Imagine working at a retail store, and a customer calls you minutes before closing time claiming to be on the way and asking you to stay open for them. Would you comply, or would you close right on time like usual?

In this story, one retail worker is often in this situation, and he doesn’t always respond the same way.

Keep reading for all the details.

“I’m 10 minutes away, can’t you just stay open until I get there?”

This has happened a few times and I hate it everytime.

We close at 5:00pm sharp. Doors locked, lights off, I’m in my car and down the road by 5:02.

I get a call at 4:58pm, customer wants to come in to pick up product but are still “10 minutes” away and they want us to stay here past close for them.

Sometimes OP is willing to stay a few minutes late.

I’ve done it a couple times for people who are a couple minutes away, like they’re up the road at the stop light and will actually be here within a minute or two.

Those who say they are still on the freeway and 10 minutes away is almost always going to be longer than that.

Not only that, but once you wait past close for them to get here, then you have to wait for them to finish their business and leave and who knows how long that will take.

OP is pretty frustrated by these people.

First of all I don’t get paid past 5:00pm and second of all, I do have my own life and schedule and would like to get home to my own family.

I just don’t get these people who can’t get here before close and think we should just wait around for them at risk of being late for own activities.

We are open for 8 hours every day and I am here for 9 hours. I want to go home!

That does sound frustrating! It seems that these customers don’t value OP’s time. It might be wise not to answer the phone when it’s close to closing time.

Let’s see how Reddit responded to this story.

This person can relate to this situation.

Another person points out that the boss is probably required to pay overtime.

Here’s another story about a customer who was running late.

A dental worker shares their experience.

No business should be required to stay open for late customers.

If you liked that story, check out this post about an oblivious CEO who tells a web developer to “act his wage”… and it results in 30% of the workforce being laid off.