‘Twas The Night Before Christmas And All Through The Store, Overstaying Customers Were Such A Chore

It’s Christmas Eve and a Friday. Typically, Fridays are my late shift, working from 4:00 pm until 10:00 pm with the store shutting at midnight. We are shutting at 7:00 pm because of Christmas, so my shift is pulled forward to 1:00 pm to 7:00 pm.

It’s not very busy for the last hour, and I spend it doing numerous tannoy announcements to customers to remind them that we are shutting soon and to please bear this in mind as they shop. My colleagues and I also want to be out on time, so I go round at 6:55 pm and tell every customer in the store to go to the checkouts. I get to the chilled section, one of the first sections in the store, at 6:57 pm and encounter a mum and her daughter.

Me: “Hello! I just need you to go to the checkouts now as we shut in three minutes.”

They both stare at me with a look of mild confusion.

Mum: “You… you’re kidding right? You close at midnight on a Friday.”

Me: “Typically, we do, ma’am, but due to it being Christmas Eve, we’re shutting at 7:00 pm. It’s been this way for years. I do need you to go to a checkout, or, if you haven’t done any shopping yet, to please leave.”

I can tell from the bags in their trolley that they have barely picked anything up. Our security guard was helping a customer at 6:50 pm and couldn’t shut the doors quickly enough to stop people coming in, so they’ve evidently not been in the store long.

Daughter: “My mum only finished work at 6:30 pm. We need to do the rest of our Christmas shop for the fresh food tomorrow.”

Me: “Well, I’m sorry, but we cannot remain open any longer and you’ll have to go to the checkouts.”

I am called away by a manager for a moment. When I come back, they are lumping items into their trolley, desperately trying to get the bits they need.

Me: “I am insisting you go to a checkout now. If you don’t, I can’t serve you at a checkout.”

Mum: “Yes, yes, we’re heading that way now!”

They then spend the next five minutes putting their shopping through a till. My supervisor has to pull all the money from the tills and can’t leave, so we have to wait.

As they leave:

Mum: “You know, we didn’t realise you shut at 7:00 pm, but you haven’t been very accommodating.”

Me: “With all due respect, ma’am, we all have families to go home to. And your lack of organisation is not our problem. Have a lovely Christmas.”

We locked the door behind them and ran to lock the tills in the cash office and clock out. When I got home a little late and told my husband the story, he couldn’t believe that people have both the audacity to be rude to us for shutting early but also to leave their Christmas shopping so late. We had been open twenty-four-seven for the whole week leading up to Christmas.