We Know LA Has Gangs, But The Old-Ladies-Stay-Past-Closing Gang Is A New One To Us…

There was one retail job I worked where this elderly lady would walk in about five minutes before closing, about once per week. It was never the same one twice, but there were at least five or six different ones taking turns. She would enter as we’re about to close the doors, and she would then wander up and down the aisles.

At about forty-five minutes past close, she would walk back out, as if everyone was doing this. Turning off the lights and the music didn’t work. Other people saw it as a signal that we’re closed, but the elderly woman there that day would just keep walking up and down the aisles like nothing happened.

One of my coworkers confronted her:

Coworker: “Ma’am, we’re about to close and lock the doors.”

Customer: *Angrily.* “Don’t speak to me!”

Any time any of us would try to speak to any of them, they would say this. Interaction with them was NOT welcome.

A few days later, we got word from corporate that we were no longer allowed to tell customers we’re closing, because it would upset them.

So now we knew they called corporate! 

Since we can’t lock the doors until closing time and, of course, we can’t lock them until everyone is out, there isn’t anything we can do but wait for them to leave. The alarm system is controlled by corporate; the manager has to call corporate to tell them we’re about to leave, and they will turn on the alarm.

Since we’re supposed to be done and call corporate to start the alarms within sixty minutes of closing, our only option was to clean up the store and other closing duties as the uninvited guest was ambling about.

Going over security footage and checking inventory, they never stole anything, so the whole time we worked there, no one could figure out why they were there. There is a store across the street open twenty-four hours if they want to wander around for a little under an hour.

Years later, I think it’s because they wanted to kill time at a place where there would be no one else around to bother them, and they chose us. That twenty-four-hour store may have had too many people for their liking (that is, any customers at all), and they knew our corporate would bend to their will.