Retail Memories: Closing Hell At The Software Store

JAH here - former slave at the late great software store (from hell?). 

The recent video of the Wal-Mart manager refusing entry twenty minutes before closing on Christmas Eve reminds me of working at the mall at closing time.

The gate would come down a quarter of the way five minutes before closing (this after the mall's PA announcements starting half an hour before closing) as a suggestion or notice to incoming (and existing) customers that it was getting close to closing. At closing, the gate would come half-way down - but, of course, there would always be people who were still in the store or who would duck under the gate, thinking nothing of why it was half down (or not caring).

When customers were still in the store a few minutes after closing, we'd close the gate to 3/4th and then let it up as the customers left. It blew me away when some customers would duck (or possibly limbo) under the gate or jump in when the gate came up to let people out. Once the automated gate was broken so we had to close it manually and some customers would lift the gate up to come in. Ack!

My favorite thing about closing was when I worked with an assistant manager who didn't give a damn about customers (really, quite terrible customer service - but sometimes it was funny). He would break out the vacuum two or three minutes to closing and (very loudly) vacuum the rug around the customers who were loitering. This was in addition to the gate coming down (and some telling glares). One time, we had someone who was still browsing ten minutes later... the gate was down, the vacuum had been used, the mall had made its last PA announcements, and finally the manager shut the lights off ... and the guy kept browsing.... for another five minutes! I'm sure it had become a battle of wills between him and this customer (who could not have possibly been that clueless). 

The way I see it, social contract theory takes care of opening and closing times. The store (and mall in this case) agrees to be open between posted hours and you, as the consumer, agree to shop within those times. If you show up early and bang on the gate or stay late, then you have broken the social contract! What happens then? Oh, you know this one... dogs and cats living together, mass hysteria. I'm often amazed at how little consideration the customers give to this basic concept... or, more to the point, what they would do if the situation was reversed.

I haven't worked at that software store now for 15 years but occasionally I have nightmares about customers coming in past closing - making us 2 to 3 hours late leaving, not being able to keep them out, throwing people out physically only to have them come back in. Having a lull where it looked like we were about to close only to have a mob of people barge in.

Argh! That place messed me up for life!

--JAH

 

Comments

[Sky]

I used to work at a small specialty grocery store chain where no department's employees could leave until the store was empty of customers, and on Saturday nights when we closed at 8pm, there would always be this one lady who would come in at 7:45 that everyone HATED.

She would start shopping and not stop until her cart was loaded to the top - usually 45 minutes to an hour later. When confronted that the store was closed, she would say "Oh, but I only have to get another few things," and of course the manager would just shrug to all of us and the lady would go on her way. (BTW, the manager was pushing policy by telling her the store was closed - it`s not the manager`s fault, but head office.)

She even told the cashier that she did this on purpose so she didn`t have to deal with the crowds. This woman was the major cause of people blocking closing Saturday shifts off in our store, and the only ones who would take those shifts were the newbies who quickly learned to hate everyone.

It`s been 7 years since I worked at that store, and I`m surprised at the amount of hate that bubbled up for that woman as I wrote this. Just goes to show that being inconsiderate can affect people more than you think it would.

[heavy melvanova]

"Oh, you know this one... dogs and cats living together, mass hysteria."

ooo, ooo, ooo, I know, I know ... Ghostbusters! Do I get a gold star?

[Drug Store Diva]

I joke with my closing managers "Can I PLEEEEEASE page 'Get the fuck out, we're closed' " when we have the last minute stragglers. I have one who tells customers that the register is going to shut down then we can't scan anything.

Our most common excuse though..."I thought you were open 24 hours". My store has never been a 24 hour store, and never will be just because of it's location, too high crime.

[NC Tony]

I always like to mumble under my breath "Now get the fuck out" when the automated "We are now closed" message plays over the PA at my job.

I had a manager at Starbucks that used to joke with the other employees to let people know we were closing in five minutes and if they weren't out by then we would release the hounds (hence the reason I included hounds on the Slaves Wish List 2011). Kinda makes you wish you could have a big burly dude... even better... a robot to come around at closing time and physically throw stragglers out.

[paullywitch]

I had one manager who would not even let us make closing announcements. we once had a customer stay an hour and a half after closing time because of that. Thankfully my supervisor let me go at closing and said she would stay until the custy left or I most likely would have had to walk the 5 miles back home.

[ajason495]

i work in that fine line of

-1- you need the money and the sales, you shouldnt dare upset a customer.

and

-2- you need to leave within 30 minutes after close as you have no additional payroll.

um ok. I also like how almost all my late night after close shoppers always buy like 1, $10 thing.

[RockerChic]

Don't hate me, but I haven't worked a closing shift in quite awhile but before I switched to mornings, I would regularly work closing shifts for the first three years of my employment at my store (where you can expect great things).

My mangers and supervisors were very good at getting us out of the store. They would all pitch in to clean up and get our department people out a few minutes before the store itself actually closed (on slow days). They would do the fifteen minute closing announcement half an hour before the store closed and if anyone was still shopping fifteen minutes (give or take, except for Christmas sales) after we closed, they would tell us to shut down the registers and tell the, to come back when we were open.

Also, I could swear I've seen this story somewhere on here before. Anyone else feel a waveof deja vu when reading this?

[JBee]

I liked the few managers we had at Kohl's who would just shut down all the registers for counting something like 10 minutes after closing, and then tell stragglers that they could put their items on hold and come back in the morning. We had one customer pitch such a fit (she screamed for what seemed like 5 minutes) that they actually re-opened a register for her.

The most frustrating day I had with store closed issues was at a Halloween store, the day after Halloween. We were closed for store break down and stock counting, with signs on the door, and we had been mentioning to customers for weeks (when appropriate) that we would be closed that day. But people still kept coming up and pounding to come in, sometimes I was afraid they would break the glass. I guess some people had some after Halloween parties they just URGENTLY needed a costume for!