Stores closing earlier than advertised time

munchkette

Old thread but I was fuming this evening after going to my local Tesco metro and finding the doors closed 10mins before closing time.

I get that staff are people too and they have homes to go to but that is not my problem as far as I'm concerned. I really don't see why half of this thread has been dedicated to retail workers complaining about customers coming in at the last minute and being inconsiderate. What time you start or finish is none of my concern. That is between you and the shop. My concern is if the shop states the opening hours are x until y hours. I expect to be able to enter the shop to purchase goods up until y hours. If not then it should be clearly stated on the door that the shop closes it's doors ten minutes early.

geordie_joe

munchkette wrote: »

I get that staff are people too and they have homes to go to but that is not my problem as far as I'm concerned.

The staff probably thought the same about you too.

munchkette wrote: »

I really don't see why half of this thread has been dedicated to retail workers complaining about customers coming in at the last minute and being inconsiderate.

Because there are two sides to the story, and both sides have had their say. I don't really see why you want to restrict it to just your side of the story, that seems selfish to me.

munchkette wrote: »

What time you start or finish is none of my concern. That is between you and the shop.

Well you seem to be very concerned about it to me. Otherwise why are you complaining about the staff taking steps to ensure they finished on time.

munchkette wrote: »

My concern is if the shop states the opening hours are x until y hours. I expect to be able to enter the shop to purchase goods up until y hours.

Yes but if they let you in right up until y hours there will be a good chance you will not have completed your shopping until after y hours. I think it is selfish to expect the staff to work after they have stopped being paid just because you didn't bother going to the shop until the last minute.

munchkette wrote: »

If not then it should be clearly stated on the door that the shop closes it's doors ten minutes early.

I agree, but you would still get people turning up at 9 minutes to closing and complaining they couldn't get in.

juno

munchkette wrote: »

Old thread but I was fuming this evening after going to my local Tesco metro and finding the doors closed 10mins before closing time.

I get that staff are people too and they have homes to go to but that is not my problem as far as I'm concerned. I really don't see why half of this thread has been dedicated to retail workers complaining about customers coming in at the last minute and being inconsiderate. What time you start or finish is none of my concern. That is between you and the shop. My concern is if the shop states the opening hours are x until y hours. I expect to be able to enter the shop to purchase goods up until y hours. If not then it should be clearly stated on the door that the shop closes it's doors ten minutes early.

But if you have a doctor's appointment you wouldn't get there dead on time and still expect to be seen - you'd be there a few minutes early.

Or if your train is at 5pm, they close the doors 30 seconds early!

So when you have to walk round a large shop and find things and get through the tills by closing time, you are being ridiculous by not leaving time for that. Especially as, on Sundays, large shops are not allowed to have their tills open for more than 6 hours. You are expecting them to break the law if you want to be served after closing time. Equally, the shop may only have an alcohol licence until closing time, so by buying alcohol after that time again you're expecting them to break the law.

Middy

I have done night shifts before and got gormless people knocking on the window at 3am 'ARE YOU OPEN?'

Also have worked on store refits when the the store was closed for 7-10 days. Thicko people shout 'ARE YOU OPEN?' Well, we can take you around, but there is nothing on the shelves!

[Deleted User]

I used to be a key holder for a high street retail shop and ran the store on Sundays. We used to close at 3pm and depending if any customers were in the store, I would be locking the door 10 even 15 minutes early. Even then I wouldn't have the last customer leaving until at least 10 minutes past closing time. If I had left the door open until 3pm on the dot and allowed more people in, I wouldn't be getting closed until well over closing time.

It's always the gormless people that like to wander around for ages that come in at closing time.

skivenov

I remember the ones well. You politely inform them as they enter that you're closing in 10 minutes. 9 minutes later you invite them to the till. 2 minutes after that you tell them they need to pay now and leave they say "yeah ok".

2 minutes after that you tell them to get out, and they still wander off.

Then the next morning they complain to your area manager because you took them by the arm and lead them out the door.

:wall:

I never used to be able to understand it when I worked Saturday nightshifts for Tesco. The store had been open constantly since 6am on Monday, and they hadn't found a time to come in before we closed at 10:30pm on a Saturday. :think:

Middy

skivenov wrote: »

I
I never used to be able to understand it when I worked Saturday nightshifts for Tesco. The store had been open constantly since 6am on Monday, and they hadn't found a time to come in before we closed at 10:30pm on a Saturday. :think:

These 24 hour stores are open 84.5% of the hours of the week (142 out of 168). If you cannot find on average 40 mins of your week to do your shopping during this time, you need to get a bloody life!

skivenov

Exactly! I'd got a dozen places I'd rather have been on a Saturday night and I was being paid to be there.

aliaslotte

After last night, where I left work 15 minutes late because of customers entering the store when we had closed, I feel the need to post lol. At work, we can only shut the shutters together - rather than having one open and one closed. So, we tend to put them 1/4 of the way down about 2 minutes before we close, to discourage anyone else from coming in but so as to not lock in the customers already in store. Last night, a handful of customers continued to browse after the 5.30pm close time and then - to add to the annoyance - two customers ducked under the shutters and started browsing too! There is no security guard at the store and the manager was upstairs, so we had no option but to wait for them to come to the till and pay. Whilst I understand that people don't always care about shop workers, it is flat rude to browse around a store at closing time lol! The time stated is when you should have paid and be out of the store again, not the last moment you can run in and then take your time... I guess I find it so annoying because it isn't something I would do. I'm not a 'last minute' kind of shopper.

I miss the days when I worked at a big electrical company. They had the 'lock the doors at quarter to' policy and the security guard would then make announcements every 5 minutes to inform the customers instore that we were closing. Whilst I would still have to work beyond my time [as I had to reconcile the tills], it did mean that most of the customers had been served and had left the store by closing time.

savemoney

I pick my wife up some nights working at Sainsburys and even upon closing time there still people wanting to go in right up to the time they close. They often close the door going in and right next to it is the door you go out and people still try and get past the staff at door. The staff have lives too, if you want to shop late go 15/20 minutes before shop closes unless its for a paper/cigs or something quick to grab etc