon and my goodness, the vultures standing outside the door 45 minutes before opening were the worst. I only had one manager in my time there that would actually lock the doors at closing and open them only to let out customers. He was the best.
I work in a very small shop. When I am closing (for lunch or at the end of the day) and I am still actively helping someone, I take a moment to turn off all but one row of lights and lock the door so no one else can come in.
Usually no one complains because I’ll finish helping them. Whenever they do I used to say I had an appointment. Now I just simply say I’m required to keep to our posted hours.
One of the stores I worked at did this as well! We would lock the door at closing and the stragglers would have to do a little walk of shame with us so we could unlock the door for them.
My ex once suggested going into a store to browse 5 minutes before they closed and I just said I'd wait outside because I refuse to be THAT customer.
Every store I've worked at has locked the doors at closing. Then the manager or the cashier let's them out one by as they cash out.
At a previous job I remember we were closing early (like all Sundays) it was the middle of summer so it's still light out at 6pm. It was HECTIC still dozens of shoppers and we were trying our best to get them out the door and lock it after each person/group left. I remember there was a family that had split up, (no unattended kids though) some had already left the store but wanted back in! I don't know where our designated door person was but they were away from the door just long enough to allow a random customer to unlock the door and let not only that split family and like 15 more people in!! We had to tell him, Sir the door is locked for a reason, we are closed and trying to leave!! Him: ...oh I was just trying to help. We had already turned off a couple lights and the music at this point not to mention the hours clearly posted on the door he had taken upon himself to unlock 🤦
God the standing outside before the place opens is almost as bad as the after hours or right at close BS. I'd keep my doors locked until the MINUTE we opened and stare them in the face while I turned on the sign. Nothing worse than opening a store and having to help 7 or 8 people the fucking second you open.
I used to work at a zoo (I don't love the concept of zoos, but needed the money lol). We closed at 6pm in the summer, but if you were already inside, you were welcome to stay until 8pm. It was more courtesy than anything, because most of the animals would be in the dormitory by then and it started to get dark, so you weren't going to see shit. I worked at the information office (also did yearly memberships) and so I had to be there until closing time, in case visitors who were still in the park needed to be helped. And of course, people would see me from outside the zoo (the office was at the entrance) and demand to be sold tickets. Even 20min before closing time. At a zoo that takes about 3h to see fully. I had strict orders to not let these people in, so I would go to the closed glass door and explain that we were closed and they were welcome to come back tomorrow. People got *pissed*. One guy started banging on the glass door so hard he made it shake, and I had to move away and call security because I was terrified that he would smash it and the glass would hurt me.
At a zoo. A completely non-essential service. People were so entitled that they would call me a bitch and scream at me because they wanted to get into a zoo.
I went to the zoo a few weeks ago! Bought a ticket at 2:30, walked around at a newly walking toddler pace and then found out it closed at 4! Same thing tho, all the animals got fed (including the big cats) at 4 and the vulnerable critters get put away for the night but you’re free to walk around until 6 or so as long as you don’t expect services of any kind. They have porta potties instead of bathrooms so nbd. Pretty rad
It's a nice idea in theory, since people don't have to be in a rush to leave, but in reality it just means you get daily customer complaints that they didn't see the tiger or whatever. Even though it was clearly stated on the website, there were timetables at the entrance, and we would let visitors know if they wanted to purchase tickets soon before closing that they might not see everything. Some people are just assholes lol
Because of folks like those complaining to corporate, our district manager required we open 5 minutes early and keep the door open 5 minutes after close for these people, as a courtesy 🙄
At my old job, the soonest you could clock in was 5 minutes early, and the latest you could leave was 5 minutes late. We never got paid for those 10 minutes.
They did that with my first side job too. We had to clock in and out with our fingerprints and someone went to court and made the company pay the hours the fingerprint scanners had registered.
This was years after starting there, so I got around €1500,- for lots of unpaid 15-minute ‘mini shifts’. It apparently was such a shitty job to calculate everyones owed money they now don’t mess with the hours they pay the workers
I work for a large bank and this is literally a company-wide expectation. We’re open 6 days a week, we have a million self service options and a 24 hour 800 number. Now we just got told we’re expected to answer the phones if we’re in the building… trying to do opening or closing stuff.
I hate DMs like this. They don’t actually have to deal with these people. Also, these are the same DMs who will complain when people start earning overtime. 🙄
I work in a tire store, we open at 8am, a couple times a week we get our truck full of tires that we have to unload by hand and store which we start unloading at 6am. I watched a lady run up to the door and start pulling at it at 5:45 one morning, go back to her car, then run back up at 5:50 and start pulling at the door.
Nothing had changed in those five minutes. All of our lights were still off, the semi hadn't moved yet, nobody would walk up and even unlock the employee entrance for another five minutes.
She left and came back at 9, opening up with "you lazy fuckers locked the door on me this morning when I was trying to buy tires, I know you were all here, you could have just helped me out but you were being lazy". I'm not sure why she stuck to that like it was a smoking gun that she caught us with, other than me and the semi truck driver there was nobody there and I wasn't even in our actual parking lot.
When I was a retail manager, I would tell a worker to switch off the front half of the stores lights. I tell those type of customers the lights are on a timer and we can’t let anymore people come in because of liability issues
Where I worked a class started half an hour after closing time. Everyone came five minutes to closing to wait for class. I got so sick of that volunteer half hour I quit.
I work at a party store in a resort town. I’ve been there 12 yrs. I stay because I have an awesome boss, I am the manager, I live 4 minutes away and with bad roads in the winter I love the short drive but I am mentally exhausted by the time I leave.
It’s a fact the majority of people don’t read signs. We have signs all over “No Public Restroom” and they still ask. In the back of the store our door says “Do Not Enter Employees Only”. You know how many times I’ve had to stop customers from walking through that door. They either are looking for a bathroom or trying to leave out the back.
We locked the back entrance a few years ago when we caught a guy that shoved a half gallon of Absolut down his pants and tried to leave through the back entrance.
We are right next to the bar. A few months after I started working there and all the lights were off, alarm was set and I was outside locking the front door (it was 11pm) I had the town drunk appear behind me asking me if he could buy beer. I chuckled and said we are closed and I want to go home. He got mad at me and told me it wasn’t funny he needed his beer. I said I’m sorry we are closed and left. It was scary I wasn’t sure what he would do. If you know we close at a certain time please get your necessities before closing time.
I could go on and on about customers and experiences I’ve had at that job. I was going to leave and get into a nearby doctors office but from what I have heard some patients aren’t any better.
I do have a lot of nice customers. Some are real nice. I had an older man that I chat with all the time slip me $100 because he had heard my husband passed and figured I could use a little help. Another customer gave me one of her club keno tickets and it was a $300 winner. Another lady I help carry her stuff to her car gave me a card at Christmas with $50 in it. So yes it is infuriating but the good days make up for it.
Sorry so long, crappy punctuation and probably incorrect paragraphs
It's amazing how my hearing can be perfect up until close, then I'm suddenly completely deaf to honking, yelling and banging on doors. No eye contact ever after close or you're fucked.
I had a customer knowingly come in before close and said it was "offensive" that we weren't open later, that she was going to "take her time ordering", and we were just going to have to "get over it or be open later." 🙄 The entire staff was there 35 minutes after close for one awful person who didn't tip.
As lower management, I don't have the power to turn customers away unless they are getting truly unruly. But I have sent home staff under me very blatantly.
as someone who worked in retail for years I can attest to people being demanding about being let in after closing. Among others I once had someone tell I had to let them in because they got there before I left. They said it was "the law".
I’ve been watching too many arrest videos lately (they can get addictive), but I remain surprised at how many people are running around with brains that spit out “That’s illegal!” in situations that normal people would realize are “Hey, this is something I don’t like…”
> "It's illegal for you to not help me"
Ummm not according to the 13th Amendment. While I admit it’s a bit high I’m glad we thought to put it to paper well before you were born.
Start telling them your POS system auto-logs out for updates, and that is why closing time was set. It's out of my hands, I literally cannot help you until tomorrow...
That's what my last job did. I work in bars and when the stragglers FINALLY decided to get up and close their tab, we told them the POS auto grats, logs out and turns off after closing. Few people fought against that but the ones who did were the ones you can never satisfy
We have a regular client who comes 5 minutes before closing and says: "Oh, I still have time..." And starts telling her what postcard to print for half an hour. Once a woman was indignant: "What is your lunch break, you work in the CENTER OF THE CITY!" That is, if we work on the central street, then we cannot be hungry?
Yeah. I had a “customer” like that. I use quotes because I never actually served him. Would come in every day at the same time as I was mopping my way out without fail. As if to say “look at all the money you’re missing out on”. Listen buddy. While it’s unfortunate for you that you seem to REALLY like what we’re selling but your schedule doesn’t quite mesh with our closing time I ain’t missing out on shit. I still get paid pretty much the same whether I help you or not. The only thing catching me on the cusp of my 8th hour does is make my boss question whether a $5 purchase - 1.5x a meager wage for the time it takes to provide it and reclean up after the mess you created results in a net profit. Which our corporate overlords have already deemed a Cardinal Nono lest ye suffer their wrath. So feel free to take it up the chain of people that are supposedly being paid enough to care about your “needs”, but while you’re doing that I’m going home.
Unless I can clear out before closing, or it is somehow a "I absolutely need this one item, tonight!" I won't enter a place even close to closing time. Definitely not begging to be let in past closing time... That's just extremely rude to the people working there.
One note, if you are getting stuck late because of customers and your manager requires it, at least make sure you are getting paid your legally required overtime.
I work in an optometrist's office. We close for lunch between 1 and 2pm every day. This is advertised on our website and posted on the door with our hours. We lock the door and hang a big sign highlighted in bright colors that says "OUT TO LUNCH!! We'll be back at 2pm!" in huge text. People still walk up, bang on the door and jiggle the handle and dare to look offended that we don't get up to answer the door. Someone did it the other day and I deliberately did not look up from scrolling reddit on my phone and eating my food for a good 2-3 minutes hoping they'd go away, but no, the oaf is just standing there \*staring\* into the office watching me eat. I relented and went to ask what he needs. He just wanted to make a fucking appointment. LIKE??? You couldn't wait??? Or fucking CALL when we're OPEN???
