Some customers think closing time is just a suggestion, but it can turn into a headache for workers who are ready to lock up.

One late-night shopper took that idea a little too far, and it ended with the employee stuck way past their shift.

Read on for the full story!

When do we close? We’re supposed to be closed right now.

Had a guy come in last minute last night at the convenience store I work closing shifts for. Usually, it’s not an issue—they’re usually in and out fast.

The employee decided to give this customer the benefit of the doubt.

I was literally fetching the key to lock the doors when the guy in question came in, so I had to wait for him to finish before I could shut down.

So again, I didn’t think much of it because usually last-minute stragglers are quick.

Which they quickly regretted.

He wasn’t.

Between him practically inspecting every single item we had on the shelves, going, “Wait, I need to get more things,” three times after coming to the register, and then wanting to keep chatting after he’d paid and had his stuff bagged—despite me being non-receptive—it was almost fifteen minutes past closing time.

The employee tried to hurry the customer along, but nothing seemed to be working.

I did everything I could to not give him a reason to keep chatting, trying to be polite and nudge him out the door, to no avail.

Then he went and asked, “So what time do you close, anyway?”

So the employee let him know, but he still insisted on lingering.

So I told him that we were supposed to have locked up fifteen minutes ago, hoping that he would get the message and head out.

Dude laughed, then kept trying to talk, like, “Oh, you guys close early! When I worked retail, we stayed open until midnight,” and then tried to go on a tangent about how things were when he was a retail worker—blah, blah, blah.

Finally bluntness was the only remaining option.

I ended up having to be blunt, straight up telling him that if he’s done shopping, I’ll need him to leave so we can close.

He, of course, got sour after that because of course, it’s terrible customer service.

It’s small and mostly inconvenient, but holy **** does it infuriate me when people know it’s past or close to closing time and want to hang out despite it.

This customer needs to TAKE A HINT ALREADY.

What did Reddit have to say about all this?

Unfortunately sometimes managers enable bad customer behavior.

Just because the customer isn’t in a rush doesn’t mean the employees serving them aren’t!

Usually the actual business owners have a little more power to push back on bad customers.

“Closing time” is often not the same as “going home time.”

Sure, the customer’s time is valuable, but so is the cashier’s!

Closing time should never be a debate.

If you liked that story, check out this post about a group of employees who got together and why working from home was a good financial decision.