to wish retailers would just shut their doors?

[MardyBra]

It's fucking freezing out there. And you retailers are just pumping greenhouse gases out into the atmosphere.

Stores should turn their heating down as well.

That too hidden! And how are they paying for this misuse of energy? Charging us more for goods!

It's often the customers who leave the doors open behind them though, maybe the staff don't have time to be going and shutting them again every two minutes.

YANBU. I worked in a shop when I was a student (well known nationwide chain) and we weren't allowed to shut the door. Even though the till point was at the front of the shop right next to the doors. And we had to wear uniform which was a thin acrylic jumper and weren't allowed to put anything on over the top to keep us warm

Really was a shit company to work for!

I work for a retailer & we have to have doors open all year round. Thems the rules. If it snows etc then clearly you close the doors but on a normal day,no.

Closed doors discourage people from coming in and retail needs all the help it can get now more than ever.

I suspect it's because people feel reluctant to try a closed door just in case it's locked and they feel silly, but I don't know for sure.

I've just done a mental run down of Oxford Street and I could think of only Marks and Spencers and Selfridges that have doors you have to push. Just about everyone else has open doors or electronic ones.

I definitely agree that staff near doors should be able to wear warm clothes - in fact it's my hobby to complain to the managers at my local Sainsbury's almost daily at this time of year.

There was a thread on this subject a short time ago and people were complaining about the warmth in shops with some of them outraged that staff had the temerity to wear thin blouses while they had big outdoor coats on because, er, they'd been outdoors and were soon to go back there.

When we try closing our doors (we're not actually supposed to) so we can turn the heating down we get moaned at by parents with pushchairs.

Plus it's easier for people in wheelchairs and on mobility scooters.

So we just keep the doors open and turn the heating up a tad, then we get moaned at by customers for the shop being too warm.

Plus our stockrooms have no heating so we are going from one extreme to another all day, we then get colds, we then get moaned at by customers for spreading mucky germs.

We are good at getting moaned at.

Or maybe it's just the mucky customers spreading their mucky germs to us that makes us get colds... I dunno , I'm only a sales assistant!

Stop moaning AmazingBouncingFerret, it's a well-known fact that retail staff are among the highest-paid workers in the whole world.

I don't shop in stores that have their doors open - it's just a ridiculous waste.

That's strange I was only remembering this morning about how I worked in a freezing cold shop as a 14yr old...the boss insisted the door stayed open the whole time!

It is indeed a very well paid job. It is often the thought of my high wage that keeps me going through customer rants about things completely beyond my control.

We close ours when it is really cold and have a sign saying 'We are open - but doing our bit for the environment'.
It works well and most customers like the policy, but I do feel bad for customers in wheelchairs as the doors are heavy and it isn't very disability-friendly. We also have a lot of elderly customers come in who struggle with the door so it ends up getting left open a lot.

Hooray for Piggy's shop!

Today I walked down a high street and the only doors which were shut were M&S, Pret and a couple of independents.

Yes I can see it's troublesome for disabled/pram access but I sometimes wonder why I bother to try and save energy at home, when large businesses are intent on heating up the pavement.

I am in Canada and there's a big mall not far from me that has its doors only halfway open (sliding doors) and a sign up saying it's their winter policy to conserve energy.

However, they appear to me to be automatic doors so not sure why they feel the need to have them open at all...

Also, I am assuming that they have air conditioning in summer so not sure why it's a winter policy.

Ho hum.

I was going to do a thread about this. I passed Blue Inc in Basingstoke on the weekend. They had an entrance 12 feet wide that was just open. No doors, just a big hole. What the queefing fuck are they doing?

More automatic doors! That's what we need.

piggy's place has a really good idea. Possibly not for a small, independent shop, but if that's not the case please correct me piggy.

Lots of doors are set up to automatic so if you turn them off you need to have the strength of Hercules to wrest them open. Therefore it will be shut down for obvious safety reasons.

That's not just shops, the power in my office building kept going down and you couldn't work the doors. We left early a lot. Hoorah. They soon fixed it.

We're not allowed to. Yes it's silly. But yes, our sales do go down if the doors are closed.

Olea - if everyone closed their doors, then wouldn't sales stay the same.

not all shops have doors to shut, many have shutters. Shops do lose customers if they close their doors, people think they are closed, and it is not the choice of the shop stuff, theses decisions are made by head office.

Yes I realise this is HO policy - but why can't the retailers be more environmentally friendly - and install doors that can be shut.

This would be where Dave's capitalism with a conscience comes in.

Yes?

(Answer = no)

OP yes I totally agree, but if it reduces sales then what can you do? Shops won't stop unless everyone else does and that isn't going to happen unless people stop using shops with open doors or they legislate against it. I can't see either happening and frankly the second isn't desirable anyway.

Incidentally I glared a lot at my friends who bought patio heaters same insanity. Heating the outdoors. GAH!

HTH

Maybe join the Green Party?

Mardy retailers don't usually own their premises. They lease them from landlords. But in any case, whoever owned the premises might find it made more economic sense to board them up than to install more energy-saving requirements than those that already exist on top of other costs in an economic downturn.

Alternatively landlords could put up rents to tenants and force them out of business.

That's why there are quite a lot of boarded-up shops already. Shall we add to them?

That's not because retailers want to destroy the planet. It's because they'd like to make it to the end of their lives with a few quid in their pockets to pay their funeral expenses.

Anyway, let's say after boarding up the High Street someone from the council came along to your house with a list of current Government-sanctioned energy-saving requirements including insulation to walls, doors, windows and the roof.

I can assure you that your house will be haemorrhaging energy unless you've moved into a complete new-build or have done renovations according to the strict building renovations which have been in force for some time. In some cases you may be breaking the law and that ought to be disclosed by a surveyor when you come to sell your house.

Could you afford it? Where shall we start? With landlords/retailers who'll lose their businesses and the jobs of the people they employ or you, who might lose a sale or your home?

Shall we then move on to an inventory of all the people who've lost their jobs and still live in energy-leaking houses?

These things do need to be done but in time and certainly not in the middle of a recession.

Sorry, Mardy I shouldn't have been rude.

I'm in favour of all kinds of regulations - health and safety, employment laws, hygiene regulation as well as enviromental measures.

It's just that people struggling to survive don't need more pressures atm. When it is a better time to apply laws on the environment everyone should realise they apply to businesses and householders alike.