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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To expect to be able to make a purchase at closing time.

760 replies

NK493efc93X1277dd3d6d4 · 23/07/2017 01:27

I was in Laura Ashley today just before closing looking to buy a picture, The assistant showed me the display item which was still marked up at full price and then went over to the tills to check the sale price for me.

Yes I'd like to buy it I replied - only to be told that sorry you can't do that today as the tills are closed now. I checked my phone, bang on 6pm, closing time. I queried this as I have never come across this before. I have been in plenty of shops that advise customers to go to the tills at closing time, but none who refuse to make a sale on the dot of closing.

I said as much to the assistant who looked apologetic and consulted senior assistant. The tills close themselves down at 6pm she advised me. if you want to buy it you'll have to come back in the morning. Don't worry the sale is on until Monday.

Is it unreasonable to expect to complete a purchase when I am already in the shop at closing time?

OP posts:
clarkyclarkson · 23/07/2017 11:09

If you've never worked in retail you will never understand the utter annoyance of someone coming in at closing time, buying an item and mucking up the whole cashing up and making the assistants have to stay behind even longer. Why do it? Just go in earlier, don't be that annoying customer, it's so unthoughtful and bloody annoying!! The tills probs didn't shut themselves off, they just said it so they didn't have to cash up again and I would have done the same! YABU!!!

kali110 · 23/07/2017 11:13

Yes op, and all those shops you mentioned those staff are forced to stay behind after their hours to serve people like you who have decided to stay after closing.
Those people have homes to go to too!
They don't get paid after their time finishes, yet still have to stay!
Manage your time better.
You can still make ypur purchase, but actually in the hours the store is open!

Oliversmumsarmy · 23/07/2017 11:13

From what I have read about profit warnings, those working for Laura Ashley might be very close to having all their customer problems solved.

ChardonnaysPrettySister · 23/07/2017 11:14

Customers who ask questions are attention seeking?

Blimey.

EvansOvalPies · 23/07/2017 11:14

OP admittedly entered the shop and in her very own words "just before closing time" And then wonders why she could not complete her transaction.

So a picture was so immensely important, that the OP could only possibly come into the shop just before closing time, makes a request about pricing (which I could tentatively suggest she already knew the answer to that anyway, and was perhaps just trying to be awkward - could be wrong, but that's how it reads to me) and then complains that she couldn't buy it. I'm not a huge fan of Laura Ashley as a company, but don't take it out on the staff, who have done their shift, want to get home, and if the tills have shut down, then that's the end of that, really.

Ceto · 23/07/2017 11:16

If you've never worked in retail you will never understand the utter annoyance of someone coming in at closing time, buying an item and mucking up the whole cashing up and making the assistants have to stay behind even longer. Why do it? Just go in earlier, don't be that annoying customer

If shops don't want this to happen, the remedy is available to them - don't let customers in during the last 20 minutes or so. But, when they don't, you have to expect that customers will think that they are open for business. I think your beef here is with the owners of the shop, not the customers.

Slimthistime · 23/07/2017 11:17

Yabu
I hate crowds so frequently do supermarket shop at quarter to eleven. Yes they tell you to get to the till but I find that annoying. I know the till becomes a pumpkin at 11, I'll be out the door by then.

Ceto · 23/07/2017 11:17

You can still make ypur purchase, but actually in the hours the store is open!

She wanted to. It wasn't her fault that there was a pricing error.

Slimthistime · 23/07/2017 11:19

To be clear
I do understand they have to urge people to the till or like op they will moan....I just think if customers were more sensible they wouldn't need someone to keep saying it.

Oliversmumsarmy · 23/07/2017 11:19

Can someone who works in retail explain if you are at work 9-5.30 6 days per week and you don't want customers to shop on Sundays and you don't want customers through your doors after 5.30pm when do you expect people to buy from your store

KoalaDownUnder · 23/07/2017 11:20

Buying a picture frame is not an emergency, ergo, does not warrant having to work outside of contracted hours. Right??

That's not really how it works.

