No, no. Go ahead and take your own sweet time.

[iradney]

I've occasionally popped into a shop 5 minutes from closing...
Wait! Don't get the pitchforks out just yet!
I literally only needed a bottle of milk, and I had cash as well, so I was out 3 minutes before closing!
I cannot understand why people would want to wander around a store after it's closed...the mind boggles! Most stores in South Africa have security guards that do NOT let anyone in after closing time.

[Mr.Customer]

Question though: Is there anything businesses can legally do to get a customer out of the store if it's past closing time? Or do we have to let them finish?

Yes, ask them to leave. You can refuse business to anyone at any time for any reason at all. (so long as it isn't race, religion etc) In point of fact for security reasons alone you should have made them leave.

The polite thing to say is that your tills will be printing end of day reports automatically from head office and will therefore be unable to do their transactions.

[sarasquirrel]

we close at 9, and im usually the closing supervisor (5 out of 7 nights)

we start making announcements 5 to closing, 2 to closing, and closed.

i will state to the cashier "im going to lock the back door"...yea we have a back door ugh..

then later i come up to guard the front door and see dumbass customer who was there when i said im locking the back door either getting mad they found out the back door was locked, or just breaking the damn thing themselves and letting themselves out.

i usually lock the backdoor no less than 5 minutes before closing, and usually the front door around 8:57 if i can. the pharmacy is already closed at 8. and ive counted all but 1 register. all i have to do is throw it into the safe and were out by 9:05 lol

there will be a straggler being rung out and i'll be standing at the door and people will walk by or come up and say "youre closed??" ..yea... then roll their eyes and stomp away. you had 14 hours to shop!

thankfully we dont end up having to stay late due to stragglers. maybe a minute or two.

sucks tho when a herd of kids come in at 8:58, we tell them we're closing in 2 minutes, they are like "OMG>>what do i want???" then take their sweet time deciding how to spend their 99cents they have.

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

Wait! Don't get the pitchforks out just yet!

Okay, but I'm keeping the torches out. They're a pain in the ass to put out and put away.

[DGoddessChardonnay]

Okay, but I'm keeping the torches out. They're a pain in the ass to put out and put away.

Would you happen to have more of those torches in the backroom?

*ducks underneath the dining room table*

[dalesys]

Would you happen to have more of those torches in the backroom?

The Fire Brigade just extinguished the backroom, so no.

[C-130]

My work came up with a genius solution to customers not likeing this idea of being asked to leave after we are clased and all staff are finished(how stupid an idea is that cashiers who finish work!!!). We start call outs 30 mins before , position staff members at each aisle who will ask any customers 5 mins before clsosing to go to the bloody check out or leave and lastly we close the shutters so far as to imply we can't let someone in. This has yet to fail us.

[Red_Dazes]

Technically if your store is closed and if you ask them politely to leave and they refuse or do not right away then they are then trespassing and you could have them arrested.

Technically.

At our store, when we had customers who just didn't want to leave, we would tell them that our registers automatically shut down at ((insert random time that fits with your time frame)) and if they didn't come to the front of the store now that we would not be able to check them out.

Worked pretty well.