Some customers think retail staff have no life outside their jobs.

One shop employee was working on Christmas Eve when she encountered a shopper who refused to leave as the shop was about to close. The staff was quite entertained by the shopper’s encounter with the manager while they waited for closing.

Read the full story below.

Customer forgot we were human beings and had families

Christmas in retail is the worst. The music, the sheer amount of people, the glitter. Oh goodness, the glitter.

A couple of years ago, I was unfortunate enough to be working Christmas Eve. But we were open for a shorter time than normal, which was nice of the company to do, so 8 to 4pm.

Why people need to go to a garden centre on Christmas Eve, I do not know.

Why people need to go anywhere on Christmas Eve will always baffle me.

It had been a really long day.

Anyway, it had been crazy busy, a constant flow of people at the tills and entering the store. Eight hours of “Merry Christmas, do you need a bag?” and getting shouted at for saying Merry Christmas in case the person didn’t celebrate Christmas, which they did.

It was 3:55, and we’d done five tannoys to tell customers the shop was closing and they needed to go to the tills or leave.

But typically, some people chose to have selective hearing and continue to shop.

One woman refused to leave.

Our managers were on the shop floor, slowly herding people toward the door. One woman (C) didn’t like this and started to kick off. My manager (M) was more than happy to deal with her.

M: “Excuse me, you need to leave.”

C: “Well, I’m still shopping, and you can’t close the doors while I’m still inside.” (Wanna bet?)

The manager handled it well.

M: “We will be open on Boxing Day if there’s anything else you want to buy, but please can you go to the tills to pay for your items so we can close.”

C: “I think it’s unacceptable that you’re closing early on Christmas Eve.”

M: “Well, our staff would like to go home, and currently, you are stopping them from spending what’s left of the day with their families.”

She finally did, but she had one last complaint.

After another few minutes of back and forth, my manager convinced this woman to pay for her items… at 4:07.

At this point, every member of staff had convened at the tills (like we did every night for security reasons).

She was not happy about having to pay for her items in front of every member of staff and claimed we had done it deliberately to embarrass her.

Maybe we did, maybe we didn’t.

The customer embarrassed herself for acting the way she did.

Other people shared their thoughts in the comments section on Reddit.

This user shares a similar experience.

What every store needs.

Another related story.

A valid observation.

And here’s a good idea.

Retail staff deserve family time, not overtime, on Christmas Eve.

If you liked this post, check out this story about an employee who got revenge on a co-worker who kept grading their work suspiciously low.