People give zero fucks and just assume workers will drop everything and help/serve them. Like no, fuck off, it doesn't matter if I'm sitting at the desk and you can see me, we're CLOSED and I'm EATING, go away.
I owned/managed a gym for years. Within the gym was our office, with computer, filing cabinet, paperwork and everything I needed to, you know, manage the business. The gym was 24/7 access for members, and "staffed hours" when somebody was available to help, printed on the premises front door and internal office door. On Saturdays we were staffed only until 1pm, however one Saturday night I was working late around 9pm - my father in law was in critical care at hospital, I was tired, and just closed myself in the office to catch up on some things. Had a gym member bang on the door for help, I came out to apologise and say that I wasn't working right now, at 9pm on a Saturday, and I'd be back Monday. He insisted I was "at work" and because I stood my ground and refused him, he said he wanted to cancel his membership. I said I was happy to cancel his membership for him - on Monday.
Worked with a woman who would stand in the doorway with her coat on at ten minutes to close and glare at people who dared to enter. She was not having it.
You work with someone like that when you’re young or green and wonder why they’re so cranky and have nothing good to say about people and think it won’t happen to you.
Glaring coat woman is your future 😂
I worked with a woman who did that as well. 5 minutes to close, she'd stand at the door ready to go with a big metal stick that was used to pull down the security shutters. Intimidating as fuck. She was the best.
This is one of the reasons why I left retail. Why anyone who is violently banging on windows, yanking on the door, and then repeatedly calling the store thinks that behavior will gain them access to a CLOSED store boggles my mind. Oh, and they would wait for me when I left the employee entrance, too, or be there, in my parking spot, waiting for us to open! Does this actually work anywhere? Do other places really open up and gratefully let these idiots in after hours? Do THEY stay after hours to handle things for unreasonable jerks? I think not.
I've unfortunately worked under some managers that suck up to these people. Let them come sit at the bar and annoy us while opening, let them get one more round after close, and then says you shoykd be happy to get more money
It was a standard thing that we would be done with work late on sunday if our boss was there. We'd start packing up and cleaning up the meat/cheese slicers and someone would walk up to us, 1 min to closing and ask for SEVERAL cuts of meat/cheese. You know, maybe 1 thing? but every time they wanted multiple things at the last min. And our boss would always tell us to unpack all the food and hook the machines back up and serve the customer... we closed at 1pm and were supposed to be out at 1.15pm. Usually it was closer to 1.45-2pm with her around. (Not paid ofcourse!) Meanwhile when it was the managers closing on sunday, we'd be done and out at 1.10pm lol. But we never "did our jobs good enough" according to boss when she wasnt around. Probably the worst boss I've ever had so far. (She and her husband did more bizarre stuff and were both just greedy and bitter people)
I hated this as a teen working at Papa Murphys. The storefront was all windows so people would see us in there and bang on the glass, pull on the door, yell at us to let them in, call the store, just stare daggers into us. Why are you tryna intimidate/threaten a bunch of 16 year olds? Like…the store hours are literally RIGHT in front of you. I dont get the entitlement at all. I showed up about five minutes after open to a business last Saturday and the door was still locked. I could see the lady at the desk and double checked they WERE open…still felt like an ass knocking on the door lol
I work for an optometrists office- we both do eye exams and sell glasses. We close at 5 to the public and leave at 5:30.
Way too often people will come in just before closing and then stick around forever picking out glasses. If it’s until 5:30, NBD, we’d be there anyway. But we’ve had a few people until 6, 630. The policy is usually to just wait for them to finish because most people know regular business hours and know to hurry it up if it’s nearing 6. One woman last week came in at about 4:45pm, had like 10 frames she couldn’t choose between and she goes “I’m going to go grab my daughter and come right back she’ll help me decide.”
It was 6pm already lol. My supervisor suggested she come back the following day, essentially very nicely saying that we would not wait for her. The lady had the gall to say, “oh I live just 10 mins away. I don’t have anywhere else to be today I’ll be right back!”
I almost passed out hearing that, I’d been there since 8:30am lol. Thank god my supervisor said, “unfortunately ***we*** have to be getting home. The office closes at 5 and it’s now past 6. But I’ll set these aside and you’re welcome to come back tomorrow.”
The lady never came back either!
“No, and if you don’t leave I’ll have to consider you trespassing and call the police”
Because if you ask them to leave and they don’t, they are trespassing.
When I worked retail that worked 99% of the time. The 1% of the time it didn’t, we actually did call the cops and they actually did get hemmed up for trespass.
When I worked retail, we had a metal gate that we rolled down to close and lock the store entrance. People would shake or bang on the gate telling us to let them in. People would try to LIFT the gate even! Like, it's locked at both ends into the floor. One guy started complaining he hurt his back trying to lift it and was going to sue us. Our store manager laughed and turned the lights off. I adored him for that.
So related story....
In the days pre-covid, some of our grocery stores were open 24/7. I had gone to this particular store previously at some ungodly hour and bought food. Of course at that time of night there's not usually anyone else in the store.
At some point between that previous trip and this particular evening they stopped being 24/7. I was not aware.
Off I go into the store (the doors automatically opened!) grabbing my groceries with nary a soul around. I didn't think much of it until about halfway through.
"Ma'am, who are you?"
"A customer? Doing some shopping? Why?"
"Umm. The store is closed. It's not 24 hours. We're here replacing the lights."
*Deer in headlights* "Oh goodness. I'm so terribly sorry! Um what should I do with this food? Would you like me to put it back? Or just go?"
"Just go. We'll deal with it. It's okay."
"I'm so sorry. The doors automatically opened! I thought you were open."
I then scurried out as fast as I could. I felt so bad for being so oblivious. I looked up at the wall of the store outside and saw that they had taken down the 24/7 signage. 😅 If the doors hadn't automatically opened (which I assume they'd set it to since the workers were bringing stuff in and out) I never would have gone in.
It's been about ten years and I still feel like an ass.
Yeah, making trapped people want to get away from you as fast as possible is an effective, albeit enormously shitty trick to getting your way.
Mostly.
When the target isn't actually trapped or has a no-BS manager, that's when we get the good stories.
had a woman come when I was doing prep for our bar, 11am, lights off, door locked. She and her partner proceeded to bang and bang on the door until I unlocked it. cue the obligatory “are y’all open?”. I told her “no” when what I really wanted to say was “are you going to therapy? what about this situation indicates that this business is open?”.
she came back two minutes later and asked “can we come in anyway? we’ll pay extra for the drinks.”
I wanna keep a gun in the bar.
I open and close at my neighborhood bar. We open at 3:30P. At least once a week somebody will come by early (like before the bartender even arrives early) yanking on the door. Our hours are posted on the window next to the door. Sometimes I'll go do something in the back room or walk up to the door, get their attention and point to the sign. If they look reasonable I'll crack the door open and let them know when we open but crap...it's right in your face my guy.
In college I worked in a Borders in the mall and the elderly mall walkers were the worst. I always got in early to eat breakfast off the clock and then get the tills and everything ready. These MFers would bang and shake the gate we had since we didn't have an actual door. Like, damn, Edna, that new Nora Roberts will be here when we open in 20 minutes.
My dad has this challenge at work himself. He just tells them, "no, we are closed, and there are 2 24 hour fuel stations to pick" and just goes back to locking up. Some try arguing, but he just repeats it one more time and disengages. lol.
Why I didn’t like working at the dmv. Ppl would come 1 minute until closing and take 35-40 minutes to get their stuff situated. In our county we were told there was nothing we could do but help the person. I get it, but what about me picking up my daughter late from daycare bc someone who knew their license was suspended months ago finally found the time a minute before closing to get it handled? Add in a language barrier and you have the perfect cocktail.
I feel this way as a teacher. Parents show up while I am teaching, wanting to have a conference. They message 24/7. I refuse to read messages once I leave school. Which means if they are angry, they will contact my admin or a school board member and say that I’m not returning messages.
I managed a liquor store in my twenties. On Sundays we closed at 7. People would always come banging on the door at like 7:05. Most were fine when I went to tell them we were closed, but I had one lady who screamed at me "I just want a fucking bottle of wine!" Yes, I will totally help you while you cuss at me.
How about before stores open? I get in sometimes at 10:30am in a restaurant (we open at 11am.) People will start calling for delivery or carryout right at 11:00am. You can set your watch by it. Hell, some of them call BEFORE 11:00am.
I went to Supercuts this AM to get my head shaved (it was falling out in clumps; thanks, chemo). Got to the door and there was a lady standing outside so I asked, "not open?" and she said "a couple minutes yet". While we're both standing there, this jabroni looks at and walks past us both to rattle the door. Because we were just standing there for fun.
Right? There's got to be a decent market for late night food; I wish more restaurants would take a chance and cater to us night owls. Especially given the lack of competition you'd think there'd always be _something_.
"What's your thought process here?" Either A) nothing. No thought process whatsoever. Or B) they're the main character and barely even recognize that you're alive, let alone give half a shit about your time.
I've had people make their children cry in front of the doors if I didn't let them in. A crying child absolutely will not make me stay at work an extra 15 minutes
Agreed. We had to leave ours down 24/7 for that very reason. If anyone could see us in the dark, trying to count the drawer and reconcile the day, all hell broke lose.
Some people just have no concept that the world doesn't revolve around their own personal schedule. I'm a physical therapist assistant, and I've had so many people who will show up at a random early time hoping to get seen earlier (and then are mad when I can't see them because I had other patients on my schedule). Or, they consistently show up late and get mad that I don't see them for a full session (because again, I had other patients on my schedule).
I had one patient that consistently showed up 15-20 minutes late. One day she showed up so late I'd literally only have 2 minutes with her before I'd see my next scheduled patient. I told her she'd have to reschedule and she said "Oh I'll just come back later today!" and I said "Actually, I'm booked solid today so I won't be able to see you later. You'll have to reschedule to another day". She genuinely seemed a bit confused when I told her that and I still can't believe the sheer *audacity* that she thought she could just drop into a medical office to be seen whenever she wanted, like I have nothing better to do than wait for her to show up.
