Thinking Outside The Box… And Store

This was relayed to me by the co-worker who worked the night before my morning shift. 

He had a customer in the shop who was taking their sweet time, oblivious to the fact that all of the other customers had left, the lights were halfway off, and the vacuum was being run right behind them.

Being told that the shop was closed and had been closed for the past ten minutes wasn’t enough to encourage them to leave.

Customer: “I’m still shopping, and I don’t want to wait outside for the bus.”

Coworker: “Then let me show you something that you’ll be interested in.”

He takes them to the front of the store, opens the front door, and holds the door open for them. As soon as they step through, he shuts and locks the door.

Customer: “Hey!”

Coworker: *Points to the hours posted.* “We are closed. Goodnight.”

Later that day, I actually talked to the customer! They wanted to file a complaint with the manager. Unfortunately for them, I was the acting manager while my co-worker was the actual manager. When I went into his office to let him know, he looked through the one-way mirror out onto the sales floor, rolled his eyes, and told me to say, “Like the manager said yesterday when he closed the door behind you, we close at [time] every night.”

After I relayed to them the message, I took great joy in watching their face scrunch up like they just had a pile of lemons shoved into their mouth and stomp out.