To think closing times shouldn’t be treated as an estimate? Disagreement with friend AIBU

[friendship1234]

i have been friends with this woman for about two months, met her at work as I recently started a new job.

so, we went out shopping today, to pick up stuff for the kids and just have a browse really. We had a really good time and it was about five to six and we were almost ready to head home. Friend says to me “oh let’s just go into xyz shop” (think discount store like b&m or something.)
I say okay, we go towards the door and I see on the sign they close at 6. I say to her “oh they’re closing in five minutes, do you want to come back another day?”

she goes “oh it’s okay, I only need a few bits” so I’m like okay and we go in. There’s a worker standing at the door telling people that they close soon.

Friend takes a trolley, that should have been my first clue. Im like, maybe she just wants a couple of larger items.
basically, she goes round the shop browsing each aisle as slow as humanly possible it seems like, grabbing stuff off the shelves, comparing prices, asking me whether or not she should buy xyz, etc etc.

well at 6 a staff member goes on the tannoy and does the close announcement, friend is still browsing without a care in the world. I say to her “oh they’re closing now, let’s go to the till” and she goes “well I haven’t finished shopping” in an almost confused voice.

I say to her “I know but the tills are closing and the staff probably want to go home”

her response? “I’m sure they have staff that stay later”

I’ve only known this woman 2 months and I’ve never really see this side of her before so I was a bit shocked really. Anyway, I’m kind of trying to walk faster in the hope that she’ll hurry up and go to the tills. 6.04 a staff member comes down the aisles and is like, we’re closed now so could you please make your way to the tills” my friend goes “oh, excuse me” and then starts asking him if they have any more of something out the back!!! I gave this guy an apologetic look and was like “they’re closed, you can come back another day and ask” and my “friend” goes “I came in the door before 6pm. I came in before closing time, so I’m entitled to be here” and gives me a dirty look I think for not backing her up.

im shellshocked at this point really and I didn’t say anything as I had no idea this is how she behaved and I was really in shock.

The (lovely) store employee basically tells her politely that the tills will be closing imminently so if she wants to buy her shopping, she needs to go and pay now.

Well she huffs, goes (slowly) towards the tills, and I’m just standing there waiting for her to pay so we can leave. I would have waited outside but they’d closed the doors at that point so we needed to wait to be let out!
At the till, friend:
-argues about prices (“the label on the shelf said xyz”
-decides she doesn’t want a few things after all and leaves them at the till
-decides she HAS to buy a bottle of gin which is in a locked cabinet by the tills (I don’t know how the staff were keeping a straight face by this point, I was staring at the floor in second hand embarrassment)

then she takes AGES to get her money out of her wallet, faffs around with small change when she could have just given a 20 and be done with it, decides she wants carrier bags which have to be put through seperately, and FINALLY leaves. At 21 minutes past closing time, all in all. I actually apologised to the staff on the way out.

so once we got out of the shop we got into an argument over this, I said to her I can’t believe you acted that way and she shrugs and says well if you go in the shop before closing time it’s fine, it’s just an estimate not an exact science. She said she was annoyed at me for apologising for her, which she said made her “feel like the bad guy” I was like yeah because you were acting entitled.

basically, wibu to distance myself from her from now on? She has form for being a bit self absorbed but this seemed like a new level of entitlement! I just feel bad for the poor shop staff really. “Friend” says that she used to work in retail and that it really wasn’t an issue and that I was being dramatic and holier than thou. Aibu??

Also it's not just that's the staff are delayed. It's the knock on impact that they may have caring responsibility ie pick up a child before kid's club closes/they may miss their train and the next one is an hour away.

I've been there, not only was I not paid to stay, I did not get time back and it affected my ability to get to my child before nursery closed.

It's ridiculous! I would absolutely think differently of this woman after her shockingly disrespectful behaviour

You haven't been friends very long so I would view this instance as a good insight into what type of person she is. Yes I would distance myself. She's awful.

She sounds thick tbh.

She sounds entitled and inconsiderate. Probably not a friendship worth pursuing.

That said, there will always be customers who take the piss like this, so I blame the retailers for not building in enough time as a buffer to deal with the stragglers.

staying the odd few minutes to assist a customer is part of the role and will come under normal pay.

Retail staff are often paid nmw. If they stay 10 min late to help some pita everyday, they've worked for nearly an hour for nothing by the end of the week. Why is that OK?
I've literally never been in a shop that has closed at a random time without warning, if you can't make your purchase in time, go back another day

I haven’t worked in retail since I worked in Tescos as a teenager. And yes your friend was being very unreasonable and inconsiderate. We were only paid up until closing time but had to wait for that last customer. I often used to miss my bus because of it and then would have to wait another half hour.

This is a difficult one Imo. Shops are providing a customer service and it is staff’s role to serve and look after customers. If that requires staying a little late, so be it.

It's not a difficult one, shop within the hours stated! Shop staff are only shop staff within the hours they are paid. They are human beings with thier own lives and responsibilities and people like the OP's friend should respect that.

I am surprised at the abuse your friend is taking after spending (or trying to) what appears to ja a large sum. In my view shops are there to serve the needs of their customers and staff need to be customer focused and doing everything they can to meet and anticipate their needs.

Isn't it time to get on with your DHs routines and rituals?
Did he not leave enough time to go shopping?

Management would organise transport? You’ve never worked in retail have you?

Many places open Boxing Day and New Year’s Day when buses aren’t running at all. They still expect staff to be in and don’t care that you can’t get there or that the cost of a cab will be more than you will earn. They certainly aren’t going to lay on transport when you miss the bus.