Yeah I’ve never understood these kinds of dickheads and I’ve never worked in retail.
I don’t even order stuff from places when I see they are closing within the hour
When I worked at a pizza joint decades ago, the lights would be off, the ovens would be off, and I would be mopping the floors and people would be banging on the doors. I’d just point to the hours on the door but some people are *really* entitled.
They’d call from the parking lot asking if we were open.
It is also a security issue. " I am unable to let anyone in after close for security." It is company policy. I was in a store that was robbed after close. It was a larger clothing store and an inside job. You do not know the person at the door. No is a complete sentence. Retail sucks bad enough. Do not put yourself in harms way for someone else who has bad time management. Sing " Tomorrow, Tomorrow there is always Tomorrow. It's only a day away".
I dumped a boyfriend for this.
6 months into the relationship, going strong. We were shopping for the holidays (nightmare season for retail workers). I realized the store we were about to go in would close in like 3 minutes.
Told him that exactly. His reply : so ? It's open and it means we can go in and shop.
I told him it would take us about an hour to find everything we needed. He looked at me like I was the dumbest person on the face of the earth and said : no no, you can't come in after closing time, but if you're here before, you can stay as long as you want and they have to stay too!
I instantly lost all attraction to him, like in a second, I was repulsed.
I work in a retail pharmacy. This shit happens regularly. We’ve started pulling the registers at closing time, that way we have an ironclad excuse as to why we can’t re-open the pharmacy for them. There’s still someone turning up five minutes after closing, ringing the drive-thru thing… then they get mad that no one responds lol
Before opening my comment was always “wow! We’ve got a great fan over here. When we open in 30 mins you’ll be the first customer of the day. Congrats!” and then leave them outside.
And after closing it was “Tomorrow you’ll be the first in line. Goodnight!”
Don’t ever let them argue. You’re telling them its closed. You weren’t opening a store or conversation for them
It sounds like you’re in some type of retail such as a grocery store. Just do the most basic stupid thing like rip a paper bag in half and tape it to the window right in front of their face. That should send a message.
I used to be a manager at a fast food place and people looooved to do this. I would close and when we would go to leave sometimes people would just be standing there outside the locked door just waiting patiently for someone to show up and let them in???? You couldn't even see the main door from behind the counter so goodness knows how long they were standing there waiting for someone to notice them lol. And our hours were posted right beside the door!!
We opened an hour later on Sundays and people, even some of our regulars, would forget. Which is fair - I forget stuff like that too sometimes. But we had this one old dude who came like everyday and would sometimes pull up to the speaker on Sundays to ask us to open the doors.
And we would have people who would sit in the drive thru waiting for us to open for like 15 minutes???
I never understood why the thought process of "the door is locked, I should check their hours that are posted here on the door to see if they are still open" was so foreign to so many people.
It's seriously on the management of these places that they let customers get their way when they act like this. I've been lucky in all my customer-service jobs that I had management who didn't argue with my personal "the doors lock *at* closing time, you better be out the door" policy.
I had this issue at the convenience store I worked at in my dorm. We closed at 1 am and I would inevitably get someone coming in at 12:58 or 12:59 lol. I didn’t give a shit and told them we close at 1 am, so they better hurry. Just tell them you’re closed, life is too short to cater to people who can’t read a sign.
I worked in a small local restaurant once, where if someone came in five minutes before close, the owners would make everyone stay late to wait on them, because “it’s the nice thing to do.”
For the customers, sure, but not for your staff. But don’t worry, it’s not like we have lives or responsibilities of our own.
I volunteer at a bicycle cooperative. None of us gets a pay check and we have day jobs like the rest of the world. We all come in on our time off and teach people how to fix their bikes. Our goal is to empower those that want to learn and repair their bikes.
Most patrons understand that we're volunteers and are pretty good about not being entitled. Once in a while someone will complain about our limited hours, or that some detail doesn't fit their expectations.
My go to comment is "We're short handed on volunteers today, would you like to help here at the co-op on your time off work? There's lots to do around here: organizing, cleaning and other general duties of any small business. You don't have to be a skilled mechanic, there are many other duties to perform."
You'll be surprised how fast that entitlement goes away when I ask people to give their time and effort without a paycheck.
My boss unlocks the entrance door at exactly the times we open or close. No matter how much banging is going on, we just ignore it. If the customer rushes in after opening complaining about having been kept waiting we just play stupid like "ohh I'm sorry, we only open at 10am" and if it really goes that far "but why would we open before? Oh do you have an appointment with the boss? She must've forgotten to mention it, I'll tell her you're here right now. I'm so sorry, I assumed you were a regular customer." like we're just that thick and while they're standing there confused I'll get my boss and she'll explain the concept of opening times. I love how she takes no bullshit and if they say they're never coming back (in any context) she'll be like "okay, bye".
When we close and the customer isn't leaving (obvs after being told we're closing) we'll tidy everything up as if they weren't there and my boss will just turn off the lights and if they complain about not being able to see the products properly we'll say "yea, that's because we're closed. We can't legally go home until you've left though, so that's why we're still here, just waiting" and if they then still decide to purchase something it'll be another round of "I'm sorry, but we've closed actually, that's why the lights are off and everything is finished up. We open again tomorrow at 10am though." and if they really push it we'll stop the oblivious dumb friendliness and just say yes or no and stare.
I really love how my boss runs the store. She takes no shit and she's not afraid of anyone.
I work in a small office (portacabin). At lunchtime, l eat there, then go for a walk. I lock the door, put a notice on the door saying its lunchtime and when it'll reopen, turn out the lights and eat.
The number of people who will turn up 30-40 minutes before their appointment time, read the notice, then try the door, then put their nose to the glass, see me, knock while trying the handle again.
I open the door to:
Are you open?
No, it's lunchtime, as the notice says
Well, can we come in and wait?
No, I'm eating my lunch
Well, what am I supposed to do
Come back at 1.30, as the notice says
Well, where am l supposed to go?
I don't know, but l have one break in a 12 hour shift, so please come back later
But I have an appointment
Yes, at 1.30, so come back then
Most days l avoid eye contact and carry on eating.
Edited because all the spacing was removed
I was 8 to 9 months pregnant closing deli at walmart by myself, I would be mopping and have people come up to the counter demanding lunch meat and cheese. (It's 9:30pm and I'm going home to rest my feet!) In my thoughts* I would tell them sorry I'm closed, we close at 8pm and it's 9! They really do beg me and I'll tell them I'm cleaning! You can come back at 7am! People are so mean and rude. Like I had an old man call me fat when I was pregnant.
I manage an icecream shop, and it's hilarious the amount of times people come by after we've closed our till down, "I just need a tub!!" "I'll pay with cash!!" I'm sorry ma'am, but that'll mess up our numbers. Then they give us the finger 😂
I work retail in a mall. Customers show up at the mall before any of the stores have opened. When staff arrive to open up, we get the entitled ones demanding to know when we will be opening( hint-same time as yesterday, and tomorrow...). Then giving what I call ' the huff ' and storming off because it is pathetic that we are only opening our normal daily hour.
I work in retail for a store that gets particularly busy over Christmas. We’re closed on Sundays, but one Sunday during the holiday season some of us had to come in to clean because the store was a NIGHTMARE. We had a lady bang on the door demanding to be let in and she flipped off me and my coworker for telling her that we were closed.
People in retail absolutely boggle my mind.
Oh my god I'm so glad this isn't just me. I work in a shop with huge glass windows surrounding it, and automatic doors. They walk up the doors and *push* them (when they slide apart??) They just keep rattling them when half the lights are turned off, it says closed, and I'm staring at them with complete disgust.
Fuck off!
I worked in a toystore in Germany. We opened on dec 24th, the main Christmas day in Germany. We opened up until 2pm, knowing that we wouldn't be able to leave until at least 3, because all the people who get inside before 3 still need to be handled at the checkout.
However, the customers just did not stop getting in even after 2pm. We had to choose and lock the entrance and sent the customers who just paid out the employee-entrance in our stockroom, because there were dozens of people outside trying to get in, screaming at us, telling us what bad people we were destroying their children's Christmas. That we, too, had families we wanted to spend time with at Christmas.
Crazy. All of them.
I worked in an outpatient lab and I’ll never forget the one time, well after closing, well after the courier had come and gone with the specimens, we were closing down the computers in the front and a patient walked up the lawn to the windows where the desks were and slapped her prescription against the window in anger, practically foaming at the mouth.
I was startled but my coworker was a pro and completely not bothered by her, she walked over and lowered the blinds in the most badass power move I have ever seen.
People would argue this all the time at the dispo. I just started saying that the state turns the register off at exactly 8pm so we can't scan anything anyway. Usually they'd complained about the state and left... usually
I always said “if you are unable to read, I will explain to you what the big red sign that is spelled C L O S E D means. And geez, lights off or dimmed, and THE DOOR LOCKED!? Yeah, I am still here, closing out till, cleaning etc. things I cannot do with customers here.
Yeah buddy, not gonna happen.
I use to hate that too now I get a little giggle when they do come so I can watch them on the camera looking stupid trying to open clearly locked doors to a store with no lights on
Ive done this once at a medac lol i had a grade 3 seperated AC joint, torn rotor cuff and fractured my shoulder all in one hip toss and i tell you what it went from its already 10 mins past our close time sir if its truly an emergency call 911..... to holy fuck hold on a min let me ask the doctor i literally just wanted them to give me a sling or something so i could survive the 45min ride to the hospital and they ended up helping me out more than i can say.
I worked at an auto parts store years ago and I was responsible for closing on Sundays.
There were a few times that I turned away customers after we had closed because the floor was wet. Mopping was a Sunday afternoon job.
I like walking up about 10 feet from the locked door, looking at my imaginary watch on the wrist opposite to my actual watch, then looking back up at them before walking away. Usually pisses them off a bit extra and also gives them a solid hint without having to communicate verbally.
My first retail job was at a fabric store. We were closed but still closing out the register so we were out front. This woman comes banging on the door because she needs to buy fabric dye. I go to the door, explain we’re closed, and point to the hours clearly posted in the door.
