in thinking that if Clarks closes at 5.30...

[Amanderrr]

at 5.23 the doors shouldn't be locked?

Went to Richmond today for a mooch around the shops. DS3 (4yrs) kept complaining about his feet hurting so we headed over to Clarks. We wouldn't have taken long as I know his size and width and just wanted the brown version of the black pair we bought last week.

Got to the doors and they were locked. There was a customer inside still trying on shoes and staff milling around. Had a look at my watch and it was just after 5.20. Looked at the opening times and they should have been open until 5.30. Asked DP what the time was in case my watch was wrong and he said it was about 5.23.

This is happening more and more. In the last couple of weeks alone Boots wouldn't let me in with five minutes until they officially closed. Office the shoe shop was shut before the time stated. The security guard in Zara, which was due to close at 7pm, was telling me at 6.50 that the shop was now closed and could I head to the tills. I looked over and there was a long queue so it didn't really matter whether I carried on shopping or not and M&S turned most of the lights off after saying over the loud speaker that the store would be closing in ten minutes.

I know in the grand scheme of things this should just be a slight irritation but today just brought it to a head when I couldn't get a change of shoes for DS3 when I really needed them.

Am I alone in finding this frustrating and would it worth emailing the stores when this happens?

Aww Mooos blessya you think retail is easier than sitting on your arse in an office all day. Try doing 9 til 9 every other night in the run up to christmas (October to christmas Eve) when you're actual hours are still only 40 per week. Office work is MUCH easier than shopwork.

OP YABU. Why decide to go shoe shopping 10 minutes before a shop closes? Do you think shop workers actually don't have homes to go to?

chefswife- lazy? Get real. Certainly not in the shop where I work.

It is busy- we are constantly on the move. serving customers, re-laying and tidying merchandise, filling up stock, watching out for shoplifters, oh yes and serving customers. We have very little time given to us to do particular jobs which is why we clockwatch. So when you have just got the store looking tidy, some one coming in at 5.23 who, as far as you know, is browsing and taking their time, you do get shitty. Even if you do get paid for the 15 minutes after close, if cashing up isn't done by then you don't get the extra.

It's called budgets and head offices being tight with staffing allowance.

oh yes- guess where I am going in 5 minutes? Yes that's right. Work. In a shop. We have our delivery due in at 7, so today is even tougher than normal, especially in the Christmas stock build.

So by the time I get home tonight I will be too knackered and in a fair amount of pain to want to do any of the housework that needs doing or cooking a meal.

I swear customers wgere I work must think I live to serve them 24/7

Moos you've obviously never worked in the public sector otherwise you would know that working unpaid overtime is the norm. I don't know anyone who only works their hours or gets to go home on time.

Also OP YABU the closing time represents the time by which all transactions must be completed. 7 minutes is not enough time for you to select, try on and pay for a pair of shoes so they were well within their rights not to let you in.

My niece was travelling from OZ to Canada on a Sunday.

At 4.55 on Friday afternoon, she walked into the bank to purchase travellers cheques and wondered why the teller seemed a bit snappy with her.

(Bank closed at 5 pm.) The teller had to get bank cheques out of a time locked safe and then have them all signed etc.

I told DN that if it had been me, I have told her we didn't have any USD traellers cheques.

travellers cheques

"We wouldn't have taken long as I know his size and width and just wanted the brown version of the black pair we bought last week."

You obviously have never been in a Clarks stock room then! [hgrin] They're huge and it takes staff time to actually find the style, size and width. Plus, if they don't have the size, style or width they HAVE to bring, for you to look at, a few other pairs, in a similar style, for you to see (in case you may choose to buy something else instead) and if they don't and just say, "oh sorry, we haven't got that style in today!" they get bollocked! Therefore it would have been way after 5.30 until you left the shop.

However, I have to say that at the Clarks I used to work at the managers would let someone in at 5.30 just as the shutters were going down because they were that desperate to meet their sales targets [hangry].

So YABU!

Just wanted to add that I've worked in an office too and always managed to get out on time!

People always use unpaid overtime as a sort of badge of honour these days. It should not be happening to anyone all the time! Businesses need to employ the correct number of people for the necessary number of hours! Everyone has other things in their life besides work.
OP- I understand why you think it would not have taken long, but it probably happens every day, and shop work is hard!

You're right unpaid overtime isn't a badge of honour I just wanted to illustrate that despite some people's peception public sector workers and not lolling about doing nothing in these supposed wonderful working conditions.

I completely agree that businesses should employ the correct number of people but in these difficult economic times this problem is only going to get worse.

I know. I am public sector myself! Not always peachy! It is a general issue I think, not public/private.

When I worked in a shop we never got out on time but we had a clocking in system so we'd get paid for the actual time worked. Iirc (it was a long time ago) we shut the doors 5 minutes before closing time.

