If you come into a store two minutes before it closes and expect excellent service, you are simply out of your mind.
This summer, I ventured back into the crazy world of retail customer service, a realm I had managed to avoid for quite a long time. During my time away, I had almost forgotten how demanding, needy and downright crazy certain customers can be.
While I can accept some degree of insanity, there is one kind of customer I cannot stand: the shopper who comes in with a long list of purchases two minutes before the store is supposed to close. I am disgusted to even think of them.
When I started my summer job at a local hardware store, I noticed that many shoppers simply wanted to be in and out with their purchases — most likely because most of our clientele are contractors who are looking to get what they need and get back to the jobsite. While there is no doubt that I have seen a long-term wanderer in my time (e.g. someone who will walk each aisle of our big box department store for upwards of three hours), most people want to get in and get out.
As an employee, I appreciate these kinds of people. They usually know what they are looking for, they don’t ask a million unnecessary questions and they are often out of my hair rather quickly. These types of customers are especially appreciated at 8:30 p.m., when closing is just half an hour away and I am desperate to go home.
Unfortunately, by the time the clock strikes 9 p.m. and the store is technically closed, it is never these customers that we are left with. Every night, we have at least one straggler and astonishingly, they expect to be served with the same amount of in-depth understanding and unwavering patience as the customers who came in to shop more than five minutes before we are supposed to close.
Regrettably, my ability to be a good customer service representative goes out the window the moment my shift is over at 9 p.m.
While I could obviously never say this to a customer’s face, I still want to share with these kinds of people exactly what every retail worker is thinking when you walk through the door 30 seconds before close — get the hell out.
Listen, I get it. While I personally haven’t run into a situation where I’ve needed to purchase five gallons of different coloured paint at 9 p.m., I have been the person running through the double doors at Walmart 15 minutes before they close to grab a carton of eggs. I’m a late-night baker, what can I say. Out of the goodness of my heart, I can forgive the shopper running the clock and checking out at 8:58 p.m. But the moment you are in the store past closing time, you have become public enemy number one.
Some people might think that this isn’t a big deal, but I disagree. These people are showing a deep level of disrespect for the time of the employees they are bothering, all of whom want to go home after a long shift, by disrupting their closing routine and forcing them to stay later than they were scheduled to get everything done. Instead of apologizing for their behaviour and acknowledging our right to utter disdain, they expect to be treated with the kindness of Mother Mary.
Not cool.
My first experience with this kind of behaviour came within the first two weeks of starting my summer job. Just five minutes before close, a man came through the doors with a lumber cart and a dream. I kindly informed him that we would be closing soon and so he would have to do his shopping quickly, which he told me he would.
That was a lie.
Over 20 minutes later, this customer was still standing in the lumber run loading over a hundred pieces of wood onto his cart. It wasn’t until 9:35 p.m., over half an hour past closing, that he finally arrived at the checkout. He even had the audacity to ask the lot associate, who had been scheduled to get off five minutes earlier, to load all of the lumber into his vehicle while he stood back and watched.
There is nothing about that situation that is even close to reasonable. What this customer’s behaviour showed me was that he saw me and my co-workers as sub-human, as someone who is lesser than him. His convenience was what mattered the most, even if it impacted our ability to clock out and leave on time.
While you might not realize that your lack of time management is impacting other people (which is already an incredibly concerning level of ignorance), by showing up right before we close and staying long past 9 p.m., you have become the worst kind of person out there: somebody who doesn’t value the lives of other people.
If you have some shopping to do, don’t wait to the last minute to do it. If you’ve forgotten to return something, wait until the next morning. And if you are the kind of person who thinks it’s necessary to pick up 138 two-by-fours at 8:55 p.m., you suck.