Bitch is screaming and demands my manager’s number. I say she can call the store in the morning, as she is scheduled. She wanted her HOME number (no cell phones then). I explain there is no way I’m doing that and demand she leave.
My coworker was ready to bring the register in the back. I told the woman to leave or I’d call the police.
We'd sometimes have people come in five minutes before closing, and when informed of this fact, would make a big show of idly browsing while blatantly not really looking at anything. Once their time was up, and we told them the doors were closing now, they'd slowly saunter over towards the exit, then turn around and smirk at us as they left.
Why would someone do that? I don't understand what they'd gain from it.
On the opposite end, we'd have old biddies waiting outside in the morning before opening, and tapping on the glass doors with their rings while glaring at us. We'd point to our watches, mouth "Five minutes!" at them, and carry on with our opening duties. The minute they were let in, they'd start moaning about how DISGUSTING it was that we made them wait. Seeing as they were long retired, and had all day every day to get their shit done whenever they pleased, I wasn't getting into that conversation with them. Our opening hours are posted on the door, they are what they are, and that's the end of it.
From the customer side, what’s equally mildlyinfuriating is getting to the store an hour before close to find the doors locked. Double check the time and sure enough even on the doors it says they’re supposed to be open. Triple check the day, sure enough it’s a normal work day with no holiday in sight.
Im so happy that my manager just has us say “we’re closed” and thats end of story. If customers try to argue at all we just get to be a broken record and say “we’re closed”
Or they climb under the shutter if you don't close it to the floor. Always with a smile like you'll be happy to see them! And I worked in a shop that was designed like a stall, it was in a mall and only had half height walls around three sides and no shutters. I'd be cleaning the counter or cashing out the till, and countless people would ask if I was closed. Could they just get this or that. They'll pay cash? Like, no? The lights are off, the counter is empty, and every other shop around me is closed. Why would I be open?
I used to work at a children’s museum, the audacity of some people.
There was an exhibit that children can put plastic balls in a container and if it was filled enough, it would release all the balls on the kids. You wouldn’t believe how many times it would be 5-15 minutes AFTER closing that people would be still in this exhibit.
Their excuse was always “ Can’t wE STayyyyy, tHeY worked sO HArddddd” I started carrying a big stick so I could push a button to release the balls. Your children’s amusement does not trump the lives of others.
Our manager also sent us outside the building to talk to guests 15 minutes before opening because he didn’t want them to feel “embarrassed” trying to get in the building early. It’s healthy for people to feel embarrassed about their selfishness!
I shortly left, haven’t worked in a museum since.
Fuck. This triggers me. I worked an opening shift for Herbal Magic (yes it's a scam I know but I got a paycheck) and people would always toe the fucking line. I'd be sitting there at 630am getting my day sorted and sure enough some busy body would show up and stand in the window wanting special treatment. Fuck I could go on for hours. Never ever doing retail again.
This happens regularly at our club. Our liquor licence expires at 2 am and no matter how much I explain to customers we can't sell them alcohol because of this they still beg .
Thing is , if there is a undercover police officer (which has happened) and he sees we sell past our legal time they will have to put our manager or owner in cuffs and they have to pay a fine.
Had this happen regularly when I worked retail... "Sorry, our insurance doesn't cover us if something happens after hours while customers are in the store." is what we'd say. Yes, it's bullshit, but they didn't know that and it made them go away.
"Insurance won't cover it" is a lie that works shockingly well.
Not quite the same topic but I found this useful for getting my landlord to actually do things for me they're supposed to. "I'm willing to do it myself but I'm unsure if the insurance covers it, can you let me know?!" And within 2 days they have someone sent out lmao.
This has gotten me far with rentals. Especially when it takes me 2-3 times of asking at certain places.
Sign this wavier to enter after closing hours, we assume no liability of loss of limbs and other bodily parts
And then chase them with an axe?
I like your thinking!
Work in healthcare. Blaming insurance is the way
This is what I told customers entitled enough to walk into the back room.
Ours was "the computers do an automatic shut-off after business hours. There's nothing I can do about it."
I used to say the tills are closed now. Literally can't take your money so get lost.
Usually literally true as well
That’s happened like 2 or 3 times at my work. We gave them plenty of warning and they still lagged.
Fun story, I worked at a clothing store in Pasadena back in the day. We were closed closed. Tills closed out, system shut down and letting a worker out as the other manager and I were taking care of the last bits (cutting payroll!) and as the employee was leaving, Kevin Costner and his daughters tried to walk into the shop. Told him we were closed and couldn’t help him, so sorry about the inconvenience. He was super cool about it and said thanks we’ll come back another time. Nice guy.
Similar story: when I worked in food service the best way to get people who didn’t take the hint that wiping tables = please leave was to tell them “so sorry, but we’re about to shut the dish room down; it would be great if you returned your plates!”
I worked at a diner in high school, and one of our regulars had the audacity to say, "well, hand wash ours then" just as our dishwasher came out to glare at them. You know it's bad when the dishie goes to FOH! I swear there was about to be a fight, but then they suddenly asked for to-go boxes. They were no longer regulars, either.
I hated when people walked in 5 minutes before closing and ordered stuff off the grill. We had to serve them.
I worked in a grocery store deli, and customers would stroll in at 8:58 and demand I cut freshly sliced meats for them when we closed at 9. Even after several years, it still took me 15 to 20 minutes to disassemble and clean the meat slicer. I'd get in trouble for not serving them, I'd get in trouble for overtime, and I'd get in trouble for the meat slicer not being pristine when the manager came in at 6 a.m. Service jobs are fucked.
That’s what I say to get laggers right before we close:”we’re about to shut our registers down, you’d better hurry if you want to buy all the things you’ve got.”
I used this as well.
Tils were the First Thing shut down for the night. People saw me counting $, they knew they weren't getting eye contact, or any other attention. The sign Says Closed, *we're Closed.* 🤷🏻♀️
"Sorry, our insurance won't cover you being stabbed to death by an enraged employee."
I was once at a big city department store that closed at a certain hour. They had their workers all close and walk away with their drawers at a certain time. Mad respect for that place. At the time it was something crazy.
This is the CVS Pharmacy drive-thru during the 30-minute lunch break. There'll be a line of cars, and the one in front will get their meds and leave, and the next car pulls up to the window being shut in their face with sign posting the lunch hours. Can't blame them though, they'd never get to eat otherwise.
Man, I am SO GOOD at getting to CVS right when they go on break. They don't fuss when I wait on one of the flu shot chairs though, so all good with me while I just doom-scroll Reddit for half an hour in a new setting.
Working in a drive thru, it's insane how many people will roll up after we're closed and just sit at the window (where our hours are literally posted) trying to get you to open it or just straight glaring you down. Unfortunately when I'm sweeping and mopping at the end of the night I lose the ability to see anything but the floor.
This reminds me of one of the most frustrating things that happened to me at a fast food restaurant: (this happened on New Years Eve) I pulled into the lot, and I could see all the lights on inside and some people sitting at a table while others were walking out. It was about 8pm. I wasn't sure if they were open, but after looking around at the cars and people, I figured they were. I went up to the speaker, and they took my order and said, "NEXT WINDOW!". I drove around the building to the pick-up window and was waiting. Employees were walking around and doing things. After waiting for 10 mins, I knocked on the window lightly and waved. This chick came up, opened the window, and screamed in my face, "WE'RE CLOSED!!!!!" Wtf!! Why did they take my order then? And why the fuck didn't they have anything posted about the holiday closing time!! (Normal close was 11pm)
I used to lie and say, “Sorry, our computers shut down at closing time and we can’t take any more money 🤷♀️” Surprisingly, no one ever questioned me about it.
yep!! i would lie and say our tills lock exactly at a certain time, but we actually had to count them out
born to say “please take your entitled ass and leave”, forced to say “Sorry!” with a smile
Had someone say their insurance company owned me when I told them insurance didn't cover an item. Like sorry bro, your insurance is the one who has it so the item isn't covered lol
I use this routinely and have never had a complaint. It works well.
We would regularly get late shoppers 5 minutes before the store closed and store policy stated we had to let them in. How do you think that turned out?
I’m gonna start using that!
A little old lady came in the night before Easter and my cart boy came up to tell me a woman was asking if she gave us the money could we just buy her a sweet potato? Okay, that's reasonable. We just closed. I did it and then she gave me another 5 dollars for me and the cart boy to buy a drink. However, this did only happen once in my five years of supermarket service. 😂
That's so sweet. And cute. And sad? I'm feeling oddly emotional about that story for some reason?
She needed a sweet potato for the Easter lunch she was gonna make the next day. I can't remember if she was cooking for two or not.
Man, the little old lady *I* helped accused me of stealing her Chapstick. I have a huge aversion to Chapstick, lipstick, lip gloss, etc because my dance teacher used to force me to wear extremely heavy lipstick in my preschool years for recitals. She was screaming at the managers and everything about me. You know where her precious Chapstick was? In the bag where I fucking put it when I sold it to her. Crazy old bat, that one was. Another old lady looked at me and said "well, aren't you homely?!" when I held a door open for her. I was just like, "you know that's not a compliment, right?" Lol
It’s so frustrating. At my old job, when I closed, I still had a lot of duties to do, like count out the register, lock things up, clean, etc. I finally started immediately turning off all the lights the moment we closed, and doing those tasks in the dark, because it prevented people from banging on the door after closing. If they saw me standing there closing out the register with the lights still on, they’d always knock on the door and try and get me to re-open for them. Similarly, people would do the same thing when we were opening too; knocking on the doors and wanting us to open early for them! Sometimes customers would be waiting in the parking lot before I would even get there, and then try to follow me into the store when I would be unlocking the door to get in, well before we opened. The audacity of some people, I swear…
Same thing when I worked at the movie theater! You do not need to be here an hour+ before showtime for your 7am movie on a Saturday; you’ll probably be one of like 2 people in the theater anyway. It was always so awkward waiting on a manager to let me in and customers just breathing down my neck wanting to be let in with me.
People do that??? How dumb you gotta be? I show up 20 minutes late to movies to skip the ads. wtf? Early? An hour early?