She bought a bottle of gin, in pennies, hardly last of the big spender, but I guess they should just be grateful they have jobs.

The OPs friend has arrived and the arrogance is rolling off them 🙄

I work in retail. I don't give a shit if customers spend £1 or £1,000,000 in store, if they can't do it before the advertised CLOSING time then they can shop elsewhere.

I get paid just over NMW, which stops 10 minutes after the shop closes to allow for the 10 minutes of closing duties (locking the doors, emptying tills, taking them to the cash office, locking away keys and setting the alarms) required after closing which never take just 10 minutes but that is a different issue. None of those jobs can be completed until every customer is out of the shop, so if someone leaves at just one minute past closing time then they are forcing me to work for free.

Why is it OK to make people work for free because you can't organise yourself to get into the shop in the 15hrs of the day that we are open?

Why is it OK to assume we don't have better things to do with our evening than stand around waiting for you?

Why do you think we should schedule our day around you and your inability to be organised?

Why should I have to miss my bus because someone wants to stay 20 minutes past closing? Before I got a car I agreed to work until the shop closed 10pm knowing that there was a bus at 10.30pm so I had 30 minutes to get the closing duties done, go to the loo, get my stuff from my locker etc and make the 5 minute walk to the bus stop ... The number of times I missed that bus and then had to wait an hour for the last bus (which on a Fri/Sat was always full of drink people which definitely made me feel uncomfortable) due to arrogant customers was astounding!

Why should people risk having to be late for, and usually pay late fees to, school, childminders, after school clubs etc because some inconsiderate arsehole thinks that the time the store shuts doesn't apply to them? And of they don't want to risk being late then they invariably have to use their NMW to pay for extra care because even if their store closes at 5pm and the nursery is 5 minutes away, they can't guarantee that they can arrive by 5.30pm because customers don't give a shit, so instead they have to pay until 6pm ...

Customers need to stop being so entitled. The customer didn't seem to spend a large sum. Compared to the takings in the day, it's nothing.

I am surprised at the abuse your friend is taking after spending (or trying to) what appears to ja a large sum. In my view shops are there to serve the needs of their customers and staff need to be customer focused and doing everything they can to meet and anticipate their needs.

Where does it end though? 30 minutes after closing, an hour? Should someone be in the shop 24/7 in case a customer wants to make a large purchase? Shop staff often get paid minimum wage, they are not on commission, if they stay late to assist in a large purchase they do not earn any extra money, they earn less because thier wage then goes below minimum. Shops have set opening hours, they are there to serve between those hours.

I'm a retail worker, I'm great with customers and do everything I can during opening hours. But I am not a slave, I am entitled to my free time, if someone is in the store when I need to be leaving to collect my DCs then they are going to be rushed and recieve below standard service.

And yes, high street stores are closing left, right and centre, but the entitled customers like OP's friend who come in right before closing and expect the shop to keep open after hours are not the ones keeping shops afloat. It's usually the opposite because more often than not they make small purchases or do not purchase anything at all.

We have a shop that's open from 0600 until 2300 every day.

There's always people angry they can't come at 0530 or 2310 though.

We would have put your friend out after a couple of friendly reminders. I tell people at 11 that a couple of items is fine and tell them they definitely don't need a basket if I see them pick one up.

I don't like turning away business but we're open for 17 hours every day. If you can't put an appearance inside those 17 hours then sorry but I feel like I've already kept up my side of the deal

I honestly wouldn't be friends with her anymore. You can tell a lot about a person by the way they treat those they deem 'below' them.

And I'm not friends with people who treat others this way.

You friend is a prick.

*your

Have you ever worked in retail?

Why do you think that I would care how much a customer is spending? I do serve the needs of my customers and am customer focused and do everything I can to meet and anticipate their needs...during opening hours.

The staff should just stay there 24/7 you never know when a customer needs something really really important

Not only that, its actually illegal to pay less than NMW which is what the shop would be doing

I've worked in retail. People like OPs friend are entitled dicks and store staff hate them. They have contracted hours at their own jobs so why do think it's different for retail staff? They'd do well to remember closing time = close of trade. We were paid past close of trade- but paid to cash up, tidy, file paperwork, complete banking and close down for the night and lock up and leave securely. Anyone taking more than 5 minutes to be last through the till past close of trade basically forced us to work for free and potentially ruined our evening with missed transport.

Obviously in some circumstances- emergencies, sorting out errors, finishing up large transactions or doing something exceptional we'd suck it up as necessary but no one LIKES it and it certainly shouldn't be expected that you have a "right" to stay past closing. Dependant on how customer-bum-licking store policies and guide lines are, staff can also be a bit tied as to how much they can get people out. We would advise we were soon to close and then if anyone seemed determined to hang on in, we just turned the music off. It mostly worked but some people are oblivious, entitled dicks.

Don't get me started on Christmas Eve trade. The amount of times people would say we had ruined Christmas when their own lack of planning and sloppy time keeping were the real reasons...

What nonsense.

The retail staff are probably being paid NMW so they will hardly benefit from the OP's friend spending a large sum of money in store.

It is the company that will benefit from the friend's expenditure, and it is therefore the company that needs to ensure that excellent customer service can be provided.

This is not achieved through exploiting poorly paid staff by making them do unpaid overtime which would probably reduce their actual earning to less than NMW rates. It could be achieved by employing - and crucially paying - staff to work for an additional half hour or so post closing time in order to ensure that the customer's needs are met.

I would bet my house that you’ve never worked in retail.