For once, I'd like us to CLOSE on time...

[Dreamstalker]

It isn't only SCs that can't seem to grasp logic, I guess, from how common it sounds for management or corporate to only schedule employees until closing time - what do they think, the retail fairy comes in and waves her wand and makes all the customers vanish and cleans up the mess the last ones left?

Apparently so. We're supposed to start closing duties at 8:30; taking coupons/WIC from the drawers and putting them in the media pouches (any paperwork accepted after that point goes right in the pouches). In theory, good idea. In practice, it rarely works the way it should. In addition to rushes that make it impossible for a cashier to get the time to do it properly, it's also a risk to have the pouches out on top of the receipt printer (the only place we have to put it; very easy for a customer to reach over and grab it if they're so inclined).

On Monday I found that someone had put a tub of ice cream in the returns cart..probably from Sunday night. I go to pick it up and get melted ice cream on my shoes.

[EricKei]

Sorry, but if the store closes at 9, they should be through the checkout and outside of the door at 9pm. This would mean, by very virtue of time, they would need to take their crap to the register by at least 855pm in order to be out by 9pm.

Depends on the store, sadly. At DaddyJim's Pizza, if we closed at 1am on a Saturday night, the DM would make a point of staying up and calling us at 12:57am to make DAMN SURE we were still answering the phone and taking delivery orders....And, of course, watching our labor % to make sure we weren't wasting money by having too many people on the clock when they weren't really needed...>_> Same thing at GameStore, where exceeding your alloted hours by five minutes was considered "stealing from the company", and grounds for summary dismissal with prejudice (for "inabilty to follow directions").

when an employee came over and very politely told us they were about to close, please head for the register. One of us said something like "oh, sorry, we didn't hear the announcement" and the employee says "oh, there aren't any, our manager won't let us announce that we're closing".

BoutiqueGrocery was like this. The doors were turned OFF at ten til (which means that the doors got broken every few months by people FORCING the non-working doors with the CLOSED sign on them open by pushing -- and these doors were designed to slide to the side...), the lights in half the store were already off by that time, etc. We were absolutely VERBOTEN from telling custy's that we were closED, let along closING, unless they explicitly asked us. We were not allowed to even sweep until every custy was in line at the register.

[pzychobitch]

The store my daughter works at starts making the announcements 15 minutes early. One of her co-workers told me they love to have her do it, as she has the politest way of saying 'get the hell out of here' that they have heard.

If I am thinking about the same company that you are, I also worked there as well. Even before I worked there and would shop I always appreciated the "hey, we're closing soon" announcements.

[Racket_Man]

Depends on the store, sadly. At DaddyJim's Pizza, if we closed at 1am on a Saturday night, the DM would make a point of staying up and calling us at 12:57am to make DAMN SURE we were still answering the phone and taking delivery orders....And, of course, watching our labor % to make sure we weren't wasting money by having too many people on the clock when they weren't really needed...>_> .

I have the same stiuation at Spaceballs (think about the name of the vilian) Pizza. upper managerment has threatened us with nasty stuff if they call at 12:59:55a (we close at one) and we say we are closed.

having said that there is one store that regularly gets away with either saying they are closed (meaning by 15 or 20 minutes before close) or tells the "customer" to call my store as we will deliver to them (false because they are still open AND the customer is WAAAYYY out of our delivery area).

and do not get me started with EVERY SINGLE store in my town having a DIFFERENT closing time

[Jetfire]

One of my CW's tried that, and sadly the subtext is always lost on the people who most need the clue. I don't know whether the music can be controlled at the store level; there have been many suggestions to either shut it off at 8:45, or let an employee patch their MP3 player in ('goth' rock, metal, rap, techno/house...between any four of us I'm sure someone has something that's even worse than the normal Muzak. Taiko drums over the PA, anyone?)

How about the Mario theme song? Complete with the last 100 seconds "speed up!" fan faire and tempo speed up.

[Catwoman2965]

This is a huge pet peeve of mine, especially since corporate will not allow us to tell customers we are closing, closed, or any variation thereof. I work in a clothing store, and nothing irks me more than having someone leisurely stroll in 15 minutes before closing, wander about, take a metric fuckton of clothing in to try on, and la de da about. And says repeatedly, "i know your closing" blah, blah, blah. Well, if you know that, GTFU!

