When a closed sign and the lights being off isn't enough

[An Haddock]

This just happened this morning.

Arrived a few minutes before our opening time of 10am. Noted that no one had bothered to take our trash cans around back. So I unlocked our door and turned off the alarm, then put my breakfast goodies on the counter. Went outside to take the trashcans around.

It couldn't have taken me more than a minute to do that, although I slowed a bit as the owner of the business next to ours was walking in so we had a conversation. As I reached the door of our business I recoiled in shock upon seeing Some Random Guy standing inside the shop looking at me!

I bid good day to the other business owner and opened our door to see whose ass I needed to kick.

SC: guy wearing an exterminator uniform, speaks with Eastern European accent
Moi: Moi

Me: We're not open yet. (it's 9:55)
SC: The door was open. (correction: it was unlocked, not open)
Me: The lights are off and the closed sign is in the door (points)
SC: You open at ten!
Me: Not ten yet.
SC: I am sorry! But I am not thief!
Me: Fine, fine... what do you need?

Guy had a question about how to play a DVD on his computer... so he didn't even buy anything. I told him to Google VLC Player.


Irritated, I start to settle back with my breakfast. Another customer comes in... although this guy actually needed to get work done.


Finish with him. Start eating breakfast again. Look up to see an older woman approaching my door, who then turns and walks away. I realize I haven't flipped the Closed sign on the door yet.


*facepalm*


So Boris walks in to a business with a Closed sign and the lights off (after which I think he was trying to catch moose and squirrel) but older woman is deterred by the Closed sign, even though I'm sitting there a few feet from the front door with the lights on.


Repeat: *facepalm*

[Whiskey]

older woman is deterred by the Closed sign, even though I'm sitting there a few feet from the front door with the lights on.

I'd be deterred too. Lights on and employees in the store doesn't mean its open. She could have checked the hours, but generally if I see a closed sign I just shrug and go elsewhere.

[South Texan]

I'd be deterred too. Lights on and employees in the store doesn't mean its open. She could have checked the hours, but generally if I see a closed sign I just shrug and go elsewhere.

Agreed. Usually the complaint is that the customer ignored the sign and did whatever she wanted anyway. This is the rare example of a customer who read something and responded properly to it.

[DGoddessChardonnay]

We sometimes have folks show up before we open at 7, however Friday morning was . . . interesting.

I had arrived at just before 7, as I had double duty (MA is currently out for surgery so we have deliveries that start arriving at around 7) and pried open the doors, as L was opening MOD (whenever L opens she leaves the left side entrance unlocked, but the right one is still locked so employees can come inside.)

No sooner did I squeeze through the door and struggle to close it back, a woman walked across the front of our store and tried to open the other set of doors.

L was at the kiosk, putting tills into the registers on either side and the CS desk and saw her. We both laughed and shook our heads.

Now what prompted this woman to think that because I got in on the other side, and I'm in store uniform to boot, that she could get in at the other side?

Needless to say, she went back to her car and left when she discovered she didn't have my magical ability to get the door open.

[BrenDAnn]

You know...I really think we've taken this whole convenience thing too far. I haven't actually opened in a few years, but from what I understand, there are customers waiting outside for the doors to open every single morning--and I work at a c-store, that opens at 5:30 AM! I guess the "Gotta have it NOW!" mentality is everywhere!

[DGoddessChardonnay]

You know...I really think we've taken this whole convenience thing too far. I haven't actually opened in a few years, but from what I understand, there are customers waiting outside for the doors to open every single morning--and I work at a c-store, that opens at 5:30 AM! I guess the "Gotta have it NOW!" mentality is everywhere!

I think you've hit the nail on the head there. My store opens at 7 every morning and closes at 10 every evening (only exception is when we have a floor strip, when we'll close at 9) and almost every. single. day we have a few who will flock to the store and wait out in the parking lot like vultures looking for a meal at least a good half hour before we open.

I think we should do a documentary on this phenomenon and get it aired on Discovery Channel.

[Whiskey]

I do the "wait in the parking lot" thing, but I also work grave. A store opening at 10am is like 1st shift people waiting for a store to open at 11pm. I do feel incredibly awkward being the first person in the store though. :\

[Indigo]

We open at 10am most days (noon on Sunday) and I've seen people waiting outside when I get there at 9:30. We're a camping equipment store, what could you possibly need that urgently?! And its not even on sale days, just a normal day.

