They Flipped On You Before They Even Walked In

I work at a gift shop that closes at 5:00 pm, the same time the park it’s in closes, but because it’s going to rain tonight, we have to move our outdoor fixtures inside.

We have the main doors open so we can get the fixtures through. As I’m holding the door, a lady who is leaving the park gets past me and heads over to the sign on our front door.

I can see that she sees it says “closed”, and she… just… f****** flips it to say “open”! I just watch her do this in shocked silence, and when she turns around, we make eye contact and just stare at each other for a second.

Me: “Why did you do that?”

Customer: “Well, aren’t you open?”

Okay, maybe she just thought we had made a mistake with the signs and made the heroic effort to fix it for us — still annoying, but people are stupid.

Me: “Ma’am, we are closed. We’re just keeping the doors open to bring the outside product inside.

Customer: “Well, you should be open, you know. You should be getting all the sales you can right now!”

Me: “Well, we’re—”

Customer: “So, I’m just going to browse over there.”

Me: “Uh… no, ma’am. We’re closed.”

Customer: “But I just flipped the sign for you!”

Me: “Yes, but that doesn’t mean we’re suddenly open.”

Customer: “Yes, it does!”

Me: “No, it doesn’t.”

Customer: “If the sign says ‘open’, you’re open!”

I walked around to the sign, swung it to “closed”, and then just stared at the customer. She just grunted and walked back out, mumbling, “But the sign…”