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If my retail experience is any indication, acknowledging customers in this situation is a bad idea. Before you know it, the conversation turns to “I just need one thing!” Or “I promise I’ll be really quick!” and you have to become the asshole to tell them no… Even though the store hours are clearly listed on the front door.
Or if you agree even once, the conversation could easily become “but you did it for me/my friend last time!”
I’ve literally had people sneak into the store using an exit, then act all indignant because I tell them to leave. You give some of these fuckers an inch, they’ll take a mile.
They did it for me last time is the bane of all service jobs. I managed a pizza place for years that would sometimes get up to over 200 food products per hour. You could see about the first 20 of them at a time on the screens. There was no way to indicate modifications that weren’t available in the POS. I personally trained every new employee on phones and till.
I would tell them you’re going to talk to a lot of assholes. There will be the person that wants extra cheese on their cheesesticks. You have to tell that person no. You cannot sell anything that can’t be entered into the computer.
Every day during the insane dinner rush I’d either get employees coming over to say hey extra cheese on the cheesesticks on order 215. We’re on order 175. There is no way those cheesesticks are going to get extra cheese.
No time to correct the employee, no time to call the customer back. Or the other which was worse. The customer would escalate the call to me. “They did it for me last time!”
I’m stuck on the phone with this piece of shit and I can’t be firefighting. The fires grow. Sometimes they get so bad we have to stop production to get back on track. This means we get so far behind that I’ll have to stay an extra hour or two to right the ship. For no extra pay. The customers get pissed as the wait and delivery times increase. Escalations to management increase. The whole place is engulfed in flame. Next thing I know I’ve been there for 12 hours for no extra pay.
Wasted my fucking mid 20s to early 30s there. It permanently ruined my mental health. It turned me into an alcoholic.
I could rant endlessly and I have so many stories.
The customers get pissed as the wait and delivery times increase. Escalations to management increase.
One rule I try to remember is that overserving Customer A means underserving Customer B.
This is also true for traffic, where being overpolite to the person in front of you means screwing over the people behind you.
My favorite way out of that situation was to tell them that the registers were automatically shut down at closing. Literally no way to ring up a purchase. It worked most of the time
That’s why there’s the JADE acronym. You never justify, argue, defend, or explain. That makes them think there’s a chance if they just counter every single thing you say.
When I worked at McDonald’s I used to keep the DriveThru headset on after closing while I was doing paper work to tell people “sorry, we’re closed” if they drove up to the speaker board. (Mind you, the building lights and menu board lights are off at this point. Something we call a “clue”.)
That stopped after one too many people screamed “FUCK YOU!” into the speaker board (for us following our posted hours and me politely informing them instead of ignoring them.)You quickly adopt a policy of “just ignore them and they’ll figure it out.”
There’s also a lot of stores with a policy that tills can’t be counted or processed unless everyone is accounted for and all doors locked, if you have to reset that process it can be an extra hour of work.
Yup! You learn REAL fast, that if you just don’t make eye contact they’ll eventually go away.
People like that will be mad either way. There’s no right answer.
They mad because they wouldn’t acknowledge them or service them after the placed closed? What fucking Karen.
I’m sorry, but… no. Like, if you don’t know it’s closed and people do see you and just say nothing, that’s just… not nice. It takes three seconds to shake their head or say we’re closed something.
Here’s a tip I’ve found useful: if I show up somewhere after closing time and find that the door is locked, it’s because the store is closed.
What if it’s after closing time, it’s locked, but the people inside are nodding at me?
Fuck that bullshit, she knew they were fucking closed. They shouldn’t have to explain it. I am sure there was a sign on the door. No this woman wanted them to waste time acknowledging her so she could spend 10 minutes explaining why they should service her after hours.
They were busy doing clean up after close so they could go home. Just by reading her review I can promise you she bitch if they had shaken their heads. I stare at dumb bitch too who was probably banging on the door trying get them to let her in.
“Just kept tossing their hair and looking at me.”
