Shoppers who arrive just before closing are the worst if you’re working in retail.

Sometimes they’re clueless, often they’re not, but you have to treat them the way you treat people who come in first thing in the morning.

This family was aware they were imposing but didn’t care.

Here are the details.

“I’m trying to teach him how to buy things”

So a bit of background, I work in a shop that closes at 8, at about 7:50 we’d close the door and only open it for people who are leaving.

The other day as my manager asks one of my coworkers to close the door a couple and their young child come strolling in, now it’s company policy that we can’t ask a customer to leave the store unless we have actually closed or if we have closed then as long as they finish quickly.

They were definitely not in a hurry.

This family walks around until 8 and then only then do they decide to come up to the till with a game for their kid, there’s only one problem.

They’re that kind of family that has the kid come up to the till while Mummy and Daddy watch in awe as their 6-year old learns the basics of giving money to someone and getting something in return.

Normally this wouldn’t bother me at all but we had closed, my manager wanted to go, my coworker wanted to go and most importantly I wanted to go, so this kid starts nervously walking to the counter and suddenly freezes, looking back at his parents who give him a pep talk.

“Go on, put the game on the side and give the man the money.”

I had to keep my forced smile on as long as I could.

Yeah, it’s time to intervene.

Eventually the kid approaches the counter, puts the game on the counter but runs back to his mother as if I just turned into goddamn Slenderman or something.

At last! I can do something!

I go and grab the game from the drawers behind me, come back and this kid is still frozen with his parents comforting him and trying to get him to approach the counter, meanwhile it is now 8:15 and my forced smile is starting to give in.

The Dad looks up at me and utters those words in the title “I’m trying to teach him how to buy things.”

I figured at this point I would be entirely justified if I politely explained the time and that we had closed a quarter of an hour ago.

So he spoke up.

“Excuse me sir, sorry if this seems a bit rude but would you mind finishing the transaction, it’s just that we closed at 8 and it’s now approaching 20 past”

That was not the smart thing to do.

The Dad, looking rather angry at this request says “It’s your f*ing job to wait for the customer to be ready, I don’t give two sts if you’re closed, we came in before you closed and are trying to educate our son on how to buy things in a shop!”

Luckily, the manager had his back.

Before I could even respond, my manager leans through the door to the back office and simply calls back to him “Maybe you could’ve done this a bit earlier in the day, I’m turning the tills off in two minutes from back here since I want to go home and so does he, we don’t get paid after 8 so he’s essentially working for free there” and she disappears.

He looks at where she was, then looks at me angrily, I add “She is right, I’m not getting paid for this.”

Also I know she can’t turn the tills off from out the back, that can only be done on the actual till, but I’m gonna roll with it, I’m usually out by this time so I’m done with this,

Finally, they skedaddled.

I figured he would go up to the counter, pay then leave but instead he demanded the number for the head office and left.

I quickly locked the door behind them and breathed the biggest sigh of relief.

Some people just like making life hard for others.

I bet Reddit has some opinions on this one.

Hopefully he was paying attention.

Yeah, that had to be for dramatic effect, right?

Maybe starting a bit young.

There’s a time and place for everything.

An excellent point.

Good parenting or bad examples?

The line is so fine sometimes.

If you liked that post, check out this post about a rude customer who got exactly what they wanted in their pizza.