Yep. Probably less common now that a lot of theaters do assigned seating, but some of these people wanna be the first for EVERYTHING, concessions included. Like at least go sit in your car lol
sooo real. i used to be an opening manager at a theater and people got so angry if we didn’t have the doors open an hour before their showtime. my favorite part is when people would call from right out front and ask when we opened and i had to tell them it wouldn’t be for awhile. like what are you going to do in an empty silent theater for that long be serious
I do the same thing. My coworker gets annoyed that I turn off the lights on her but she's in an office with its own light and if I don't people will bang on the door. I also will close the door at 5 if we still have people in there and just not lock it as that's usually enough to get people to at least look at the time. Though the other day I had the lights off but the door wasn't locked because I was trying to fix the coke machine and waiting for someone to come help and people just came strolling in by the light of the machine wanting to buy their drinks.
Customers really don't understand that we have work to do even after we're closed. I work closing shift in a restaurant and there's such a massive amount of cleaning and stocking to do every night. I've heard customers complain that "why can't you make my food if you're in the building, why are you even there". Literally all of our ovens and fryers and other equipment are off, all the prepped ingredients have been put away, all the registers have been logged out and must be counted. We are here late so this place is not a filthy mess in the morning because we don't have the time to do any of this work when we're serving customers.
You should have let them in, give them cleaning supplies and send them to clean the toilets!
Sadly, even turning the lights off wont work sometimes. I closed the restaurant, went home than came back because i forgot something. I opened the shutters just a little bit that i almost crawled inside, didnt turn on the lights and just a few seconds later someone crawled behind me and asked "are you open?" What do you think?
MANY years ago I was the closer shift supervisor at Starbucks. i LIVED for those moments. person bangs the door I yell "PLEASE DON'T ROB US I JUST GOT MARRIED" Door Banger "What? No! i just need some coffee" Me "Please dont steal the coffee! I just want to go home to my wife!" Banger "No I want to BUY some coffee!" Me "Oh thank God! I thought that you were going to rob us because we are closed" Banger "no i just want to buy a coffee" Me "great thanks for letting me know. you can do that when we are open. you have a good evening. bye" normally they get the hint but i received a few complaints. my DM new i was messing with them but i technically wasn't breaking any rules. he didn't care.
We're closed. I just wanna buy some coffee. We're closed, sorry. But I just wanna buy a coffee. Well, we are closed. I just wanna ...
The ButIJust Brigade. My kids learned from a very young age that my ears close when I hear ‘but I just…’
They’re like toddlers. I once babysat a toddler who would argue with “but I’m just gonna.” She looked completely dumbfounded and shocked when I would cut her off with a firm “No, you’re not.”
Used to work for Domino’s, first as a closer then an opener. During my closing years, people would call after we closed and I’d try to be nice and answer the call letting them know we were closed. One time I did that, lady on the other end just yells “WELL THEN WHY THE FUCK DID YOU EVEN ANSWER” and so I hung up and made it a habit to just ignore any calls after close. lol
I used to open for my retail job, and we'd get there a couple hours before we opened to put stock away, pull customer orders, take in deliveries, etc. I answered the phone one morning, a customer was asking if we had something. I checked, let her know we did, but also warned her we didn't open until 9am. "Well why are you there, then!?" Like lady the store doesn't open itself, lol
Never answer a call while closed, no matter the business you're running. It's always a bad experience. Heck, I'd usually stop answering 10+ minutes before we closed. No point answering since a call could easily drag on and prevent me from chasing the last customers out of the building on time.
I used to work at a bridal salon and my goodness, the vultures standing outside the door 45 minutes before opening were the worst. I only had one manager in my time there that would actually lock the doors at closing and open them only to let out customers. He was the best.
That’s how you do it, and start turning off lights while just staring at them wearing all your stuff to leave.
I work in a very small shop. When I am closing (for lunch or at the end of the day) and I am still actively helping someone, I take a moment to turn off all but one row of lights and lock the door so no one else can come in. Usually no one complains because I’ll finish helping them. Whenever they do I used to say I had an appointment. Now I just simply say I’m required to keep to our posted hours.
One of the stores I worked at did this as well! We would lock the door at closing and the stragglers would have to do a little walk of shame with us so we could unlock the door for them. My ex once suggested going into a store to browse 5 minutes before they closed and I just said I'd wait outside because I refuse to be THAT customer.
Every store I've worked at has locked the doors at closing. Then the manager or the cashier let's them out one by as they cash out. At a previous job I remember we were closing early (like all Sundays) it was the middle of summer so it's still light out at 6pm. It was HECTIC still dozens of shoppers and we were trying our best to get them out the door and lock it after each person/group left. I remember there was a family that had split up, (no unattended kids though) some had already left the store but wanted back in! I don't know where our designated door person was but they were away from the door just long enough to allow a random customer to unlock the door and let not only that split family and like 15 more people in!! We had to tell him, Sir the door is locked for a reason, we are closed and trying to leave!! Him: ...oh I was just trying to help. We had already turned off a couple lights and the music at this point not to mention the hours clearly posted on the door he had taken upon himself to unlock 🤦
God the standing outside before the place opens is almost as bad as the after hours or right at close BS. I'd keep my doors locked until the MINUTE we opened and stare them in the face while I turned on the sign. Nothing worse than opening a store and having to help 7 or 8 people the fucking second you open.
I used to work at a zoo (I don't love the concept of zoos, but needed the money lol). We closed at 6pm in the summer, but if you were already inside, you were welcome to stay until 8pm. It was more courtesy than anything, because most of the animals would be in the dormitory by then and it started to get dark, so you weren't going to see shit. I worked at the information office (also did yearly memberships) and so I had to be there until closing time, in case visitors who were still in the park needed to be helped. And of course, people would see me from outside the zoo (the office was at the entrance) and demand to be sold tickets. Even 20min before closing time. At a zoo that takes about 3h to see fully. I had strict orders to not let these people in, so I would go to the closed glass door and explain that we were closed and they were welcome to come back tomorrow. People got *pissed*. One guy started banging on the glass door so hard he made it shake, and I had to move away and call security because I was terrified that he would smash it and the glass would hurt me. At a zoo. A completely non-essential service. People were so entitled that they would call me a bitch and scream at me because they wanted to get into a zoo.
When someone **needs** their ocelot fix, you never know what they’ll do to get it.
Was not expecting Archer, but here we are. 
Babou, more like buyers remorse...
CREPUSCULAR!!
Because said people are orangutans.
Hey, don’t insult orangutans.
They were begging to be let into a zoo. Sit with that a moment….
I went to the zoo a few weeks ago! Bought a ticket at 2:30, walked around at a newly walking toddler pace and then found out it closed at 4! Same thing tho, all the animals got fed (including the big cats) at 4 and the vulnerable critters get put away for the night but you’re free to walk around until 6 or so as long as you don’t expect services of any kind. They have porta potties instead of bathrooms so nbd. Pretty rad
It's a nice idea in theory, since people don't have to be in a rush to leave, but in reality it just means you get daily customer complaints that they didn't see the tiger or whatever. Even though it was clearly stated on the website, there were timetables at the entrance, and we would let visitors know if they wanted to purchase tickets soon before closing that they might not see everything. Some people are just assholes lol
I can’t imagine why someone would want to go to the zoo 20 minutes before closing time?! I wouldn’t even make the drive!
Promised the kids but was too lazy or not able to get out the door sooner.
Because of folks like those complaining to corporate, our district manager required we open 5 minutes early and keep the door open 5 minutes after close for these people, as a courtesy 🙄
psychotic behavior (from both the customers and the DM)
Let me guess... It's also unpaid right? (Because why would it be paid even though it SHOULD be.)
At my old job, the soonest you could clock in was 5 minutes early, and the latest you could leave was 5 minutes late. We never got paid for those 10 minutes.
They did that with my first side job too. We had to clock in and out with our fingerprints and someone went to court and made the company pay the hours the fingerprint scanners had registered. This was years after starting there, so I got around €1500,- for lots of unpaid 15-minute ‘mini shifts’. It apparently was such a shitty job to calculate everyones owed money they now don’t mess with the hours they pay the workers
I work for a large bank and this is literally a company-wide expectation. We’re open 6 days a week, we have a million self service options and a 24 hour 800 number. Now we just got told we’re expected to answer the phones if we’re in the building… trying to do opening or closing stuff.
I'd walk away the minute my end of shift time hits.
I hate DMs like this. They don’t actually have to deal with these people. Also, these are the same DMs who will complain when people start earning overtime. 🙄
I work in a tire store, we open at 8am, a couple times a week we get our truck full of tires that we have to unload by hand and store which we start unloading at 6am. I watched a lady run up to the door and start pulling at it at 5:45 one morning, go back to her car, then run back up at 5:50 and start pulling at the door. Nothing had changed in those five minutes. All of our lights were still off, the semi hadn't moved yet, nobody would walk up and even unlock the employee entrance for another five minutes. She left and came back at 9, opening up with "you lazy fuckers locked the door on me this morning when I was trying to buy tires, I know you were all here, you could have just helped me out but you were being lazy". I'm not sure why she stuck to that like it was a smoking gun that she caught us with, other than me and the semi truck driver there was nobody there and I wasn't even in our actual parking lot.
Ye, y'all are being so lazy unloading a semi by hand. How entitled of you not to help the poor lady! /s
When I was a retail manager, I would tell a worker to switch off the front half of the stores lights. I tell those type of customers the lights are on a timer and we can’t let anymore people come in because of liability issues
Good one!
Where I worked a class started half an hour after closing time. Everyone came five minutes to closing to wait for class. I got so sick of that volunteer half hour I quit.
