Retail store hours...when is closed really closed?

[DisneyNutMary]

I work in a large supermarket chain. We allow customers to enter until closing time, but we start announcing the closing time about 30 minutes ahead.
Since our employees are scheduled to punch out at closing, or 15 minutes later, we do not subscribe to the philosophy that you can take your time as long as you get in before the closing time. At closing, we make the final announcement that the registers close in five minutes, and we have employees start a sweep at the back of the store, herding customers forward.

 

[Hrhpd]

Walked into a jewelry store today exactly 30 minutes before closing. They had put up all the jewelry for the day. A couple of weeks ago I went into the FedEx store 40 minutes before closing to get documents notorized. Lady said comeback tomorrow, it would take too long to do "this close to closing". It was 10 minutes work max.

So, am I being unreasonable to expect a business to be ready to do business 30 minutes BEFORE closing? I haven't worked in that type of business in 36 years. In those days our work hours extended 30 minutes after closing to the public. That allowed time to count cash, setup for the next day, dump the trash and clean up. Now it seems workers are out the door right at closing.

Larger stores, I think the doors should be open until their closing time. However, there is nothing wrong with shutting down the registers 5 minutes after closing. One big box where I shop locks the doors right at closing. But they also dim the lights and start announcing that the registers will be closed in 5 minutes and to bring your purchases up right now. So, somebody who slipped 5 minutes before closing cannot shop for an hour.

For a niche store like a jewelry store, whenever they feel they need to close. 30 minutes seems a bit early, but if they can stay in business that way, then that is their decision.

Fedex I completely understand. They are not really a retail store, but a shipping service. Although they do other stuff too. They have deadlines to get things shipped out on time, so that takes priority. If they are backed up and can't stop to do the non-essential stuff, they can definitely tell you to come back tomorrow. That is no different than walking in during the morning and them telling you that there is a couple hour wait to get it done and you can pick up your stuff later, which I have had happen. I would expect them to accept a package to ship up to the shipping deadline (store hours) but I would be surprised if they could do any of the other services during the last hour of business.

 

[Hrhpd]

There's a restaurant in our town..nothing fancy, pretty much a dive with good sandwiches and burgers. Their "closing" is so fluid that you never know when they are going to be there. They have 9pm posted on their web site, but we've called for a take out order at 7 and been told "we're already cleaning the grill, sorry". Moral of the story, they did that to so many potential customers that people stopped going there at any hour...a year later they were out of business. If you want to survive you better be open to provide the service you are selling. Oh, and then they complained how they just "couldn't make enough money to stay open"...Duh!

I know a rib place like that. They serve until they are out of ribs. They rarely make it past lunch and have even run out during the latter part of lunch. You never know when you can get food. BUT, their food is so good, there is always a line out the door for lunch. You just hope you are one of the lucky ones to get in on time.

 

[Tiffylv]

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[AJ1983]

What are disco fries that a pp mentioned?

 

[MrsDuck]

I worked at Hallmark in college. We dreaded when people would come into the store with 5-10 minutes before closing as they would almost always stay past the posted closing time making it hard for us to finish up our day and go home.

I'd expect a store to be normal and functioning until the posted close time. OP, the examples you provided are unacceptable, IMO!

 

[AJ1983]

What are disco fries that a pp mentioned?

Never mind, I googled it. Its what we call poutine in Canada lol

 

[design_mom]

I think that stores should be open for business until their posted closing time, but customers should plan to complete their business by the posted closing time, too. I don't think people should scoot in 5 minutes before closing if they can't complete their shopping in 5 minutes.

Once, I tried to enter a drug store that also had a photo counter. I had ordered and paid for my photos online. I just needed to pick them up. As I approached the door 10 minutes before closing, the girl ran up and locked the door (I saw her do it.) Very frustrating. I don't print my pictures there anymore, just for the principle of it.

Another time, my husband and I went to a sandwich shop (kind of like a Subway, but it wasn't a Subway) about an hour before closing. We ordered hot sandwiches. The sales girl kind of sighed and asked us if we'd order something else. Apparently the boss had told them that since it had been slow they could close early and they'd already put away all of the hot ingredients. She offered to make us a cold sandwich, so that was what we got, but it was very odd.

 

[Kellykins1218]

I worked in a chain store in the mall and we had to clock out at whatever hour the mall closed. We always shut down our last register 15 minutes before so that we could get the deposit ready and be able to clock out on time.

 

[tvguy]

Also do they charge for the Notarizing?
Or is this a free service offered?

They charge. We had some documents we had received that day that we wanted to FedEX back immediately. We went to our bank, which does it for free, but the Notary does not work weekends and this was a Saturday. Since we had to go to Fed Ex anyway, we figured we'd just pay the fee.

 

[mmouse37]

I worked hourly retail for 23 years. We had to serve customers right up until our posted closing time and often we did not get off the registers and have everyone out of the store until 10 or 15 minutes past closing time. Many customers understood and would leave when we started pulling the gates part way but others would come in between the gates and shop full well knowing we were closing in a few minutes. We also had to stay for at least 45 minutes after closing to make sure we were stocked and had the sales floor ready for the morning crew.

MJ

 

[tvguy]

As an hourly employee, we have to clock out at closing.

I assume you can leave then at closing too. I hope they don't make you stay and work for free after closing.

