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?

Because the shop is under no OBLIGATION to stay "open" as in doors unlocked, customers wandering around, until 5.30.

The manager could decide to shut at 4.30 if he was short staffed, or he could not open at all if the shop electricity broke.

The closing time is stated as 5.30. To rock up at 5.23 and not to be able to get into the shop is just...well, wouldn't most of us just shrug our shoulders and think "Ah, bugger, missed it"...it's the feeling that we're ENTITLED to everything all the time, when we want it and screw anyone who gets in our way that makes me RAGEY.

The shop was opened till 5:30!!!

If you had been there at a time when you could have reasonably bought shoes and left at 5:30 you would have been let in and let out of the shop at (or probably after) 5:30.

You would not have been asked to leave at 5:23

If they let you drag a child in, get his shoes off, find and try a few pairs you have gone in to their closed time.

WriterofDreams ummm and no one told me???

WD

Can see my resignation letter - Decided to quit being an LSA /trainee teacher to eat test chocolate instead!!

I worked in retail and I agree with those who say it is because of overtime but equally because of customers like the OP who will leave everything til the last minute as they feel entitled to enter a shop at 5.29.59 as its not 1/2 past.

Its important to remeber as well in some cases there are licensing laws that do not allow a shop to take money for goods after a certain time.

Wow it's really well paid too

www.telegraph.co.uk/foodanddrink/foodanddrinknews/8065891/Dream-chocolate-tasting-job-for-35000-a-year-offered-by-Green-and-Blacks.html

Well, now you see?

Why aren't all the people who work in shops and hate just get that job? Hmm? Why haven't they got a weirdy acute sense of smell and taste?

Lazyness. That's why. Lazy wanting to go home at an approximately reasonable time and not get not paid for overtime lazy bastards

ROFL Shirley

No Jfly, you should just leave a sufficent amount of time to enusre you have time to get in, get what you want and pay before the shop closes. Nipping in just before the doors close, when you know damn well you are going to be there a while and thus encroaching on the workers own time, is taking the piss imo.

My dad (yes, dad not mum ) has been a flightattendant for 20+ years on various airlines. I have also spoken with others on flights it is pretty normal actually.. alhtough I think not right

Are airline staff paid hourly then? I thought they received a salary?

you can read the whole thing but the bottom paragraph explains the salary

The shop still closed at 5.30, I would imagine. They finished serving the customers who turned up in good time by 5.30. That is perfectly reasonable.

Shirley is right. The "I want it NOW" culture is fucking ridiculous. Charlie Brooker did a column about it and it struck so many chords with me and the cocks I meet at work.

I am confused by the objection to serving customers during opening hours. It's not their fault that employees aren't paid overtime. (My earlier argument was that it makes sense to schedule shifts to allow employees to do tasks before and after opening hours.)

Of course there are circumstances where shops close early, for emergency or staff shortages, no one disputes that. But the obligation does lie with the business to remain open during their posted hours. That doesn't seem unreasonable.

Am off to the shops. To spend money...I hope. Will report back on any appropriate chocolate-related help wanted signs.

So, say if an employer pays their staff until 6pm when the shop closes at 5.30. You get an arsebandit like OP in at 5.23 and proceeds to eat up the assistant's time until say 5.45. But it's OK because she gets paid until 6, right?

Wrong.

If she still has to vacuum, tidy, cash up, safe the money etc etc she won't be able to start that until 5.45. She won't be out until long after six.

Just get to the fucking shop in plenty of time. It's not a hard concept to grasp.

But if they had let the op in they wouldn't have been serving her during opening hours. She would have had to pay after the shop had closed.

The shop probably was open to customers who were already in there and had turned up in time to pay before they closed. They just weren't letting anyone else because there wouldn't be time to serve them before they closed.

I don't see why that is so hard to understand? Or why it is unreasonable?

The point with this story JFly is that serving the OP would have delayed the closing of the shop so the staff would be serving her after closing time, thus leading them to spend more time working for free.

It's not the customer's fault that the employees aren't paid overtime, but equally it's not the employees' fault either. You suggest they should just smile and take it because the OP wanted them to? Unlikely to happen in the real world.

Exactly, Dooinmecleanin.

It's not like they were booting out customers already in the store at 5.23 just so they could get home in time for Eggheads. To the customers inside the shop, the shop was still open and functioning.

OK, I agree that you shouldn't have to remain serving customers well after the shop is closed, just that you let them in while the shop is open. Maybe a shop assistant could say "we are about to close, so I'm afraid I won't be able to measure/pull stock for you but you are welcome to browse until 5:30." That's not unreasonable, and I would hope that most people would accept that explanation. But not letting them in, full stop, seems ridiculous. Let them know the limitations of the service at that time, but don't just lock the door on them.

Arsebandit? Nice

You know what, you're not fucking unique by not being paid to do overtime. The whole of the working world has to do it. What makes you special? Lots of us get crap wages, get to be shouted at and not leave at dead on 5 and have a three hour round trip per day to do it. Life sucks sometimes. The main entitlement I can see on this thread is that of the people who think they are special enough to be exempt from the realities of working life. And I've been there, I know what it's like.

jfly really, you think some one wouldn't tootle in then kick up a fuss when they were asked to leave?

many shops have browsing time on a sunday you can look but you can't buy before 10.. Clearly sign posted. People still kick a fuss when you let them in and then dont sell to them.

rockbat you shouldnt be doing overtime unpaid at minumum wage. Just because you choose to doesn't mean you can fault others for attempting to get out on time

Oh FGS, JFly you've clearly never worked in retail :) Telling a customer, especially in this day and age when everything is simply about them, that you wouldn't serve them you'd get a diva fit worthy of Mariah Carey.

In my store, one of my colleagues refused to serve a woman at 9.17pm, seventeen minutes after closing. She simply stood at the cash desk, arms crossed huffing and refusing to move until someone came and unlocked the till. Twat.

Arsebandit? who said that? who are you talking to? what's that over there?

"You know what, you're not fucking unique by not being paid to do overtime."

Well, if you want to do it then that's up to you. You can't exactly complain that not everyone feels the same. We don't go to work for shits and giggles, you know?

And it's only a "reality of working life" if you're dumb enough to suck it up.

I said arsebandit. It was me.