[underemployeed]

You know...I really think we've taken this whole convenience thing too far. I haven't actually opened in a few years, but from what I understand, there are customers waiting outside for the doors to open every single morning--and I work at a c-store, that opens at 5:30 AM! I guess the "Gotta have it NOW!" mentality is everywhere!

You suck, we never close and people are shocked by it and then angered when I tell them we stop selling alcohol at 1am.

We open at 10am most days (noon on Sunday) and I've seen people waiting outside when I get there at 9:30. We're a camping equipment store, what could you possibly need that urgently?! And its not even on sale days, just a normal day.

Obviously they need things to make the waiting easier while getting their morning coffee and the closes convinence store.

[grokit]

You know...I really think we've taken this whole convenience thing too far. I haven't actually opened in a few years, but from what I understand, there are customers waiting outside for the doors to open every single morning--and I work at a c-store, that opens at 5:30 AM! I guess the "Gotta have it NOW!" mentality is everywhere!

Some people are just up and about earlier than others. I know there's always people outside one of the shops around the corner from work on a Monday morning from about 7:50 (they open at 8 on Mondays and are 24hrs the rest of the week). I'm sometimes there as well since the bus drops me off just before 8 and I want to get lunch and suchlike before heading in to the office.

[Astaroth]

Some people are just up and about earlier than others. I know there's always people outside one of the shops around the corner from work on a Monday morning from about 7:50 (they open at 8 on Mondays and are 24hrs the rest of the week). I'm sometimes there as well since the bus drops me off just before 8 and I want to get lunch and suchlike before heading in to the office.

I am exactly the same, I like to grab my lunch before work too.

I am an early bird morning person and I am usually up and around at the crack of dawn so I will usually take my breakfast and go sit outside the convenience store until it opens so that I can grab lunch on my way to work. It opens about 30 minutes before I start work so I just like to be there so that if something goes wrong on the roads for some reason and the traffic becomes horrible, I know that I am almost at work and I have time to go to the store.

[draftermatt]

Lowe's opens at 6 AM Mon-Saturday, but not till 8 on Sunday. I've come in at 6 quite a few times on Sundays to open, and found people already waiting in the parking lot, or they'll drive up to the door, see the hours and leave.

I got yelled at by a manager one time for trying to get into the store at 5:30 to start my shift, I had to explain that I worked there and had worked there for over a month now. She let me in, then said she felt stupid when she saw me walking around the store all day.

[DemoDiva]

When I was working at an ice-creamery, I had to open the doors a bit to take all the outside chairs and tables out. Often, when I did this, there was no problem.

Once, I came back in and was stunned to find someone waiting at the counter. At 10am. With all the lights off. And the ice cream covered. And no scoops out.

I assumed she must want coffee, so, even though we were not yet open, I asked what she wanted.

ICE CREAM. AT 10AM.

I shuffled around trying to get her order, and meanwhile, a few other people came in. What was I going to say, "Sorry, we're not open yet, this lady snuck in like a ninja, so she gets ice cream, but the rest of you don't."

I don't get why people thought that my door being open a tiny tiny squidge so I wouldn't get locked out placing the tables was the same as the doors being WIIIIDE open with the OPEN sign on. Bonus? Our hours are clearly printed on the door, right by where they had to squeeze in.

Grr.

DD

[KellyHabersham]

I had a rather unsettling moment in the church office once when I'd come in a bit early to get something done, forgot to lock the door behind me, and a guy needing food assistance quietly entered the office. I didn't hear him come in, and was startled when I looked up to see him standing at the office window.

[XCashier]

Once, I came back in and was stunned to find someone waiting at the counter. At 10am. With all the lights off. And the ice cream covered. And no scoops out.

I assumed she must want coffee, so, even though we were not yet open, I asked what she wanted.

ICE CREAM. AT 10AM.

I shuffled around trying to get her order, and meanwhile, a few other people came in. What was I going to say, "Sorry, we're not open yet, this lady snuck in like a ninja, so she gets ice cream, but the rest of you don't."

I wouldn't have even bothered serving the first woman, because if you bend the rules for one person, you have to bend them for everybody, and then you're up the creek.