Closing on time is "insensitive"?

[eltf177]

That's because Giant's parent company (the Dutch-based Royal Ahold) owns Peapod. They just haven't spread out their grocery stores to the Midwest yet, so are using what they can to make a profit in the region.

I wasn't aware of that. I do know that Giant can't go north or south (I believe they own Giant Eagle to the north and Martin's to the south instead).

[Draco]

I wasn't aware of that. I do know that Giant can't go north or south (I believe they own Giant Eagle to the north and Martin's to the south instead).

Giant Eagle is unaffiliated. Ahold used to own Tops up in New York before selling it off.

Giant of Carlisle is the PA and Richmond area Giants as well as all Martins. Tops was once a part of this company/division within the Ahold corporation.

Giant of Andover is the Maryland/New Jersey Giants and some in Virginia as well as Stop & Shop in New England.

The choice in the name tends to be an attempt to limit confusion thing (Martins in areas Giant Eagle is in, for example).

The Giant of Andover division is unionized. The Giant of Carlisle division is not. Guess which the newest stores tend to be part of?

[PatchO'Black]

Hmmm...

I suppose that if a customer tries to argue that the sign says the store is open until such-and-such, one could respond that the store itself is open until that time, but they do not admit customers in within a certain amount of time before closing. Not that I think it would work in most cases....

[downforit2008]

"Closing time...you don't have to go home but you can't...stay...HERE!"

[Lace Neil Singer]

(continued the 'registers are centrally controlled and about to shut down' charade--sometimes I wish that were true).

We use that where I work; say that the pumps will shut down on the dot of ten, which is sort of true cuz altho they don't shut down by themselves, they do if given a helping hand by a worker who wants to get the hell out!

Some people who work at the petrol station have a "as long as they got in before closing, we have to wait for them" mentality. I don't, cuz I've been working in retail for a long time and I'm damned if I'm going to hang around for half an hour just cuz someone can't shift their arse. I only get paid fifteen minutes after closing and I don't work for free.

I've had a customer on the air pump who got in ten minutes before closing who was still there when I went to barricade the entrance. I told them we were closing and they didn't shift. I told them again, before I went to lock the pumps, that we were closing *now* and if they wanted petrol, they had to come now. No response so I locked the pumps and went inside the shop to switch the pumps and lights off.

Guess how long it was before they shifted off the air pump and tried to get petrol? Well, my collegue and I had left the petrol station and were standing outside the main store waiting to be let in.

[sstabeler]

Personally, I'd say that if you're in line to pay, and you joined the line before closing, that's OK.Still browsing at closing? Yeah, you're an ass.

[Aethian]

What's funny is the grocery store I used to work at only closed on the 24th. What was fun was we would give half hour announcements. We even times them so we were giving them right on time. At the 2 hour mark we would add that the registers will automatically shut down. 1:30 mark, please start heAding for the front now to be in line, 1 mark, the same as above, :30 mark the lines were now being closed to people entering them, :15 that everything will be going off and to please come to the front. Then at time, the doors automatically locked to the outside, letting people out but not in. The bathrooms were checked and locked, we had someone try to hide once, and all the register screens would start flashing a countdown to shut down. It was beautiful. We still however had a old manual one that could only take cash or check.

Sadly it got taken away after some witch siced a relative lawyer on the family that owned the store. People are still barred from entering and "encouraged to head to the front, but the registers stay open till the last person is out.

[wolfie]

Sadly it got taken away after some witch siced a relative lawyer on the family that owned the store. People are still barred from entering and "encouraged to head to the front, but the registers stay open till the last person is out.

What point of law did they (mis)use to force the store to stay open after closing time, or was it just that the owners caved due to not wanting the expense of a court case? I can see an example of legal "heavy artillery" that could be brought in against "lingerers" - at closing time, have an announcement "Attention shoppers, it is now closing time and the registers will be shut down in 5 minutes. Anyone on the premises after that, except for on-duty employees, will be charged with trespassing".

[Aethian]

It was after old man Meijer passed away and several things were basically up in the air. I don't think the remaining board wanted to deal with the hassle.

[Lace Neil Singer]

As far as the place I work at is concerned, it's a legal issue. We have designated trading times and if we deviate from our set in stone closing time, we could get done by Trading Standards and even lose our petroleum licience. We have a leeway of about ten to fifteen minutes, but any time after that, unless it's an ambulance or something like that, and we're in trouble. Also, anyone hanging around after hours could be planning a robbery.

[Dreamstalker]

I think with my store (Giant of Andover division), Corp is finally noticing all the 'late' punch-outs; not only do they get their panties in a bunch about having to pay an extra 5/10/15 minutes*, it could be a potential liability for them if an employee who's 'supposed' to be off the premises at 9 or 11PM gets hurt while they're still clocked in. While I'm not allowed to say that the registers will shut down by themselves (who knows, maybe the new registers we're getting will do that) when I make the announcements, sometimes FEM lets me tread the ragged edge of 'GTFO'

The first point is more or less out of our control unless the store gets a security guard (the superstores and some of the smaller ones in my state have them, mainly at night) to prevent anyone from coming in after a certain time. A lot of us have said we need a guard anyway, just to keep customers behaving. Some of the weirdos that wander in at 10:50 especially in the winter scare me.

* They're annoyed that a lot of us go over 30 hours even by a little? That's likely why. Even 5 minutes every day over a week adds up. You want us out right at closing? Give us a real way to enforce that.