 

[tvguy]

We went to a Chinese restaurant in a high-end strip mall 30 mins before closing but they said it had been a slow night so the chef had already gone.

On a road-trip I was ready for a late breakfast so went to a fast-food restaurant just off the freeway, and the sign said they opened at 11 a.m. This was 11:15 a.m. and the cashier was still preparing the cash drawer and refused to take a simple order.

I can understand the tough decisions restaurants have to make. It can be a guessing game. We were almost turned away from a restaurant Friday night, 2 hours before closing, because we didn't have a reservation. 5 of the 17 tables were vacate, but they had reservations for them. Manager did some shuffling of tables and got us in. Waitress said they had an unusually high number of reservations, many of them for late times that night. Manager came up an apologized at the end of our meal for not seating us immediately, because NONE of the people with reservations showed. Only 2 other tables ended up with customers, and they were both walkups too. But they HAD to assume everyone with a reservation was going to show up. I get that.

 

[3 MEN AND A BOAT]

I assume you can leave then at closing too. I hope they don't make you stay and work for free after closing.

I know I wouldn't.

I had an argument with a supervisor when I was hired on for The Vessels of Opportunity program through BP after the Oil Spill. We where hired to work 8hr days and they had us attend a meeting at 6:00AM every morning. We would clock in, attend the meeting then we'd head out. My father and I on one boat, my brother on another and we'd return at 2:00pm. They called us into the office one day to lecture how we are suppose to stay out until 3. I said that's overtime, they asked if we stop for lunch? No. Well it's 6:30 till 2:30, I said No your meeting is at 6. They seriously couldn't grasp it. Even threatened to terminate us. I told them go ahead, I had my state senator on speed dial at that time and knew him well. The contractors they had in charge of these programs had no clue what they where doing.

ETA-their contract stating anything over an 8hr day was paid time and a half.

 

[tvguy]

I know I wouldn't.

I had an argument with a supervisor when I was hired on for The Vessels of Opportunity program through BP after the Oil Spill. We where hired to work 8hr days and they had us attend a meeting at 6:00AM every morning. We would clock in, attend the meeting then we'd head out. My father and I on one boat, my brother on another and we'd return at 2:00pm. They called us into the office one day to lecture how we are suppose to stay out until 3. I said that's overtime, they asked if we stop for lunch? No. Well it's 6:30 till 2:30, I said No your meeting is at 6. They seriously couldn't grasp it. Even threatened to terminate us. I told them go ahead, I had my state senator on speed dial at that time and knew him well. The contractors they had in charge of these programs had no clue what they where doing.

ETA-their contract stating anything over an 8hr day was paid time and a half.

My wife's union contract allows 4 unpaid staff meetings a year. Last one was scheduled 2 hours after the end of her shift. Hour long meeting, so 3 hours. No pay. But the union agreed to it.
I've been hourly for 23 of my 39 working years. The 16 years I was salaried, bosses made no bones about it, they could work you 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 52 weeks a year without comp time or overtime. The good managers would give us comp time at a rate of time and a half, but not every boss felt that way.

 

[MickeySP]

I know a rib place like that. They serve until they are out of ribs. They rarely make it past lunch and have even run out during the latter part of lunch. You never know when you can get food. BUT, their food is so good, there is always a line out the door for lunch. You just hope you are one of the lucky ones to get in on time.

Was this place on Diners, Drive ins & Dives? I seem to remember a place like that on one of his shows.

I assume you can leave then at closing too. I hope they don't make you stay and work for free after closing.

I worked at a place did the same thing, it was to be in adherence to state law for school kids who worked there. They couldn't work past a certain time. One manager would make them clock out then try & make them stay to finish the cleaning. When the big manager found out, he didn't last so long.

 

[Albort]

ive gotten worse. Went bowling around 8pm, they were closing at 11 according to the hours. We paid for 2 hours, they came by at 9 telling us they were gonna close at 9:30. wouldnt refund us the remainder. just gave us $1 off coupons for the next time. ***!

 

[tvguy]

ive gotten worse. Went bowling around 8pm, they were closing at 11 according to the hours. We paid for 2 hours, they came by at 9 telling us they were gonna close at 9:30. wouldnt refund us the remainder. just gave us $1 off coupons for the next time. ***!

Wow, a bowling alley that closes? They're all 24 hours around here. A couple of them even have leagues that start at midnight for folks that work 230 to 1130 pm

 

[missnic]

If a store has posted hours until 9:00, I expect to be able to shop until 9:00. If you feel the need to close your store at 8:30, change your hours or at least put up a sign stating such. If I can help it, I won't be shopping during that last hour or whatever, but sometimes things come up. I also understand that employees may have additional duties, but selling things and making money for the company is also one of those duties.

We once walked into a pizza place that had no hours posted on the door. There were people eating, so we figured they were open, and it wasn't that late. We got these blank stares from the staff, who very rudely told us they were closed. After they looked at us like we had two heads. Needless to say, we've never tried their pizza.

 

[3 MEN AND A BOAT]

ive gotten worse. Went bowling around 8pm, they were closing at 11 according to the hours. We paid for 2 hours, they came by at 9 telling us they were gonna close at 9:30. wouldnt refund us the remainder. just gave us $1 off coupons for the next time. ***!

If I paid for 2hrs, they'd have either let me bowl for 2hrs or given me at least a prorated refund. Unless their was some sort of emergency then that changes things. But I'd have continued to throw balls down the alley.