Shops closing early and locking the doors!

Money-Saving-King

Sponge wrote: »

I suppose there's two schools of thought here. The first, a customer should be able to enter a shop at any time right up until closing. So, if the store closes a 1700, then they should be able to walk in at 1659 and continue to shop beyond that time.

The problem with the first school of thought which is why you've probably moved towards the second is if you went in at 16:59 exactly how long were you planning on being in there for?

marliepanda

I don't believe there should be a school of thought where as long as you're in by 4.59 you can stay as long as you want!

Regardless of staffing a store should be empty of customers at closing. It's not just a case of as long as you're in before closing you can do what you like.

Does ANYONE actually think that?

GwylimT

When I was younger I used to work in a corner shop, the shop officially closed at 10pm, we however used to close at 9:15 as after the shop doors were locked we had to cash up 6 tills, remove and count all tabacco products, remove the daily papers count them and put them in certain bags to return. There were only two people on these shifts and so it did take around 45 minutes to do it all, we weren't paid past 10 pm and no one should have to work for free five days a week.

Money-Saving-King

marliepanda wrote: »

I don't believe there should be a school of thought where as long as you're in by 4.59 you can stay as long as you want!

Does ANYONE actually think that?

I already know the usernames of people on here who do think like that!

Poppie68

[quote=[Deleted User];64794393]Emailed both local store and head office. Got reply from local store.

Story is they were having some work done so had to close at 1155. As if you're going to bother to close 5 mins early when the store is closing anyway.

I have pointed out that I was there at 1145 and wasn't told this only told 'hes gone home - we're closed'.

Got a feeling the staff were paid to stay on after closing to allow this work to be done but instead chose to lock the door and start early so they could get out normal time. Wonder what head office will make of that....[/QUOTE]


You don't even know who these people where, the manager/staff may off gone home a hour before you got there, maybe this was a scheduled early close....i take it you did look for any kind of 'early closing notice' and did you take pictures to prove there wasn't one put up?

Nothing like assumption is there?
Your last sentence comes across as childish glee.....abit like the class goody too shoes running to tell teacher a tale.

RosiPossum

I think people should be able to enter up to closing time, as long as they can be at the till by closing time.
If I needed a weekly shop, I'd not dream of trying to go in at 10 to closing to do that. If I needed a bottle of milk and a bag of bananas, I think it's reasonable to expect to be allowed in.

It's a tough one, though, when staff aren't being paid past closing. It's a pita for the consumer, but why anyone expects people to work for free is beyond me.
I too have to get handovers at work but they include that in the time, luckily!

Poppie68

[quote=[Deleted User];64797662]More then likely they'd locked the door early, one person had gone, the other one was just leaving and that was all he could think of to say as an excuse to not open up. i.e. nothing to do with me.

We'll see what head office have to say....[/QUOTE]




In your opening post you say there were people sitting there...now there is only one person.
People were sitting - now nobody is sitting, not even the one person you now say was there...as you say the one person is just leaving, and if the one person were sitting you wouldn't have any reason to think they were just leaving.:D

Sharon87

When I worked in a shop on Sundays you had to get everyone through the tills by closing because of the trading laws. We had to rush people about 10 minutes before official closing to get them to the tills on time. If you were still serving people on the till at 10-15 minutes after closing the store could get into trouble.

Obviously the trading law only applies to Sunday, but shops try to apply the same rules - last customer served by the closing time.

marliepanda

Maybe my past retail experience is dulling my senses but I can't see another place where 'getting in' just before closing means that's ok to stay past close.

Walking into a lawyers just before close and have an hour consultation?

Walk into a theme park before closing and ride all the rides?

Into a dentists at five to and get a filling done?

Closing time is not a race to get into a shop.

Money-Saving-King

marliepanda wrote: »

Maybe my past retail experience is dulling my senses but I can't see another place where 'getting in' just before closing means that's ok to stay past close.

Walking into a lawyers just before close and have an hour consultation?

Walk into a theme park before closing and ride all the rides?

Into a dentists at five to and get a filling done?

Closing time is not a race to get into a shop.

If you go into the legal aspect as above (Sunday Trading) without a shadow of a doubt being closed means no more sales so I think we now can conclude that closed means stopped trading.