"That worked?!"

[Opalin]

So my manager was working a night with me last week. Normally he has me go do a round of 'store is closing in five minutes' customer to customer, but he was really tired this day so he just announced

"The store is closing in five minutes, if you could finish up shopping...?" in a loud voice (small store).
Custies clear out, nobody complains, grumbles, etc. He turns to me with a look of awe on his face.
"That worked?!"

[pzychobitch]

Hahaha that's awesome!

[Catwoman2965]

I sooo wish we were allowed to do that in my store. But per corporate, we cannot tell customers we are closing and that they need to step it up and finish. What we can do, is lock the doors to prevent any stragglers from coming IN, turn off the music, and be overly helpful "can i help you find anything, are you finding everything ok, are you all set (i.e. ready to pay?" some of them get the message, but others are purposely oblivious, since we are just retail peons, and therefore not important.

[Racket_Man]

Custy's ACTUALLY leaving at close when told the store is closing?????

Did I just Twilight Zone into an alternate universe or something??????

[Dreamstalker]

Last night was like that. Manager P made her no-nonsense closing announcements (officially, we're supposed to say 'store will be closing in blah minutes, please plan your shopping accordingly and thank you for shopping', she just said 'it is now [time], store will be closing in blah minutes'. At five til, the only customer left was a regular who always comes right at closing but knows it and doesn't hang around.

In my recent memory, that is the only Monday I have worked closing that we ever got out on time. Conclusion: being polite on the announcement tells customers 'they aren't serious about it'...huh, I should see if I could get paid to do a study on that (yah right).

[Raveni]

At Grocery Store, in addition to half of the lights of the store turning off EXACTLY at closing time, we were allowed to change the music in the store. There was an audio jack for me to plug my iphone in so that we could play "Closing Time" by Semisonic.

But we weren't allowed to do an announcement, so bewildered customers would still come up and ask why the lights went out and the song suddenly changed.

[XCashier]

"The store is closing in five minutes, if you could finish up shopping...?" in a loud voice (small store).
Custies clear out, nobody complains, grumbles, etc. He turns to me with a look of awe on his face.
"That worked?!"

Of course it worked! If it's the opposite of what Corporate decrees, you know it's going to work!

That is one thing I am glad about: we're allowed to make closing announcements. That usually does get rid of stragglers. Occasionally someone does stay past closing, though I've never had this happen, and wonder what we would do if it did.

Actually, I'd like to see someone try this: http://retailcomic.com/comics/january-19-2006/

[Draper Mel]

Back when I cashiered at the grocery store, the only time we ever got out of there on time was the night the security guard misunderstood what he was told. He was telling customers that the registers shut off automatically at closing time. Though not actually true, it did keep people from coming in at 5 minutes till.

[Opalin]

Back when I cashiered at the grocery store, the only time we ever got out of there on time was the night the security guard misunderstood what he was told. He was telling customers that the registers shut off automatically at closing time. Though not actually true, it did keep people from coming in at 5 minutes till.

Dear god I wish we could do this. >_<

[Dreamstalker]

Someone used to tell latecomers that, but NewSM got wind of it and put the kibosh on that as it "wasn't professional" (he never stays for closing, so has no idea some days we don't get out of there until the overnight crew has started).

For the week after the Marathon bombings, we did have an actual security guard. That ensured no stragglers, and I think for that week I had zero walk-offs...but when I inquired about it after she left was told "the store doesn't need a guard" (shortly afterwards, ten pounds of frozen shrimp walked out the door and we didn't close until 11:30--and as predicted, the connection was never made between events).