And it seems they're getting more and more inconsiderate. We are allowed to lock the doors so we can prevent anyone else from coming IN, but we have to wait until they're done before we can finish closing, i.e. close the registers, vacuum, etc. It's just rude and I'm tired of it. Turning off hte music, loudly proclaiming all doors have been locked, etc. have no affect on the SCs.

[NotAlBundy]

How about the Mario theme song? Complete with the last 100 seconds "speed up!" fan faire and tempo speed up.

Genius.

I so want to do this now.

[EricKei]

the customer is WAAAYYY out of our delivery area

Just a side note on this for people who haven't worked in a job like this -- At many multi-location, franchised delivery joints like this, delivery areas are established by contract (they often follow ZIP code lines). This means that, if a store 2 minutes from your house (read: poor placement, it should ideally be dead center-ish in relation to the area) says that they don't deliver to you, it's not because of where you live (well, unless nobody but "plastic toy with dots" pizza goes there), nor your race (i've had people accuse me of this...over the phone) or name (which you haven't given us yet), etc...Rather, it means we don't wanna get penalized by Corporate (if we violate the area of another store our franchisee owns) or even SUED (if we violate the area a different franchisee owns) for Breach of Contract.

[Dreamstalker]

Aand it happened again. Not that I'm complaining too much about time-and-a-half, the problem is more that since the town says we can't have truck deliveries past 8 PM we have to start stocking stuff as soon as we get it if there's room. It becomes a safety issue with pallets all over the place and oblivious SCs; the night crew needs to start at a specified time.

I'm starting to notice a pattern with complicated EBT (no, it's not hinky at all that you need to call someone to get the PIN--legally we should be able to refuse those transactions but we don't), confused WIC, and two cartloads of crap at 8:58. Do people have nothing better to do? We open at 8 AM.

(because I had to stay late last night, I got 'lectured' by one of my petsitting clients for not coming over right when I said I would)

[scary cary]

Man, I really wish more people had the brains to figure out that they are NOT wanted in stores 15 minutes before closing. When I worked for the big green apron we had to take orders up to 10 minutes AFTER closing time!! A few shift supervisors totally didn't care and told people we were closed up to 5 or 10 minutes before we actually closed. Crazy corporation! We were only given 30 minutes to close, 20 if we stuck with their idiotic "serve people up to 10 minutes later".

You know, this is one of the reasons I'm glad we have several 24 hour grocery stores in my town. No closing times!

[Dreamstalker]

We aren't given extra time to close (I wonder if Corp is wondering why they always need to pay half the closing crew 15 extra minutes).

On the 4th we actually DID close on time because we didn't have a delivery and someone with the alarm codes decided to enable it at 9 on the nose (once the motion detectors kick in, EVERYONE needs to be out).

[Teefies2]

My company also doesn't schedule employees past closing time. We close at 10pm. Every single (closing shift) employee is scheduled to clock out at 10pm. And we are not allowed to lock the doors until 10pm. But never fear! Corporate has a solution for that ... we ARE allowed to start closing duties after 9pm (such as cleaning the bathrooms, vacuuming, etc.). However, we cannot and SHALL not tell any customers that we are closed and they need to get to the registers NAO. So at least after the last customer is rung out, we can leave, but that could be anywhere from 5 to 30 minutes after closing time. :-(

And of course, you are NOT allowed to be over 40 hours, so you MUST come in later the next day, which can affect the day shift's breaks and lunches. Once when I worked a rare opening shift (starts at 8am) I wasn't allowed to go to lunch until 3 pm, when the closing person came in. Not so bad you say? Well I had closed the night before and had had dinner at 5:30 that night (as scheduled). So I went 10 hours without eating!!!!!

[Dreamstalker]

Update of sorts...

Corporate must have finally asked why they always have to pay half the closing crew 15 extra minutes on Sundays (and/or the night crew complained that they never start on time). At 8:58, manager A locks the entrance doors (!) and stands by the exit doors asking everyone "Are you here to use Redbox? If you're getting a movie you can come in, otherwise we're closed!" So I managed to leave on time for once. Hopefully this becomes a pattern.