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Closing time actually means something.

This shopper missed the memo.

She keeps browsing for another hour.

Then the registers give up.

See why how karma shows up at the cashier finish line.

Even the cash registers wanted her to leave

I work in the meat department of a regional grocery store chain.

I’m working there part-time while I finish up my undergraduate degree in psychology.

The following story was related to us from the grocery workers up front.

It’s an infuriating situation.

Every Saturday we have to stay late to do a deep clean of our entire department.

Apparently a customer had managed to come in just before they had locked the doors for the night.

Company policy was that if a customer entered before closing time they should be allowed to stay until the finish their shopping.

The lady finally finished her shopping about an hour after we had closed.

As the grocery workers started to check her out about halfway through, the registers auto shut off.

But then automation joined forces with them.

Apparently they are programmed to auto shut off exactly one hour after we close for security reasons and could not be turned on until the following day.

No customer had ever been there that late so none of the grocery workers had even known the contingency system existed.

It was about an hour and a half after we closed and we had finished up cleaning the department and we were going home.

As we left the lady was still in the parking lot arguing with the full time grocery worker in charge of closing that night.

I felt bad for the grocery worker but the amount of joy I felt from seeing her not get her groceries was indescribable.

Here is what people are saying.

I’ve never worked in retail and even I was delighted!

I’m sure a lot of people do. But this could have been a power trip.

I doubt that would stop anyone in North America.

Simple, you’d think.

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about an American who is confused about why they can’t use their American dollars at a Canadian grocery store.

My imagination is running wild!

The customer kept shopping for an hour after closing, until the registers automatically shut down before her purchase was finished.

She was still arguing in the parking lot later, despite employees offering to save everything until morning.

Even the cash registers clocked out before she did.