To close at closing time?

[Bananafritter]

I’m pretty sure I’m not but the reactions you get from some people you’d think I am!

I work in a retail store inside a shopping centre. It’s a popular clothes shop. Our shop closes an hour earlier than most other shops in the centre at normal times of the year. At the moment some shops in the centre are open much later for Christmas shopping however our Christmas shopping times don’t kick in till next week.

I often get abuse from customers in the 10 minutes before the shop closes as we can no longer let new customers in the door, or into the fitting rooms. Tonight it was particularly bad, with several people verbally abusing me (as if I set the closing times and not head office).

The simple fact of the matter is that staff don’t get paid after the shop closes therefore we can’t keep serving people with unpaid staff. On the more practical side people have buses to catch, lifts waiting, kids to get home to. It’s not fair that staff have to wait.

Is it unreasonable to close a shop at the time we say we close? I’d be interested to hear opinions from people who try to argue their way into shops past closing time.

*get there

YANBU , but I think a suggestion for change in how things are done would be helpful , I am a retail manager and all my rotas are done to allow staff plenty of time to cash up and recover the store after close so that customer service can take priority up until close. So, they do have half an hour either side of opening and closing except Sundays which are a 0 task and smaller sales day. I think opening and allowing customers in until closing time would make the most sense , we go for reminders such as..

Customers coming in close to closing time would be greeted with "hi , just to let you know we do close at X so if there's anything I can help you find to make it easier please let me know"

Another reminder would be a minute or two before close "we are closing in a couple of minutes so I need to just pop your items through the till now if you could make your way there please"

Then a final reminder "the store is now closing so will have to process them now or I won't be able to do it"

It's so infuriating when customers think they can come in 2 minutes before closing , grab a basket and have a browse, it is beyond rude and selfish.

I do also feel I should point out that the not letting customers in 10/5 mins before closing is if it’s busy. If it isn’t busy we do the whole “just letting you know we’re about to close” thing and I do have some managers who let people in after close or just before but wouldn’t leave till after.

Lately we’ve been stricter, as the store could get in trouble from head office for making their staff serve customers when they were no longer getting paid - you cannot force a member of staff to stay late unless they are getting overtime. (I think... correct me if I’m wrong)

Anyway it’s interesting to hear other people’s opinions, from both sides! I do hope this has potentially made some people think about the way they speak to people working in customer services, especially around Christmas. I know it can be stressful to get yourself organised but it can really stick with the member of staff you take your anger out on especially when they aren’t directly at fault. I hope tomorrow isn’t as bad as today was.

I am honestly sick of chasing people out of my work after we are supposed to have closed. No amount of warning them that were are closing/ now closed makes any difference. They do not care.

! And it’s horrified me that anyone would verbally abuse you! Are you in a particularly rough area? On what planet is the correct response from disappointed customers not ‘oh sorry, didn’t realise!’ and walking away!

Just your average day in retail. The amount of abuse retail staff put up with is horrendous.

! And it’s horrified me that anyone would verbally abuse you! Are you in a particularly rough area? On what planet is the correct response from disappointed customers not ‘oh sorry, didn’t realise!’ and walking away!

Most of my abuse is from refusing to serve people without ID. Been called a 'fat, specky bitch', a 'specky cow' and had people threaten to wait outside when we close.
Also, the posts which sometimes pop up on here about how people have been refused alcohol for being with their kids, I have literally seen a teen point the alcohol out and then give the person money and then been abused for refusing.

staff don’t get paid after the shop closes

That's illegal. If you're being paid till say 5pm you can walk out the door that very second.

"that this wouldn't happen if only they had better signage"

I used to work for a very well known electrical rental retail store 15 years ago. It was when Sky + first came out There was a big and i mean BIG FUCK OFF banner across the front windows saying "If you want Sky + installed in time for Christmas please order by 10th December We STILL had people come in on 22nd and 23rd expecting and wanting it installed on Christmas Eve

I am wondering what you mean by "abuse". If you mean shouting and swearing and being gerally abusive YANBU. However if you mean people are complaining then you are viewing your position incorrectly. When you are at work you are a representative of the store. So customers complaining to you are complaining to the store. It's not personal it's just the way it works. If it's a complaint you can't personally deal with I would expect you to pass the comments on to your manager or refer the complaint to your manager.

If your attitude to a disgruntled customer is "it's not my problem I just work here" then I am not surprised you get a few angry, shouty customers. You need to work on your complaint handling skills!

And the shop is definitely being unreasonable shutting the doors 10 mins early. If the close time is 5pm the shop should remain open until 5. If they want to close at 4.50 then that should be their advertised closing time like any other store. If the store set customers expectations correctly then you have far fewer angry customers.

