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Closing time has a strange way of becoming negotiable whenever a customer’s poor planning suddenly turns into an employee’s emergency.

One father called minutes before closing and promised he could reach the store before the doors were locked.

When he arrived late, he expected the waiting staff to reopen and used his young son’s disappointment as emotional leverage.

But would the guilt trip work?

Customer asks me if I have a heart

I work in a sports shop and had my first direct encounter with this kind of parent.

So earlier today, a customer called at 7:50 pm saying he wanted to get a present for his son.

He was already on his way and said he’d be at my store in six minutes.

He wanted us to stay open just for him.

This man asked his manager if they could wait up for the customer.

I asked my manager, and he said, “Well, if he makes it before 8 pm, sure he can come in and get the watch.”

So I told him what my manager said, and we waited.

Clock hits 7:59, and we start to close.

Sure enough, the guy pulls up at 8:03.

He starts yelling at us about how we could have waited two more minutes.

He reminded the customer about how they were willing to wait for him until 8 pm.

Personally, I wanted to say, “Hey, man, we said if you can make it before 8 pm, we’d be able to help you out.

But it’s past that time. That’s when the shop closes.”

Instead, he kept talking about how his five-year-old son is going to be so sad, so I decided to ignore him.

At the time I did feel like a jerk, but I gave it a little thought.

For him, parents like this are kinda out of touch.

Seriously, does a five-year-old want a watch?

And if it was so important to get him that watch, couldn’t he have stopped by earlier?

I find parents like him very out of touch.

Let’s find out what others have to say about this.

This person shares their personal thought.

Why are people like this, asks this person.

Short and meaningful response.

Here’s a valid point.

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about an employee who found a way around his company’s denial of company time to study for his Commercial Driver’s License.

And finally, this one makes sense, too. Lol.

The customer arrived after the clearly stated deadline, then yelled because employees would not reopen the store for his last-minute purchase.

OP ignored the guilt trip and questioned whether a five-year-old urgently needed a watch badly enough to justify the entire scene.

Blaming retail workers for ruining a birthday is certainly easier than admitting you lost a race against the very product you wanted to buy.