Are we sure the employees weren’t shaking their heads at the customer and they are just an idiot? I’m also assuming the doors were already locked, or they would have just walked in, and the hours are typically posted on the door. I feel that should be enough of an indication the store is closed. People don’t need to have their hands held through everything I life. Expecting a little independence from them isn’t being not nice.
People like you and the reviewer need to work a service job, at least once in your lives. “Closed”, I wonder what that means?? The registers are all shut down, there’s no cash. If it’s a food place, the grill is off. They are not serving customers. So no, just because there happens to be glass or bars you can see workers through, they are not required to acknowledge people on the street or “be nice”. They are trying to get home at a somewhat reasonable time!
PTSD from having to literally stop people from entering grocery stores after 11:00p in a previous job…
Like, if you don’t know it’s closed
They literally stated that they knew it was closed
It takes three seconds to shake their head or say we’re closed something
The signage on the door explains the hours of operation, and the door is locked. Why should that have to be explained?
I understand that, but is that worthy of an instant 1-star review?
It doesn’t say why they were there, but we’ve all left a phone, jacket, bag, keys, something and had to go knock on a door and it sucks when they ignore you.
I think if there was an important, relatable reason for them to be there, they would have made sure to mention it. I have to assume the reason that detail was left out is because even the Karen knew it was stupid.
Don’t literally make up excuses to act like a Karen. She made no mention of such an issue, and such an issue doesn’t have to be an immediate, “everyone needs to change what they’re doing for ME!” situation.
Actually in that specific situation, the store is closed and you have to come back when they’re opened. It’s not closed for fun. It’s closed because the store closes, and there’s 45mins of tasks that have to be done and many of them require the registers to be closed and the doors to be locked and if you unlock the door you have to reset the timer and start over. It’s not a game, your bullshit isn’t worth 10-15 people working an extra 45min at a time when the store isn’t making money. I gotta tell you when your a specialist or manager and you have to close and open, getting to bed in time to sleep enough to not die is a bigger problem than your lost item. Literally everyone else knows you don’t get special treatment for losing something, Come back in the morning you spoiled little shit.
our bullshit isn’t worth 10-15 people working an extra 45min
I’ve worked a LOT of service jobs and I’ve never seen one that required 10-15 people to fulfill a request.
If it’s a forgotten phone, it’s more like 1 person needs to spend 20 seconds grabbing the phone.
Everyone should work food service and retail at least once in their lives. It would give perspective to, and teach respect for, what those workers have to endure.
fuck the draft, make everyone spend a year or two in the service industry after high school
From the bottom up. No skipping washing dishes, cleaning out the walk-in cooler, scraping grills, cleaning fryers… Yeah, front of house has its own difficulties, but it’s a lot easier than the grunt work in the back.
I don’t think we need to compare. Both suck, and both teach valuable life skills. Back of house how terrible you can be treated by corporate overlords and management with some of the worst jobs. Front of house teaches you how terrible you can be treated by the general public. I have both scars on my hands from molten grease and I’ve been screamed at by old ladies because corporate raised the senior coffee price from 49 to 53 cents. Both show you how awful different things can be.
Agreed. I wasn’t trying to suggest otherwise, just that the suggestion was customer-facing was the only difficult side of the service industry and we need to see all of it.
The worst part of retail/food service is the inescapable feeling of dread when you stare down the endless abyss of being stuck in that job day in and day out, forever, until you die. Only by resigning yourself to that fate does one gain the perspective needed to truly sympathize with the working class.
And that’s why I went to trade school at age 30. “I gotta get out of these fuckin places.”
It was a good move
Fucking SAME. I bartended and served through college (my degree doesn’t pay well due to YouTube tutorials that have flourished in my industry, lol ouch) and after, and then finally at 30 I started temping in manufacturing, which led to me permanently hired at a huge company with ridiculous benefits, and am now a supervisor in engine assembly that will make 6 figures in 3 years.
I desperately wish I had gone into trade school when I was 18.
Hell yeah! I became an electrician and now I work for myself. Which, so far, absolutely rocks. It turns out I didn’t hate working, I hated having bosses lol
It’s a great path if you’re up for it, to anyone reading
I don’t know. Some people who experience abuse and escape it become far worse abusers when they’re in position to do so.