Does your shop not have a process of feeding regular customer complaints up the chain?

At the risk of pissing on a few chips we need to discuss the elephant in the room. It aint the internet affecting sales. Last time i checked ASOS had not one high street store.

"Tris Stock
‏ @Tris_Stock

BBC News front page:

Restaurant insolvencies jump by 25%
Fashion discounting hits Asos profits
Laura Ashley to close 40 stores in UK

This isn't because of Brexit, it is because our economy has become stagnant through neoliberalisation and austerity. We're impoverished."

I used to work in a deli/small supermarket. One night, we had the shutters down but not locked, and some guy rolled up the door, came in, grabbed a basket and started filling it up. I couldn’t believe the cheek. People are entitled arses at this time of year. They focus on their own stress/lack of time/needs but forget others are human too.

Yy to whoever said "rechargeable robots" who live in the stock room. I came to assume the general public were very hard of thinking and extremely entitled. Like the person who rang up at 9pm the night we put xmas sale in. They'd presumably gone past and seen the lights on. We only answered the phone in case it was someone trying to contact a staff member, we had teenagers so parents would call. Also people who would see sale set up in swing and bang on the door. Really going to let you in at 8pm, mate . Similarly I'd be in at normal time on Sun quite often, we used the dead time to do stuff. We'd answer the phone early in case it was staff calling in sick. I always find it really rude when people ring out of trading hrs- those are the hrs we deal with the public. We used to take great pleasure 9/10 times in leaving early and late comers on the doorstep. Where they belonged.

Hopefully OP and others this will give you a bit of a giggle.

Zippety some people are so selfish. I worked in shop that had shutters too but we had to have them half open in the morning so staff arriving could come under them . The amount of people who would crawl under like I know you don’t open to 9 but can I come in and shop im in a hurry. Unbelievable I’m sure they wouldn’t be so willing to go to work in their free time unpaid for a stranger .

But ten minutes is more than enough time to go in grab a few things pay and leave. I can understand not letting people using the fitting rooms ten minutes before or not letting people in any later than five minutes before but effectively closing ten minutes early is a bit unreasonable. I hope you are telling them to make a complaint to corporate about it so that they are forced to pay your for closing duties.

@helenadove lol and where do you think the money for extra public spending would come from? Increasing public spending beyond modest levels is worse for the economy.

I presume you are open until 5:30, though, as that is surely the earliest closing time anyone will expect?

And they would expect to walk in at 5:25

OP, does your store have a tannoy system? Would it be worth suggesting announcements 15, 10, 5 mins before the store closes?

I used to work in a well-known high street discount store and this seemed to work quite well as people heard the announcement, and then either got their arses in gear to take their purchases to the till, or decided they didn’t have enough browsing time left and went on their way.

I feel for you, working in retail is hard enough but this time of year turns some people into monsters!

Just your average day in retail. The amount of abuse retail staff put up with is horrendous.

Then things have got worse! I worked in retail for about eight years, in a music shop, a supermarket, a department store and a couple of electrics retail chains, and I never had anything like the OP is describing, not even at Christmas time.

VietnameseCrispyFish - I have worked as air cabin crew and in retail as a part-time role many years ago. People have definitely got ruder. Self-entitled and more aggressive. I’ve also worked in healthcare. There is a reason I now work in an office!

Aridane - you know what I mean. 🙄Nobody deserves abuse at work. Least of all people earning minimum wage. When I worked in retail I cared very little - the low pay did not make me care about the job whatsoever.

Hard luck on the customers they should have checked the opening times. I work in retail and in Sunday we shut at 4pm. The customers are given enough notice when we are closing but think its OK to come to the tills at 4pm when the store has closed and expect us to scan there shopping through... I close the till as I don't get paid past 4pm and I'm not willing to be late home like another pp said for a stranger.

As the OP says the shop opening hours and practices are not in her control and it is very bad of customers to be rude to her about them. If she is not getting paid after closing time then it's most unfair to hold up her leaving.

At the same time I think the shop owners should review their policy and have more flexible closing. If customers are regularly being turned away that is potential lost sales. Why not pay staff to stay until the store can be closed without turning away customers. I know there is always one who rocks up at the last minute when the place is otherwise dead, but OP is talking about the shop being quite busy.

But why should staff be expected to stay late - probably unpaid. It’s a low wage job. They have lives outside work. It’s not life or death. It’s just a shop. The Directors get richer with their six figure salaries so that’s okay then.

Yanbu. I had to comfort a young shop assistant being screamed at by a middle aged man because something wasn’t in stock. I was also a customer. He did shut up and eventually apologised after he got the death glare.