Closing Down The Store, And Any Sympathy
I work for a small family business with two locations about an hour away from each other. We close at 6 PM, so naturally, when someone comes in within the 5:45 PM – 6 PM window, we let them know we’re closing soon.
This guy and his kid come in with ten minutes left in the day. The cashier up front lets them know we’ll be closing soon. One other guy comes in at 5:56 PM, so we let him know we close shortly, but he can grab what he needs. He nicely grabs one thing and cashes out.
The other guy and his kid are looking at stuff in the sports department, so I give them the heads up:
Me: “We have about two minutes left until closing.”
Customer: “Okay, thank you.”:
No big deal.
At 6:03 PM, mind you, I still have to cash the drawer out and wait for everyone to grab their stuff and punch out so I can lock the store up, so I say to the father:
Me: “We’ve now closed, can you please take your purchase to the register?”
I only said it because you could absolutely tell he was in no hurry and had ten employees just standing around waiting to turn the lights off, so no more customers would try coming in.
Customer: *Gets mad immediately.* “Really? It’s not like it’s 6:15?! You’re gonna do this over a sale?”
His kid tells him to stop.
Me: “We’re not really worried about a sale, honestly.”
Customer: “Oh yeah? You’re a real team player, huh?!”
Me: “Yeah, I am, I’m trying to get my team out of here on time.”
Customer: “F****** unbelievable.”
He starts muttering nonsensical babble. His kid tells him not to be an a**.
Customer: *Pointing to me.* “He’s the a**!”
He does, at this point, walk to the counter. The cashier greets him.
Cashier: “You all good?”
Customer: “I’m good!” *He’s obviously not.*
Me: “If I really wanted to be an a**, I could not allow you to pay for that.”
I could’ve just let him call me an a**, but I wanted him to know I was doing him a favor by even letting him cash out. We’ve kicked people out for far less than swearing at employees.
Customer: “Okay, wait until I tell your boss!”
Me: “Okay, I’m right here? We all let you know we closed at six and gave you plenty of time, some of us have places to be, families to get home to. You’re the only one in the store who seems to disagree here.”
He buys his item and storms out. He gets in his truck, honking the horn a bunch as he peels out of the parking lot. I’m glad your horn works, man, it was pretty quiet through our thick doors and walls though.
I have a bit of a rule when it comes to the customers. If you’re nice and cooperative, I’ll go out of my way to help you. I’ve done it for many customers. But if you’re gonna make mine and my coworkers’ lives h***, it’s out of the question. I won’t even help you at all.
