Does it LOOK like we're open?

[Boozy]

We had a staff meeting last night in our store. I arrived several minutes late because I had worked at the store all day and wanted to go home and change before heading back in.

The second I walk in, I ask "So how many customers have seen you in here and banged on the gates demanding to buy wine?" No one had yet. But they would.

Twice in the span on two hours someone came up to the locked gates, saw staff members sitting on the floor in jeans, eating pizza and drinking wine, and proceeded to bang on the door and yell, "Hey! Aren't you open? I need a bottle!"

Clueless.

[Rubystars]

I used to think it was hilarious when I worked at Famous Footwear in the mornings when I would open with the manager.

If opening time was 10am, the customers would be lining up outside the door around 9:55 am. The manager and I would be trying to get things ready for opening, and the customers would start banging on the glass door and screaming "HEY! HEY! Hellooo!" My manager just told me to ignore them, although sometimes it would make us laugh.

If they got there particularly early, say like 15 minutes before opening, and started that BS, I'd go over to the door (I loved messing with them like that, it got their hopes up that I was going to let them in) and pointed to the sign with our hours on it and said "We're not open yet!" Then I'd go back and finish up trying to get the store ready.

One time when we thought a hurricane was going to hit (I think it was Rita, which never did hit us) the manager had a bunch of boxes of shoes placed on top of the bins just in case it flooded.

We had to spend a whole day pulling the shoes down from the bin tops and putting them back into the bins.

Customers saw us inside and banged on the door all day trying to get us to let them in. I kept pointing to the sign that my manager had put up right above the door handle and then going back to work.

Before I would even go into work, waiting for my manager to get there to let me in, I would often see people go to the door, tug on the handle, realize it was locked, then give the door handle another, harder pull. I would think one would be enough, especially considering as you can see through the glass that there's no one in the store, no lights on, etc. Then there were the real idiots who would tug three or four times.

[Quicksilver]

I once worked at a mall and we were there early to do some cleaning and two morons came in by leaning down to duck under the gate that we had half hanging down in front of the store.

Then they complained that it was in their way.

[Mindfield]

I worked at a Black & Decker factory outlet for a time, and I got them whenever I did closing. One particularly clueless idiot showed up as I was settling the tills. Anyone whose done that knows that this is the point at which the registers spit out reams of receipt paper containing all of the day's transactions. No transactions can be entered after this point because we'd have to reopen the tills and then do the whole settlement all over again, and -- no, sorry, that just ain't gonna happen. So the one clueless idiot starts banging on the window at quarter after 9, 15 minutes after we've closed. We ignore the guy, but he keeps banging. And banging And banging! Finally I had to go over to the door and open it a crack and tell them we're closed. "But I just need one thing, I'll be in an out in two minutes, I know where it is!" and other entreaties. I had to explain that the registers were closed and can't be reopened because all of the day's transactions were already counted and transmitted to the bank. Took me five minutes to get this idiot out of my doorway.

[marty]

I was helping to set up one of my company's stores one time, so we're all sitting in a big mess of cardboard boxes, cases anbd labels all over the floor, the place is a complete mess and obviously not open. We had the doors unlocked because the store manager and district manager were having to run errands every thirty minutes or so. It never failed, about once an hour someone would walk into the store, look around at all of us in street clothes, the mess, the unlabeled cases laying around everywhere and the empty shelves and ask, "Are you guys open?"

[greensinestro]

Used to have that problem when I worked for Publix. On the rare occasions that I would open, I would get there sometimes at 630am, and the store opened at 7am. Shortly after Albertson's came to town (which, by the way, Publix now owns the building they were in!) we had tons of SC's coming to the door, right as I would walk in, saying, "Why aren't you open yet? Albertson's opens before you all do!" They opened at 6am, which to me, was way too early, but I digress.

Then, after I was in the store a few minutes, some of the same people would be outside, banging on the glass "Aren't you going to open soon?" Well, yes, we are, but at 7am, you moron!

Even when the hours are posted on the doors, people all think the time on their watches are the same as the store's!

[CaroPhoenix]

I had that problem once when I closed at nights (by myself, may I add) at the Parcel Store (not the real name, but will suffice for the post).

I had some crazy man bang on the door and windows. I ended up having to call the security guard on duty for the strip mall the store was in. I was too scared to get near the door to tell him we were closed. Whew for the security guard! I worked with him during the day at the Roy Rogers next door.

[powerboy]

We get that where I work at now. When we have too, we put up a "Be back in 10 minutes" sign. That only happens when one of us is working or both of us, is helping a customer and cannot be in the office. Only once, when I went to open the door after unlocking it, some jerk off opened it hard, and hurt my arm. All he said, was we should have been opened.

[Rappunzill]

I was working at a grocery store several years ago on Thanksgiving. Now, the store was open that day, but closed early, which I thought was more than ought to be expected already. We're closing, we're trying to get the last few people through, and my manager locks the doors. A few minutes later, a guy almost walks into said doors. He looks at them like a perplexed monkey, then bangs on the doors a couple of times. We try to tell him we're closed, but he keeps looking pitifully at us and hitting the doors. Eventually, my manager goes over and manually opens the door a crack so as to have genuine communication, and tells him because of the holiday, we were closed.