Pretty much every job I've ever done has required some unpaid overtime here and there. None of them having anything to do with emergencies or vital services.

faithinthesound · 23/07/2017 11:23

Who said not to shop on Sundays? None of my business if you want to shop on a Sunday. We're open, staff are rostered on, get your life!

I don't want you "shopping" after we close (or before we open).

Jammydodger81 · 23/07/2017 11:24

Nacho - so the OP wanting to pay the correct price for an item is attention seeking Hmm

And FYI I often have to stay late unpaid at work, I don't work in retail (although I have) and it is usually someone else's fault, namely colleagues. If I'm on a call with a colleague it would be utterly unacceptable for me to say right I'm off, hang up and leave. I'd get the bloody sack. I do it because these things happen and my company are pretty flexible when I've needed them to be. If others aren't then that's not my issue, take it up with them for either overtime or a policy change regarding letting customers enter the store.

EvansOvalPies · 23/07/2017 11:26

I'd suggest, that is actually pretty much how it works. So a shop worker has a mode of public transport to catch, in order to pick up a child, possibly, or care for an elderly or less-abled member of family. Misses their train or bus, because an inconsiderate shopper, wanting to buy a vacuous picture at closing time lest we forget. So the inconsiderate shopper, wanting to buy their emergency picture completely skews the evening of the shop assistant, just because she can, and feels entitled to. Yet the tills are on a time, so it wasn't even the shop assistant's fault in any event. If I wanted a picture frame that urgently, I would think there was something wrong with my life.

EvansOvalPies · 23/07/2017 11:27

timer

toosexyforyahshirt · 23/07/2017 11:28

People need to learn this sort of thing is so antisocial and needs to be stopped

Yes, those bastard customers wanting to buy shit, in shops that exist purely to sell shit. Wankers, the lot of them.

Hmm
Ceto · 23/07/2017 11:31

Since when was it a rule that you could only buy something just before a shop closes if it's an emergency? Totally bizarre idea.

Evans, does it occur to you that, for people who work till 5.30, it really isn't unreasonable to expect to be able to go into a shop that is open to 6 after work and buy things?

MaroonPencil · 23/07/2017 11:33

There is a shop. It sells stuff. It says it closes at six.
There is a customer. She wants to buy stuff. She should be able to buy stuff up to the dot of six. After that it is at the shops discretion.
If the shop doesn't want to sell stuff after a certain time, which is not the same as the time it closes, it needs to advertise that clearly, like some cafes do. "Open until 6, last orders 5.30."
I have worked in retail, yes. And cafes. I have also been a customer pissed off by getting evils from shop keepers for daring to come into their shop five minutes before closing, when they are still open.

EvansOvalPies · 23/07/2017 11:38

Ceto - does it occur to you that this shop was open only until 6. This was after the assistant's work hours. Assistant was ready to finish work. If a shop wanted to be open 'to 6 after work' then they would choose to do so. 'After work' in your eyes, means after YOUR hours of work. The shop closes at 6, the tills shut down automatically. Why is that hard to comprehend? Why is it hard for you to understand that everyone is entitled to their own life, outside of working and paid hours? Not to pander to the whim of someone who just wants and expects to be served outside of working hours. How entitled and vacuous is that?

grannytomine · 23/07/2017 11:39

The British attitude to customers at its best. Before you ask yes I have worked in retail and if you are serving a customer you finish the transaction.

ortensia · 23/07/2017 11:39

No, I never worked in retail either, Koala!

whosafraidofabigduckfart · 23/07/2017 11:39

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Mysteriouscurle · 23/07/2017 11:41

If shop closed at 6pm I would assume staff wanted to get home same as I do at finishing time. I would come back another day to buy it

whosafraidofabigduckfart · 23/07/2017 11:44

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Smellbellina · 23/07/2017 11:45

I've worked in retail, that would have pissed me off. Being put in a situation where customers are in the shop and it's impossible for me to serve them, having to explain that and manage their understandable frustration. It would be quicker to put the purchase through.