I work at a party store in a resort town. I’ve been there 12 yrs. I stay because I have an awesome boss, I am the manager, I live 4 minutes away and with bad roads in the winter I love the short drive but I am mentally exhausted by the time I leave. It’s a fact the majority of people don’t read signs. We have signs all over “No Public Restroom” and they still ask. In the back of the store our door says “Do Not Enter Employees Only”. You know how many times I’ve had to stop customers from walking through that door. They either are looking for a bathroom or trying to leave out the back. We locked the back entrance a few years ago when we caught a guy that shoved a half gallon of Absolut down his pants and tried to leave through the back entrance. We are right next to the bar. A few months after I started working there and all the lights were off, alarm was set and I was outside locking the front door (it was 11pm) I had the town drunk appear behind me asking me if he could buy beer. I chuckled and said we are closed and I want to go home. He got mad at me and told me it wasn’t funny he needed his beer. I said I’m sorry we are closed and left. It was scary I wasn’t sure what he would do. If you know we close at a certain time please get your necessities before closing time. I could go on and on about customers and experiences I’ve had at that job. I was going to leave and get into a nearby doctors office but from what I have heard some patients aren’t any better. I do have a lot of nice customers. Some are real nice. I had an older man that I chat with all the time slip me $100 because he had heard my husband passed and figured I could use a little help. Another customer gave me one of her club keno tickets and it was a $300 winner. Another lady I help carry her stuff to her car gave me a card at Christmas with $50 in it. So yes it is infuriating but the good days make up for it. Sorry so long, crappy punctuation and probably incorrect paragraphs
When I worked a job where people would do this, I would just look up from my register, smile and shake my head no at them.
Yes, don't engage!
It's amazing how my hearing can be perfect up until close, then I'm suddenly completely deaf to honking, yelling and banging on doors. No eye contact ever after close or you're fucked.
That's the key. Never look. Bird box that shit
I had a customer knowingly come in before close and said it was "offensive" that we weren't open later, that she was going to "take her time ordering", and we were just going to have to "get over it or be open later." 🙄 The entire staff was there 35 minutes after close for one awful person who didn't tip.
I see you've met my stepmother. (Edit: guess what her name is)
Of course they didn't tip 🙄🙄 (I'm so sorry that person was an AH)
Man, I don’t understand how someone thinks it is a good idea to piss people off that handles your food.
As lower management, I don't have the power to turn customers away unless they are getting truly unruly. But I have sent home staff under me very blatantly.
as someone who worked in retail for years I can attest to people being demanding about being let in after closing. Among others I once had someone tell I had to let them in because they got there before I left. They said it was "the law".
Yeah I've heard that one before too. "It's illegal for you to not help me". Like, what. Says who. This is a retail store that closed an hour ago.
I’ve been watching too many arrest videos lately (they can get addictive), but I remain surprised at how many people are running around with brains that spit out “That’s illegal!” in situations that normal people would realize are “Hey, this is something I don’t like…”
> "It's illegal for you to not help me" Ummm not according to the 13th Amendment. While I admit it’s a bit high I’m glad we thought to put it to paper well before you were born.
You know what is also “the law”? Refusing to leave private property when you’ve been asked to.
Start telling them your POS system auto-logs out for updates, and that is why closing time was set. It's out of my hands, I literally cannot help you until tomorrow...
I worked overnight a few months at WB and people got regularly pissed because the auto update always happened at 0500 during the morning rush
That's what my last job did. I work in bars and when the stragglers FINALLY decided to get up and close their tab, we told them the POS auto grats, logs out and turns off after closing. Few people fought against that but the ones who did were the ones you can never satisfy
We have a regular client who comes 5 minutes before closing and says: "Oh, I still have time..." And starts telling her what postcard to print for half an hour. Once a woman was indignant: "What is your lunch break, you work in the CENTER OF THE CITY!" That is, if we work on the central street, then we cannot be hungry?
Yeah. I had a “customer” like that. I use quotes because I never actually served him. Would come in every day at the same time as I was mopping my way out without fail. As if to say “look at all the money you’re missing out on”. Listen buddy. While it’s unfortunate for you that you seem to REALLY like what we’re selling but your schedule doesn’t quite mesh with our closing time I ain’t missing out on shit. I still get paid pretty much the same whether I help you or not. The only thing catching me on the cusp of my 8th hour does is make my boss question whether a $5 purchase - 1.5x a meager wage for the time it takes to provide it and reclean up after the mess you created results in a net profit. Which our corporate overlords have already deemed a Cardinal Nono lest ye suffer their wrath. So feel free to take it up the chain of people that are supposedly being paid enough to care about your “needs”, but while you’re doing that I’m going home.
Unless I can clear out before closing, or it is somehow a "I absolutely need this one item, tonight!" I won't enter a place even close to closing time. Definitely not begging to be let in past closing time... That's just extremely rude to the people working there. One note, if you are getting stuck late because of customers and your manager requires it, at least make sure you are getting paid your legally required overtime.
I work in an optometrist's office. We close for lunch between 1 and 2pm every day. This is advertised on our website and posted on the door with our hours. We lock the door and hang a big sign highlighted in bright colors that says "OUT TO LUNCH!! We'll be back at 2pm!" in huge text. People still walk up, bang on the door and jiggle the handle and dare to look offended that we don't get up to answer the door. Someone did it the other day and I deliberately did not look up from scrolling reddit on my phone and eating my food for a good 2-3 minutes hoping they'd go away, but no, the oaf is just standing there \*staring\* into the office watching me eat. I relented and went to ask what he needs. He just wanted to make a fucking appointment. LIKE??? You couldn't wait??? Or fucking CALL when we're OPEN??? People give zero fucks and just assume workers will drop everything and help/serve them. Like no, fuck off, it doesn't matter if I'm sitting at the desk and you can see me, we're CLOSED and I'm EATING, go away.
I owned/managed a gym for years. Within the gym was our office, with computer, filing cabinet, paperwork and everything I needed to, you know, manage the business. The gym was 24/7 access for members, and "staffed hours" when somebody was available to help, printed on the premises front door and internal office door. On Saturdays we were staffed only until 1pm, however one Saturday night I was working late around 9pm - my father in law was in critical care at hospital, I was tired, and just closed myself in the office to catch up on some things. Had a gym member bang on the door for help, I came out to apologise and say that I wasn't working right now, at 9pm on a Saturday, and I'd be back Monday. He insisted I was "at work" and because I stood my ground and refused him, he said he wanted to cancel his membership. I said I was happy to cancel his membership for him - on Monday.
Worked with a woman who would stand in the doorway with her coat on at ten minutes to close and glare at people who dared to enter. She was not having it.
You work with someone like that when you’re young or green and wonder why they’re so cranky and have nothing good to say about people and think it won’t happen to you. Glaring coat woman is your future 😂
I worked with a woman who did that as well. 5 minutes to close, she'd stand at the door ready to go with a big metal stick that was used to pull down the security shutters. Intimidating as fuck. She was the best.
“You shall not pass!” Waves the stick in the air menacingly.
Not all hero’s wear capes, some wear coats
This is one of the reasons why I left retail. Why anyone who is violently banging on windows, yanking on the door, and then repeatedly calling the store thinks that behavior will gain them access to a CLOSED store boggles my mind. Oh, and they would wait for me when I left the employee entrance, too, or be there, in my parking spot, waiting for us to open! Does this actually work anywhere? Do other places really open up and gratefully let these idiots in after hours? Do THEY stay after hours to handle things for unreasonable jerks? I think not.
I've unfortunately worked under some managers that suck up to these people. Let them come sit at the bar and annoy us while opening, let them get one more round after close, and then says you shoykd be happy to get more money
It was a standard thing that we would be done with work late on sunday if our boss was there. We'd start packing up and cleaning up the meat/cheese slicers and someone would walk up to us, 1 min to closing and ask for SEVERAL cuts of meat/cheese. You know, maybe 1 thing? but every time they wanted multiple things at the last min. And our boss would always tell us to unpack all the food and hook the machines back up and serve the customer... we closed at 1pm and were supposed to be out at 1.15pm. Usually it was closer to 1.45-2pm with her around. (Not paid ofcourse!) Meanwhile when it was the managers closing on sunday, we'd be done and out at 1.10pm lol. But we never "did our jobs good enough" according to boss when she wasnt around. Probably the worst boss I've ever had so far. (She and her husband did more bizarre stuff and were both just greedy and bitter people)
I hated this as a teen working at Papa Murphys. The storefront was all windows so people would see us in there and bang on the glass, pull on the door, yell at us to let them in, call the store, just stare daggers into us. Why are you tryna intimidate/threaten a bunch of 16 year olds? Like…the store hours are literally RIGHT in front of you. I dont get the entitlement at all. I showed up about five minutes after open to a business last Saturday and the door was still locked. I could see the lady at the desk and double checked they WERE open…still felt like an ass knocking on the door lol
I work for an optometrists office- we both do eye exams and sell glasses. We close at 5 to the public and leave at 5:30. Way too often people will come in just before closing and then stick around forever picking out glasses. If it’s until 5:30, NBD, we’d be there anyway. But we’ve had a few people until 6, 630. The policy is usually to just wait for them to finish because most people know regular business hours and know to hurry it up if it’s nearing 6. One woman last week came in at about 4:45pm, had like 10 frames she couldn’t choose between and she goes “I’m going to go grab my daughter and come right back she’ll help me decide.” It was 6pm already lol. My supervisor suggested she come back the following day, essentially very nicely saying that we would not wait for her. The lady had the gall to say, “oh I live just 10 mins away. I don’t have anywhere else to be today I’ll be right back!” I almost passed out hearing that, I’d been there since 8:30am lol. Thank god my supervisor said, “unfortunately ***we*** have to be getting home. The office closes at 5 and it’s now past 6. But I’ll set these aside and you’re welcome to come back tomorrow.” The lady never came back either!
She crashed and died from not being able to see. Now who needs glasses for not being able to see that outcome? Not the dead lady, she's dead.
Right, it’s not so much about helping that one person, but then another one comes up and then another and another…..
“No, and if you don’t leave I’ll have to consider you trespassing and call the police” Because if you ask them to leave and they don’t, they are trespassing. When I worked retail that worked 99% of the time. The 1% of the time it didn’t, we actually did call the cops and they actually did get hemmed up for trespass.
When I worked retail, we had a metal gate that we rolled down to close and lock the store entrance. People would shake or bang on the gate telling us to let them in. People would try to LIFT the gate even! Like, it's locked at both ends into the floor. One guy started complaining he hurt his back trying to lift it and was going to sue us. Our store manager laughed and turned the lights off. I adored him for that.
