Imagine working the closing shift at a retail store. If a customer entered the store right before you were about to lock the doors, would you tell the customer the store is closed and they’ll need to come back another time, or would you let the customer take their time shopping?

In this story, one retail worker is in this situation, and they begrudgingly let the customer shopping, hoping the customer will hurry.

The customer doesn’t hurry.

Keep reading to see how the story plays out.

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.

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

So again, I didn’t think much because usually last minute stragglers as quick.

He wasn’t.

OP tried to hurry the customer along, but the customer was not in a hurry.

Between him practically inspecting every single item we had on 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.

I’ve done everything I could to not give him 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 I told him that we were supposed to have locked up fifteen minutes ago, hoping that he would get the message and head out.

He didn’t get the message.

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.

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 crap does it infuriate me when people know it’s past or close closing time and want to hang out despite it.

That guy sounds bored and lonely if he feels the need to make small talk with an employee who desperately wants to leave work at closing time.

Let’s see how Reddit reacted to this story.

A former restaurant employee shares an even worse situation where customers stayed past closing.

This person can also relate.

Another person complains about shoppers who stay past closing.

A business owner shares how they handle this situation.

Some customers have no respect for employees’ time.

If you liked that post, check out this story about a customer who insists that their credit card works, and finds out that isn’t the case.