This is very true. I was at my retail job and a customer walked up to me while I happened to be leaning on my workstation because my back hurt. The first thing he says to me is, “when I had a fast food job, if there was time to lean, there was time to clean!“ I looked at him, and then I turned around and walked away. He had this stunned look on his face. I walked into the back room To cool off a bit before I walked back onto the floor. It was probably five or eight minutes. When I walked back out, he was still standing there, at my workstation, waiting for me.
I went to lunch.
Should’ve went and got a broom and handed it to them and responded “looks like you got plenty of time if youre here harassing employees”.
Whenever this is posted, a couple Karen’s crawl out of the primordial ooze to remind us they’ve never worked retail and are incapable of empathizing with the workers (I count 2 of them in this comment section right now). I could never work retail again, people like this are as soul crushing as the manager who will reprimand you because of their 1 star review
Sometimes it’s just pure obliviousness and you really need to speak up.
One of my embarrassing moments was shopping at a teacher store to supply my ex’s classroom. We were kind of enjoying the afternoon so taking our time, no big deal. Then the store people started coming over more frequently to ask if we needed help. No thank you. Eventually we make our way to the register and were shocked to discover the store closed half an hour ago. wtf, why didn’t someone kick us out, or at least stop being so damn polite and tell us they were closing since we clearly didn’t realize it? I’ll never forget the cringe of keeping people so late, and we were just enjoying leisurely shopping that could have finished long since
I worked retail at a store that had a rule that we DO NOT rush customers out if they come in before we lock the doors. We were NOT allowed to mention we were closed and we were NOT allowed to roll out merchandise to the aisles.
Corportate was cobfused on how our store had so much overtime when customers would regularly walk in a minute before close, stay an hour and buy nothing.
Worked at a staples store in the early 2000s and we’d make an announcement that the store was closing 30 minutes before, 15 minutes before and then another when we closed.
Nobody was rushed out by employees but we still let them know.
The thing is, you don’t know if the customer is just an asshole or oblivious. So, I could confront you and risk being yelled at (which I really don’t want to deal with at the end of a shift), then stand around waiting for a half hour, OR I could skip the yelling and just stand around waiting for a half hour.
I work at a restaurant inside a park. We open an hour after the park opens, and one of the store entrances is attached to the park welcome building. The doors for that entrance do not securely lock, and can be opened, with a bit of struggle, while locked. You know it’s going to be an interesting day when you have to kick people out BEFORE we open. We don’t turn the lights on until open, but every couple weeks people still manage to get in and expect to be seated.
You can hear them struggle with the door from across the room. They walk into a dark restaurant. You say “I’m sorry we don’t open for another 15 minutes”. Most of the time their response is not to apologize and leave. I’ve heard the open ended statements “Well we’re here now”, or “your doors were unlocked”, or even the more presumptuous “can we eat in the trolley?”. They are still made to wait outside and are inevitably mad about it.
I will choose to avoid confrontation anytime I can, as most of the time I don’t have a choice.
My favorite tactic used by several of the coffee shops near me is they start slowly turning the music louder. People naturally start leaving once it’s too loud to think or talk. Place I used to work at we’d turn off half the lights and everyone would just show up at the register no confrontation needed. People were fine with it a vast majority of the time but occasionally there would be someone who asked us to turn the lights back on so they could keep shopping
I like the one with turning off half the lights. That seems like an effective signal while not being confrontational.
I’ll never forget when my wife and I accidentally entered the 15 items or less line at the grocery with a full cart. Why didn’t they say no?
What’s it like being a monster?
Like I said, I will never forget. When I realized I tried to take back our stuff but it was too late.
One of the many definitions “Asshole” is applied to.
PSA dont be a assbag
I have a few friends that work retail and we have talked about nightmarish customers. Shop closes at 7:30 every Friday 2 people walk in at 7:10-7:30ish For service that takes 30mins to complete for one person. They DEMAND they get the service, to which the tools to do such service are already put away by 7:10. Some times my friend bends to there requests, but i keep telling him. Closing time is closing time and your doing the equivalent of teaching your dog to eat off your plate. Its ok for now, but will come back to bite you.