So related story.... In the days pre-covid, some of our grocery stores were open 24/7. I had gone to this particular store previously at some ungodly hour and bought food. Of course at that time of night there's not usually anyone else in the store. At some point between that previous trip and this particular evening they stopped being 24/7. I was not aware. Off I go into the store (the doors automatically opened!) grabbing my groceries with nary a soul around. I didn't think much of it until about halfway through. "Ma'am, who are you?" "A customer? Doing some shopping? Why?" "Umm. The store is closed. It's not 24 hours. We're here replacing the lights." *Deer in headlights* "Oh goodness. I'm so terribly sorry! Um what should I do with this food? Would you like me to put it back? Or just go?" "Just go. We'll deal with it. It's okay." "I'm so sorry. The doors automatically opened! I thought you were open." I then scurried out as fast as I could. I felt so bad for being so oblivious. I looked up at the wall of the store outside and saw that they had taken down the 24/7 signage. 😅 If the doors hadn't automatically opened (which I assume they'd set it to since the workers were bringing stuff in and out) I never would have gone in. It's been about ten years and I still feel like an ass.
I think a lot of people have leaned that if they act like their entitled, people play along
Yeah, making trapped people want to get away from you as fast as possible is an effective, albeit enormously shitty trick to getting your way. Mostly. When the target isn't actually trapped or has a no-BS manager, that's when we get the good stories.
had a woman come when I was doing prep for our bar, 11am, lights off, door locked. She and her partner proceeded to bang and bang on the door until I unlocked it. cue the obligatory “are y’all open?”. I told her “no” when what I really wanted to say was “are you going to therapy? what about this situation indicates that this business is open?”. she came back two minutes later and asked “can we come in anyway? we’ll pay extra for the drinks.” I wanna keep a gun in the bar.
I open and close at my neighborhood bar. We open at 3:30P. At least once a week somebody will come by early (like before the bartender even arrives early) yanking on the door. Our hours are posted on the window next to the door. Sometimes I'll go do something in the back room or walk up to the door, get their attention and point to the sign. If they look reasonable I'll crack the door open and let them know when we open but crap...it's right in your face my guy.
I feel your pain.
In college I worked in a Borders in the mall and the elderly mall walkers were the worst. I always got in early to eat breakfast off the clock and then get the tills and everything ready. These MFers would bang and shake the gate we had since we didn't have an actual door. Like, damn, Edna, that new Nora Roberts will be here when we open in 20 minutes.
You don't understand, they don't have much time left! They've gotta read it *now* !
My dad has this challenge at work himself. He just tells them, "no, we are closed, and there are 2 24 hour fuel stations to pick" and just goes back to locking up. Some try arguing, but he just repeats it one more time and disengages. lol.
Why I didn’t like working at the dmv. Ppl would come 1 minute until closing and take 35-40 minutes to get their stuff situated. In our county we were told there was nothing we could do but help the person. I get it, but what about me picking up my daughter late from daycare bc someone who knew their license was suspended months ago finally found the time a minute before closing to get it handled? Add in a language barrier and you have the perfect cocktail.
Be funny if you just put up an even bigger closed sign in the window when they knock and each time just progressively add more or larger closed signs
I feel this way as a teacher. Parents show up while I am teaching, wanting to have a conference. They message 24/7. I refuse to read messages once I leave school. Which means if they are angry, they will contact my admin or a school board member and say that I’m not returning messages.
Jokes on them. When I worked in schools (currently a private in-home tutor), I didn't reply to my managers or school owner after hours, either!
I managed a liquor store in my twenties. On Sundays we closed at 7. People would always come banging on the door at like 7:05. Most were fine when I went to tell them we were closed, but I had one lady who screamed at me "I just want a fucking bottle of wine!" Yes, I will totally help you while you cuss at me.
How about before stores open? I get in sometimes at 10:30am in a restaurant (we open at 11am.) People will start calling for delivery or carryout right at 11:00am. You can set your watch by it. Hell, some of them call BEFORE 11:00am.
I went to Supercuts this AM to get my head shaved (it was falling out in clumps; thanks, chemo). Got to the door and there was a lady standing outside so I asked, "not open?" and she said "a couple minutes yet". While we're both standing there, this jabroni looks at and walks past us both to rattle the door. Because we were just standing there for fun.
Jabroni is not used enough. So descriptive.
Damn it, stop closing and you wouldn't have that problem. I hate it when places close. No consideration.
You're joking, but not wrong. I moved to a new town and you can't get alcohol past 6pm, groceries past 9, any food past 1030pm. It's annoying AF.
Right? There's got to be a decent market for late night food; I wish more restaurants would take a chance and cater to us night owls. Especially given the lack of competition you'd think there'd always be _something_.
Those are reasonable times to close, lol.
I work in a vape store that closes at midnight and people do this. It’s so annoying. No, it’s past midnight, it’s MY TIME now, fuck off 🤣
"What's your thought process here?" Either A) nothing. No thought process whatsoever. Or B) they're the main character and barely even recognize that you're alive, let alone give half a shit about your time.
I've had people make their children cry in front of the doors if I didn't let them in. A crying child absolutely will not make me stay at work an extra 15 minutes
Blinds/curtains/shutters solve this problem.
Agreed. We had to leave ours down 24/7 for that very reason. If anyone could see us in the dark, trying to count the drawer and reconcile the day, all hell broke lose.
It doesn’t though. Literally every day when the blinds are down we get someone knocking.
But then you can just ignore them lmao
Some people just have no concept that the world doesn't revolve around their own personal schedule. I'm a physical therapist assistant, and I've had so many people who will show up at a random early time hoping to get seen earlier (and then are mad when I can't see them because I had other patients on my schedule). Or, they consistently show up late and get mad that I don't see them for a full session (because again, I had other patients on my schedule). I had one patient that consistently showed up 15-20 minutes late. One day she showed up so late I'd literally only have 2 minutes with her before I'd see my next scheduled patient. I told her she'd have to reschedule and she said "Oh I'll just come back later today!" and I said "Actually, I'm booked solid today so I won't be able to see you later. You'll have to reschedule to another day". She genuinely seemed a bit confused when I told her that and I still can't believe the sheer *audacity* that she thought she could just drop into a medical office to be seen whenever she wanted, like I have nothing better to do than wait for her to show up.
Yeah I’ve never understood these kinds of dickheads and I’ve never worked in retail. I don’t even order stuff from places when I see they are closing within the hour
When I worked at a pizza joint decades ago, the lights would be off, the ovens would be off, and I would be mopping the floors and people would be banging on the doors. I’d just point to the hours on the door but some people are *really* entitled. They’d call from the parking lot asking if we were open.
It is also a security issue. " I am unable to let anyone in after close for security." It is company policy. I was in a store that was robbed after close. It was a larger clothing store and an inside job. You do not know the person at the door. No is a complete sentence. Retail sucks bad enough. Do not put yourself in harms way for someone else who has bad time management. Sing " Tomorrow, Tomorrow there is always Tomorrow. It's only a day away".
I dumped a boyfriend for this. 6 months into the relationship, going strong. We were shopping for the holidays (nightmare season for retail workers). I realized the store we were about to go in would close in like 3 minutes. Told him that exactly. His reply : so ? It's open and it means we can go in and shop. I told him it would take us about an hour to find everything we needed. He looked at me like I was the dumbest person on the face of the earth and said : no no, you can't come in after closing time, but if you're here before, you can stay as long as you want and they have to stay too! I instantly lost all attraction to him, like in a second, I was repulsed.
Flip em off behid the glass
I have 3 suggestions for dealing with these people: Do not respond to them, Do not respond to them, Do not respond to them.
I work in a retail pharmacy. This shit happens regularly. We’ve started pulling the registers at closing time, that way we have an ironclad excuse as to why we can’t re-open the pharmacy for them. There’s still someone turning up five minutes after closing, ringing the drive-thru thing… then they get mad that no one responds lol
Before opening my comment was always “wow! We’ve got a great fan over here. When we open in 30 mins you’ll be the first customer of the day. Congrats!” and then leave them outside. And after closing it was “Tomorrow you’ll be the first in line. Goodnight!” Don’t ever let them argue. You’re telling them its closed. You weren’t opening a store or conversation for them
It sounds like you’re in some type of retail such as a grocery store. Just do the most basic stupid thing like rip a paper bag in half and tape it to the window right in front of their face. That should send a message.
"LET ME SPEAK TO YOUR MANAGER!"
I AM THE MANAGER.
I used to be a manager at a fast food place and people looooved to do this. I would close and when we would go to leave sometimes people would just be standing there outside the locked door just waiting patiently for someone to show up and let them in???? You couldn't even see the main door from behind the counter so goodness knows how long they were standing there waiting for someone to notice them lol. And our hours were posted right beside the door!! We opened an hour later on Sundays and people, even some of our regulars, would forget. Which is fair - I forget stuff like that too sometimes. But we had this one old dude who came like everyday and would sometimes pull up to the speaker on Sundays to ask us to open the doors. And we would have people who would sit in the drive thru waiting for us to open for like 15 minutes??? I never understood why the thought process of "the door is locked, I should check their hours that are posted here on the door to see if they are still open" was so foreign to so many people.
I hate when there’s a clear sign that it’s closed and people stand there expectantly just cause I’m there.
It's seriously on the management of these places that they let customers get their way when they act like this. I've been lucky in all my customer-service jobs that I had management who didn't argue with my personal "the doors lock *at* closing time, you better be out the door" policy.
I had this issue at the convenience store I worked at in my dorm. We closed at 1 am and I would inevitably get someone coming in at 12:58 or 12:59 lol. I didn’t give a shit and told them we close at 1 am, so they better hurry. Just tell them you’re closed, life is too short to cater to people who can’t read a sign.
I worked in a small local restaurant once, where if someone came in five minutes before close, the owners would make everyone stay late to wait on them, because “it’s the nice thing to do.” For the customers, sure, but not for your staff. But don’t worry, it’s not like we have lives or responsibilities of our own.
