Closing Announcements (from the old boards)

[purplecat41877]

Where I work, closing announcements are made less than half an hour before closing.

Me: Attention shoppers. The store will be closing in (X)X minutes/is now closed. Please bring all final purchases to the front for check out. Thank you.

What do you say when making closing announcements?

[April]

Way back when I worked at Target, we made an announcement at 30 til, 15 till, 10 till, 5 till, and the final closing.

Anyway it went

"Attention Target guests, Target will be closing in (x) minutes. Please bring your final purchases to the front lanes at this time. Target will reopen tomorrow at 9 Am for your shopping convenience. Thank you"

[Cyanocobalamin]

"Attention all (store) customers, The time is now 9pm and the store is closed. Please make your final selections at this time and bring them to the front. Thank you for shopping (store) and have a great night."
I had a CSM a few years ago that liked to emphasize the word CLOSED.

Actually corporate decided that we can't do closing announcements anymore. Why... is beyond me. We just have to scout out the remaining customers and politely shoo them away.

[Lace Neil Singer]

I never make them; however, I know the announcements off by heart.

"Good evening, this is a customer information announcement. The time is 9:45/10/10:15 and the store will be closing in 15 minutes/is closed/closed 15 minutes ago. Will all remaining customers please make their way to the checkout to finalise their purchases? Thank you, and thank you for shopping at *supermarket*."

On Sundays, it's the same cept for the word "afternoon" instead of "evening" and the times "3:45/4/4:15" instead of "9:45/10/10:15". If on the rare occasion (Ha! I made a joke!) that there are still customers in the store after 4:15/10:15, a supervisor will tell those customers personally that they have to go to the checkout now as we aren't allowed to trade after 10:30/4:30. Sometimes, the customer will attempt to argue, only to be told that this is non negotiable. Only once have we had a doofus hide round the back only to emerge after 10:30; doofus in question threw her trolley at the supervisor who told her we couldn't serve her and stormed out; her dramatic exit only spoiled by the fact that the doors were locked.

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

Fifteen minutes before close:
Good evening. Your (name of store) store will be closing in fifteen minutes. Thank you for shopping with us and we hope you visit us again soon. Thank you and good evening.

Five minutes before close:
Good evening. Your (name of store) store will be closing in five minutes. Please bring your final selections to the registers at this time. Thank you and good evening.

Closing time:
Good evening. Your (name of store) store is now closed. Thank you.

Five minutes after close:
ALL RIGHT! GET THE HELL OUT! (I can dream can't I? )

[thegiraffe]

At Publix, we're not allowed to (a) make closing announcements, (b) tell customers in the aisles that we're closed, (c) herd customers from the back of the store to the front with any of the following devices: cattle prod, beanbag launcher, slingshot, paintball gun.

The perimeter lights simply shut off about 5 minutes after closing. They generally get the idea.

[Greenday]

Basically, at the pharmacy I work at, we walk up to people and tell them we are closed when we finish. And we DON'T wait. Either they finish choosing what they need or they get out. I love it.

[Dark Psion]

We don't make closing anouncements, but I do tell customers "Two Minute Warning!", especially outside in the greenhouse. You would expect them to notice all the closing ativities of pulling in palletes and merchanise and things like turning off lights , but no, I have had people continue to shop in the dark and then ask "Are you closing?"

[April]

I wonder if Petsmart isn't allowed to make announcements. A while back, Dh and I were wandering through a strip mall, just for something to do, and we wandered into Petsmart just to look around. When we were headed out the employees were standing next to the door and unlocked it for us. I felt HORRIBLE. There were no announcements and no one approached us. I apologized 3 or 4 times

[JustaCashier]

Ah the (IL)Logical Corporate policy of no closing announcements! I feel for all of you that are not allowed to do that.

When I'm shopping, if I suspect the store may be closing soon, I'll check the store hours on the door as I walk in. I rarely linger while shopping, but will make an extra effort to hurry if time is short. If for some reason I don't know what closing time is, I certainly appreciate an announcement, so I can get outta there and the employees can go home.

We have a script which some of the employees will still use even though they've done several announcements. A few do it freestyle, some close to the script, others not. (I'll relate one of the "nots" in a moment.) We usually start as early as 1/2 hour before close, and do it in 10-15 minute increments as time allows, or someone chooses to do one. On a few occasions, one person has made an announce, only to have another make one a minute or two later, often stating the same amount of time remaining as the other did.

I started doing it freestyle once I felt comfortable making the announce. I stick close to the script.

"Good evening (Store Name) shoppers. The time is now 6:30 pm, and your (Location/Store Name) will be closing in 30 minutes. We ask you to bring your final purchases forward, and our store staff will more than happy to help you. Our Store hours are 8:00 am to 7:00 am Monday through Saturday, and 8:00 to 6:00 on Sunday. Once again, we are closing in 30 minutes, thank you for shopping with us, and have a good evening."

I sometimes skip the "bring your final purchases" forward part on a 1/2 hour before close announce, just because it seems a little early to make that request. I just like to do a 1/2 hour this time of year, especially on nice days when we are likely to have several customers in our outside garden area buying plants. After 20 minutes on, I'm not shy about adding "final Purchases"!

Now, before this gets any longer, here is roughly, what one of our guys in electrical will announce (I'll do his store closed):

"Good evening Ladles and Gerbilmen, The time has come, the end is here. You're (Location/StoreName) is now closed. Please bring final purchases (etc). Our store hours are (as above). You may also visit us online, 24/7 at www.storename.com, even in your comfy jammies."

[Becks]

Ours is "Attention {name of store} customers, the time is now {blah blah blah} and the store will be closing in {15/10/5} minutes/is now closed. Please bring your items to the front of the store, and thank you for shopping at {section of town, name of store}."

[i4wolves]

Petsmart

Petsmart announcement

We are allowed to make announcements. But our announcements go like this," Attention Pets, and Pet Parents We will be closing in just a bit. But Please don't rush. Just let us know what we can do for you." The intresting thing is we can only make it at 9:00 which is what time we close. Of course it dosen't matter because most people don't care what time we close. I always make two announcements. One at 8:50 that says the one we are supposed to do at 9:00 and then I make the announcement that we are closed.

[Imogene]

At or around 9:00, I would wander the store and let anyone inside know "Hey, we're closing in 30 minutes. No big rush."

And again at 15 after.

At 9:30, it became "I'm sorry, but we are closed." Now leave.

[MadMike]

At the bar where my best friend used to work, it was "Get the fuck out!" Wouldn't it be nice if we all could get away with that?

Of course, I'm sure a lot of it has to do with the fact that if bars in this state get caught with customers still in the place after 2:30, they can get fined big time.

[coop52]

My store starts making announcements at 9:30, and locks one of the doors. They make more announcements at 9:45, 9:50, 9:55, and 10, though most of the time one or two of those is skipped because the manager on duty is busy with other things. After ten, depending on the manager, it could be the nice "It's now 10:--, your store is now closed. Please bring all your purchases to register -- and have a good night" or it could be the awesome "We ARE a store and we're closed." or "You have two minutes to bring your final purchases to the front because we're about to pull the last till." I'm lucky enough to have pretty cool managers.