If you are going to show up close to closing time, and they are still willing to serve you. TIP THEM WELL, Ive done it a few times which im guilty of, but ive made it worth there while.
There was one time in 2023 that my friends and i wanted to get together for some wings. We stopped by a dinner on the out skirts of town at 10:30pm and they close at 11:00. We went and i asked if they would still serve us, because i know its late. And i dont wanna be an asshole. They served us, me and the boys eate our wings caught up on life and left a heft tip on the table.
There was one time this year we went out to a local car hop, and it was 8:30 and they closed at 9. The girls serving and taking the orders did a great job, and it was 98° outside all day. So because i dont go out to eat a whole lot and id rather give my business to mom and pop shop. Rather than the local mega corp. We all pitched in and left a 40% tip which the meal for all of us was about $60. When she came to take the tray from the car window, she asked if we needed anything else. And i have her the tip of $36. Her face lit up, and asked if this was a mistake? I said it was on purpose and to have a good night. She smiled and thanked us, and we left. Altought the tip hurt my wallet quite a bit, to which my brain kept reminding me of the $36 i lost. It felt good to help sombody out especially that most likely has delt with alot of shitty people in shitty weather.
If a business can’t or doesn’t want to provide their service after 7pm, their closing time should be 7pm (or earlier), not 730pm. It’s not “assbag” to go into an open business and expect to receive whatever service they allegedly provide, and it certainly doesn’t warrant extraordinary tips.
I also hate people who fall for rage bait.
I was at a hardware store yesterday, locally owned. I didn’t look at the hours before I walked in but they started turning off lights within a few minutes of me walking in, so I walked out without buying anything and went to a big box store. I want to support the little guys, and I respect the time of the workers, but at some point I need to get the stuff I need and my hours at work to align exactly with the hours of the little guys. 🤷
This person does not complain about not being served ten minutes after the establishment having closed, but about the fact that not one of the four employees could be arsed to let the guest know that they’re closed.
Honestly, and I’m not saying that this is a universal, most stores do have a sign with their hours of operation on or near the door.
And if you go to a store and can’t open the door, the fact that the store is closed really should be the default assumption.
I’ve tried the door on closed restaurants before and had someone open it and explain that the place is closed, but I’ve also had people just expect one to read the sign. I don’t think that just because there’s someone in the establishment, that they should be obliged to spell the thing out and give you the hours. It’s nice if it happens, but…
Yeah like, they could put the opening hours on the door or something. Or lock the doors to indicate that it’s closed! Or shake their heads! Oh wait!
Sure, they didn’t unlock the door to tell the person the door is locked, because the store is closed. What a fucking brainfart you having mate?
Never unlock the door after close, she probably fits in the typical category of inconsiderate assholes who “just want an X,” but this is also a common robbery technique. They’ll have someone nonthreatening knock on the door to try and get you to open it to say “fuck off we’re closed” and the second you do 4 dudes with guns (or knives, machetes, whatever) run around the corner and rush the door.
Just hit em with the “we’re closed” lipsync and the “we’re closed” international symbol: hand chop moving away from the body in front of the dominant hand side of your neck 2x.
and the “we’re closed” international symbol
So not 🙅♂️ ? 'Cos what you describe seems like “we’ll chop your head off if you don’t leave”.
“guest”
You aren’t a guest if you aren’t invited, and if the door is locked, you ain’t invited.
Guests are during operating hours. Pests are for off-hours visitors.
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Also “guest”? this isn’t a work huddle. Don’t you ever use that corporate trash-assed word after you clocked out. You arent c-suite, don’t use their language
so happy you said this. the use of the word “guest” instead of “customer” really gets under my skin
Same with “Client” instead of “User”
dont even get me started on “content” instead of “videos/tweets/games/whatever”. not to mention the term “content creator”
The locked door told them the store is closed.
What is there to talk about? The employees can’t tell them anything that they don’t already know if they can read the posted hours.