"No you're not!"

Yeah. You're right buddy. We're lyin' to you. C'mon in!

Seriously, this became a sadly extended argument, in which he tried to prove we were open. Made of fail.

[South Texan]

Can I give you a flip side of this?

My wife and I once had gone to a late showing of a movie. Ours was the last movie to end and the theatre was obviously closed when we walked out.

Not ten minutes later, we arrived at home. As I was taking out my change, phone, keys, etc. from my pockets, I discovered my wallet was missing.

In a slight panic, I went back out to the car to see if it had slipped out onto the seat. No luck.

I then jumped in the car and drove back to the now dark theatre. I retraced my steps in the parking lot, but no wallet. Finally, I got to the glass doors and had to beat on them to get someone's attention. After what seemed like forever, an usher walked into the concession area. He paused and looked at me, then walked away.

A few minutes later, a different usher walked by. He also stopped to stare at me. I was yelling that my wallet was in an auditorium and I needed help. He got that deer in the headlights look as if he could not think of anything to do. Then he turned and walked away without saying anything.

Both ushers then walked to the lobby and looked at me again. Then one yelled, "We're closed, idiot." Both then cracked up and walked away.

Finally, a manager came to the lobby and walked over to the door. She too told me that the theatre was closed, but after I explained to her why I was there, she called over one of the ushers and opened the door. The usher sheepishly escorted me to the auditorium where I found my wallet lying on the floor beneath the seat I had used that evening. Thankfully, that auditorium had not yet been swept out.

When I thanked the manager and told her of my experience, she rolled her eyes and told the two ushers that next time they needed to at least talk to whomever was at the door to find out what was wrong. Their only remark was "We didn't know what we were suppossed to do."

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

Twice in the span on two hours someone came up to the locked gates, saw staff members sitting on the floor in jeans, eating pizza and drinking wine, and proceeded to bang on the door and yell, "Hey! Aren't you open? I need a bottle!"

/open door, toss out empty wine bottle for SC.

"Here you go!"

/they didn't say the bottle had to have anything in it

[Broomjockey]

Finally, a manager came to the lobby and walked over to the door. She too told me that the theatre was closed, but after I explained to her why I was there, she called over one of the ushers and opened the door. The usher sheepishly escorted me to the auditorium where I found my wallet lying on the floor beneath the seat I had used that evening. Thankfully, that auditorium had not yet been swept out.

Which is why when someone managed to catch my attention (which wasn't always, I can be fairly oblivious), I'd always walk over there, open the door a crack, and say "We're closed, can I help you?" Because there were a couple times when someone'd lost a wallet, and probably 80% of the time, we found it. And one time, a guy gave me $20 for finding it!

[SubwayGirl]

One of two days that we close the store is Thanksgiving. I usually put big signs up a few weeks before reminding everyone that we are closed on Thanksgiving. On Thanksgiving I make my three children and husband come into the store and help me decorate it for Christmas. We leave the open sign off, and don't turn on the lights because there is a lot of natural light that comes in through the windows. We always have a guessing contest to see who can guess the number of idiots that will come in and try to order a sandwich while we are decorating. Boy do people get pissed that we are closed. My husband always asks me why don't I lock the doors behind us when we go in. I tell him that I love to see their reactions and it is one of the only times that I can purposely annoy people. We get all kinds of reactions:

"You're shitting me, I really wanted a sandwich"

or

"Oh come on, can't you get some stuff out and just make me a sandwich?"

or

"F--- you"

or

"Well, if you aren't open then you shouldn't be in here"

or

"Well, the door was unlocked"

[BookstoreEscapee]

One night we were all sitting outside waiting for the manager to lock up. She was just setting the alarm when a car pulled into the handicapped spot and a woman jumped out of the passenger seat and ran into the store before any of us could say anything. Turned out she had left her cell phone, but she failed to notice that the lights were off and the staff was all sitting outside. If she had just said something one of us would have gone back in to check. Manager yelled at us but was OK when we told her we barely had a chance to get a word out before she was in the door.

I used to love it when I got to work before opening and customers were already waiting outside. I would knock on the window if I could see someone, or else ring the bell, and they would let me in. We would generally ignore the customers. Surprisingly, I never had one actually try to get in with us (though I have had them ask what time we open while standing right next to the sign on the window).

The ones who came at 7am expecting coffee drove me nuts, though. Just because we have a cafe doesn't mean the cafe opens before the store does! Best part is, there's an actual Starbucks not 2 minutes up the road.

[smileyeagle1021]

my favorite, we're closed moment, was when i worked in fast food. The restaurant I worked at had a thanksgiving dinner for all the staff, and even though you could see all of us, most still in uniform, eating a turkey dinner with all the tables brought together... people would still pound on the door demanding we open again for them.