Yes I think you're right it is a general issue.
I do hate that these difficult economic times make everyone turn on each other. Everyone is working harder than ever, you don't need to put other people's jobs down, it's not a competition. :)

I'm a fast and efficient shopper , but tbh even I would struggle to get in, check on shelves for shoes I wanted, wait for staff to get the shoes in correct size, vtry them on to make sure OK, pay at till etc etc in SEVEN MINUTES.

Therefore YABU.

I think anyone who works in a customer-service type industry faces this.

My dh is a GP, so no "office hours" - he works till the work is done (got home at 10.30 last night as had 2 complicated urgent referral letters to consultants to write). His practice has its own dispensary as in a remote rural village with no chemist (30 mins drive to chemist) so they dispense prescriptions. Last night, at 7.30 and 8.15, he had patients knocking on the window of the room in which he was working to ask for their medication - non urgent!! He just said no, it was all locked up (as all dispensed meds have to be double checked).

But the sense of entitlement "well I'm just passing and there is a light on even though the surgery has been shut for TWO HOURS" sometimes gets him down a bit. Really, if your meds are that urgent, come before 6!

Inconsiderate and v selfish.
The world doesn't revole around you.

I bet you're the sort of person who, when you have paid for your goods, puts your coins carefully back in your purse, then the notes, then folds the receipt up, zips your purse up, puts your purse in your bag, zips your bag up and then moves away so the next person can finally be served - aaargh.

Mooos - you've clearly never worked in a shop.

'Aww Mooos blessya you think retail is easier than sitting on your arse in an office all day.'

My public sector brother did 18/20 hour days sitting in an office in a prefab building in Afghanistan for six months. Part of his 'office duties' were going to forward ops bases either in a vehicle (avoiding IEDs), or in a chinook with full kit and rifle and hoping they didn't get shot at. On balance, yep, retail would be easier really.

Everyone who works in a shop is lazy? What a load of rubbish. If you look hard enough you will find some lazy people in every job. Lazy staff in shops ime are not well liked by their colleagues.

Weegie, well said. I was had a call from someone asking me to wait until her train got in at 18:30, we closed at 17:30. Her emergency, she had blackheads.

If shops are only paying their staff til 5:30pm then the shop should cose at 5:15pm, and that should be the published closing time.

When I was a teen I used to work in a fastfood place. The closing time was 2am; if I did the end shift I was paid for clearig time afterwards. The doors did not shut until 2am.

Boots did this to me not long ago, had some jobsworth stood at the door 10 minutes before closing refusing to let people in. I argued that i knew what i wanted and where it was etc she then asked me what it was i wanted to which i replied it was non of her business and was eventually let in.

Im with you, it is bloody annoying. These are big chain stores and if staff are working and extra half an hour after closing to clean up etc then surely they are getting paid for it. I used to work in a large chain store and this was how it worked there, closing was at 17.30 and we started cleaning up at 17.15 ish (with the doors still open) but our actual working hours were till 6 ensuring time to clean up at the end of the day.

I worked as a Saturday girl at a high street shop for 3 years and also did office work during school holidays. Shop offered me fast track onto their management scheme as an alternative to university, I said no bloody way. Office work, even if you might have to do unpaid overtime, is way easier than shopwork.

Also many office workers are salaried - annual pay based on getting the job done - usual office hours are given in contract but salary accounts for the fact that overtime may be needed. Shop workers are usully waged rather than salaried - have hourly rate for certain hours of work and they rarely get paid beyond closing time. So they're well within their rights to want to leave at closing as no allowance is made in pay for extra, whereas it is in a salary.

Jareth - still shuddering at the memories of working Christmas Eve with people hanging outside shutters 20 mins past closing and scooting in to do their christmas shopping when we opened shutters to let other not quite so last minute customers out...

Anyone who leaves any shopping until the last few minutes of opening hours and still expects to be served is daft - you may get served but you may not.

It is impossile to say that all office work is harder than all retail work, or that all retail work is harder than all office work. It depends very much on the specific jobs being done.

And TBH how hard the work is completely irrelavent here.

The OP is not wrong is wanting to be served 10 minutes before a shop closes.

the management of the shops are the ones to blame. They should be paying their staff appropriately. Or they should close 15 minutes early, with that as the publicised closing time, and use the extra 15 minutes of paid staff time for clearing up, cashing up tills, etc.

If the closing time says 5:30pm then the shop should be open util 5:30pm.

Well if a store stayed open until advertised closing time, then that assumes nobody would have a problem if they were booted out at that time even though they hadn't completed their purchase? Of course they would - so the store would still end up staying open 10-15 mins longer than official closing time to finish off purchases and you'd have people outside saying 'why can't I get in while you are still serving customers?' It seems to me that you will always have people turning up at the last minute expecting to be served, however shops manage it.

I suppose Clarks could always do what Tesco does and have 24 hour opening then it wouldn't be a problem...