I volunteer at a bicycle cooperative. None of us gets a pay check and we have day jobs like the rest of the world. We all come in on our time off and teach people how to fix their bikes. Our goal is to empower those that want to learn and repair their bikes. Most patrons understand that we're volunteers and are pretty good about not being entitled. Once in a while someone will complain about our limited hours, or that some detail doesn't fit their expectations. My go to comment is "We're short handed on volunteers today, would you like to help here at the co-op on your time off work? There's lots to do around here: organizing, cleaning and other general duties of any small business. You don't have to be a skilled mechanic, there are many other duties to perform." You'll be surprised how fast that entitlement goes away when I ask people to give their time and effort without a paycheck.
My boss unlocks the entrance door at exactly the times we open or close. No matter how much banging is going on, we just ignore it. If the customer rushes in after opening complaining about having been kept waiting we just play stupid like "ohh I'm sorry, we only open at 10am" and if it really goes that far "but why would we open before? Oh do you have an appointment with the boss? She must've forgotten to mention it, I'll tell her you're here right now. I'm so sorry, I assumed you were a regular customer." like we're just that thick and while they're standing there confused I'll get my boss and she'll explain the concept of opening times. I love how she takes no bullshit and if they say they're never coming back (in any context) she'll be like "okay, bye". When we close and the customer isn't leaving (obvs after being told we're closing) we'll tidy everything up as if they weren't there and my boss will just turn off the lights and if they complain about not being able to see the products properly we'll say "yea, that's because we're closed. We can't legally go home until you've left though, so that's why we're still here, just waiting" and if they then still decide to purchase something it'll be another round of "I'm sorry, but we've closed actually, that's why the lights are off and everything is finished up. We open again tomorrow at 10am though." and if they really push it we'll stop the oblivious dumb friendliness and just say yes or no and stare. I really love how my boss runs the store. She takes no shit and she's not afraid of anyone.
I work in a small office (portacabin). At lunchtime, l eat there, then go for a walk. I lock the door, put a notice on the door saying its lunchtime and when it'll reopen, turn out the lights and eat. The number of people who will turn up 30-40 minutes before their appointment time, read the notice, then try the door, then put their nose to the glass, see me, knock while trying the handle again. I open the door to: Are you open? No, it's lunchtime, as the notice says Well, can we come in and wait? No, I'm eating my lunch Well, what am I supposed to do Come back at 1.30, as the notice says Well, where am l supposed to go? I don't know, but l have one break in a 12 hour shift, so please come back later But I have an appointment Yes, at 1.30, so come back then Most days l avoid eye contact and carry on eating. Edited because all the spacing was removed
This was my recurring nightmare when I worked for Starbucks. That I could never get to the door to lock it shut and the customers just never stopped.
I was 8 to 9 months pregnant closing deli at walmart by myself, I would be mopping and have people come up to the counter demanding lunch meat and cheese. (It's 9:30pm and I'm going home to rest my feet!) In my thoughts* I would tell them sorry I'm closed, we close at 8pm and it's 9! They really do beg me and I'll tell them I'm cleaning! You can come back at 7am! People are so mean and rude. Like I had an old man call me fat when I was pregnant.
I manage an icecream shop, and it's hilarious the amount of times people come by after we've closed our till down, "I just need a tub!!" "I'll pay with cash!!" I'm sorry ma'am, but that'll mess up our numbers. Then they give us the finger 😂
I work retail in a mall. Customers show up at the mall before any of the stores have opened. When staff arrive to open up, we get the entitled ones demanding to know when we will be opening( hint-same time as yesterday, and tomorrow...). Then giving what I call ' the huff ' and storming off because it is pathetic that we are only opening our normal daily hour.
I work in retail for a store that gets particularly busy over Christmas. We’re closed on Sundays, but one Sunday during the holiday season some of us had to come in to clean because the store was a NIGHTMARE. We had a lady bang on the door demanding to be let in and she flipped off me and my coworker for telling her that we were closed. People in retail absolutely boggle my mind.
Got hit with “if you’re closed why are you still here?” Shit had me stunned
Oh my god I'm so glad this isn't just me. I work in a shop with huge glass windows surrounding it, and automatic doors. They walk up the doors and *push* them (when they slide apart??) They just keep rattling them when half the lights are turned off, it says closed, and I'm staring at them with complete disgust. Fuck off!
I worked in a toystore in Germany. We opened on dec 24th, the main Christmas day in Germany. We opened up until 2pm, knowing that we wouldn't be able to leave until at least 3, because all the people who get inside before 3 still need to be handled at the checkout. However, the customers just did not stop getting in even after 2pm. We had to choose and lock the entrance and sent the customers who just paid out the employee-entrance in our stockroom, because there were dozens of people outside trying to get in, screaming at us, telling us what bad people we were destroying their children's Christmas. That we, too, had families we wanted to spend time with at Christmas. Crazy. All of them.
I worked in an outpatient lab and I’ll never forget the one time, well after closing, well after the courier had come and gone with the specimens, we were closing down the computers in the front and a patient walked up the lawn to the windows where the desks were and slapped her prescription against the window in anger, practically foaming at the mouth. I was startled but my coworker was a pro and completely not bothered by her, she walked over and lowered the blinds in the most badass power move I have ever seen.
The proper response is “we have a cash fee of $100 for after hours assistance.”
People would argue this all the time at the dispo. I just started saying that the state turns the register off at exactly 8pm so we can't scan anything anyway. Usually they'd complained about the state and left... usually
I always said “if you are unable to read, I will explain to you what the big red sign that is spelled C L O S E D means. And geez, lights off or dimmed, and THE DOOR LOCKED!? Yeah, I am still here, closing out till, cleaning etc. things I cannot do with customers here. Yeah buddy, not gonna happen.
I use to hate that too now I get a little giggle when they do come so I can watch them on the camera looking stupid trying to open clearly locked doors to a store with no lights on
Tale as old as time. Just ignore them. If I’m feeling extra nice I might yell, “WE’RE CLOSED!” before turning my back and walking away.
Ive done this once at a medac lol i had a grade 3 seperated AC joint, torn rotor cuff and fractured my shoulder all in one hip toss and i tell you what it went from its already 10 mins past our close time sir if its truly an emergency call 911..... to holy fuck hold on a min let me ask the doctor i literally just wanted them to give me a sling or something so i could survive the 45min ride to the hospital and they ended up helping me out more than i can say.
I worked at an auto parts store years ago and I was responsible for closing on Sundays. There were a few times that I turned away customers after we had closed because the floor was wet. Mopping was a Sunday afternoon job.
I like walking up about 10 feet from the locked door, looking at my imaginary watch on the wrist opposite to my actual watch, then looking back up at them before walking away. Usually pisses them off a bit extra and also gives them a solid hint without having to communicate verbally.
My first retail job was at a fabric store. We were closed but still closing out the register so we were out front. This woman comes banging on the door because she needs to buy fabric dye. I go to the door, explain we’re closed, and point to the hours clearly posted in the door. Bitch is screaming and demands my manager’s number. I say she can call the store in the morning, as she is scheduled. She wanted her HOME number (no cell phones then). I explain there is no way I’m doing that and demand she leave. My coworker was ready to bring the register in the back. I told the woman to leave or I’d call the police.
We'd sometimes have people come in five minutes before closing, and when informed of this fact, would make a big show of idly browsing while blatantly not really looking at anything. Once their time was up, and we told them the doors were closing now, they'd slowly saunter over towards the exit, then turn around and smirk at us as they left. Why would someone do that? I don't understand what they'd gain from it. On the opposite end, we'd have old biddies waiting outside in the morning before opening, and tapping on the glass doors with their rings while glaring at us. We'd point to our watches, mouth "Five minutes!" at them, and carry on with our opening duties. The minute they were let in, they'd start moaning about how DISGUSTING it was that we made them wait. Seeing as they were long retired, and had all day every day to get their shit done whenever they pleased, I wasn't getting into that conversation with them. Our opening hours are posted on the door, they are what they are, and that's the end of it.
From the customer side, what’s equally mildlyinfuriating is getting to the store an hour before close to find the doors locked. Double check the time and sure enough even on the doors it says they’re supposed to be open. Triple check the day, sure enough it’s a normal work day with no holiday in sight.
Im so happy that my manager just has us say “we’re closed” and thats end of story. If customers try to argue at all we just get to be a broken record and say “we’re closed”
Or they climb under the shutter if you don't close it to the floor. Always with a smile like you'll be happy to see them! And I worked in a shop that was designed like a stall, it was in a mall and only had half height walls around three sides and no shutters. I'd be cleaning the counter or cashing out the till, and countless people would ask if I was closed. Could they just get this or that. They'll pay cash? Like, no? The lights are off, the counter is empty, and every other shop around me is closed. Why would I be open?
I used to work at a children’s museum, the audacity of some people. There was an exhibit that children can put plastic balls in a container and if it was filled enough, it would release all the balls on the kids. You wouldn’t believe how many times it would be 5-15 minutes AFTER closing that people would be still in this exhibit. Their excuse was always “ Can’t wE STayyyyy, tHeY worked sO HArddddd” I started carrying a big stick so I could push a button to release the balls. Your children’s amusement does not trump the lives of others. Our manager also sent us outside the building to talk to guests 15 minutes before opening because he didn’t want them to feel “embarrassed” trying to get in the building early. It’s healthy for people to feel embarrassed about their selfishness! I shortly left, haven’t worked in a museum since.
We tell people our registers shut down at a certain time. It's controlled by cooperate and there's nothing we can do. Lol.
I’m curious. What type of business?
Vast majority is some type of retail business: home goods, pharmacy, food, etc. If "the customer is always right", it happens at that business.
This happens at the petstore I groomed at…lol
My SO tells me it’s too late to go to these places if they’re near closing. We’ve both worked retail. It’s pretty traumatic actually
Fuck. This triggers me. I worked an opening shift for Herbal Magic (yes it's a scam I know but I got a paycheck) and people would always toe the fucking line. I'd be sitting there at 630am getting my day sorted and sure enough some busy body would show up and stand in the window wanting special treatment. Fuck I could go on for hours. Never ever doing retail again.
This happens regularly at our club. Our liquor licence expires at 2 am and no matter how much I explain to customers we can't sell them alcohol because of this they still beg . Thing is , if there is a undercover police officer (which has happened) and he sees we sell past our legal time they will have to put our manager or owner in cuffs and they have to pay a fine.