Late Arrivals

There is nothing - nothing - that pisses me and my workmates off more than customers who come in to do their Xmas/Back to School/Anything shopping ten minutes before The Store closes.

I see them roll up in the carpark - Mummy, Daddy and their 5 kids - at 5:50 pm, unload all the rug-rats, and stroll leisurely into the shop. Big sign at the front of the shop - Closing Time 6 pm - is ignored. They all head off their separate ways - Mummy to the Larger Ladies section, Daddy to Fishing and Camping, and the spawn to CDs and DVDs. Never mind that the tills are starting to be shut down, never mind that they are the only customers in the shop, never mind that NONE OF US GET PAID FOR WORKING OVERTIME.

It's now 5:55 pm and one of the register operators makes the "5-minutes-left-to-shop" call over the PA system. Do these fuckers make a beeline to the tills? No, they just keep rollin' along, adding item after item to their trolleys. The kids throw in heaps of junk-food, toys and electronic games, all of which will be discarded at the checkouts ("No, Brian, we are NOT buying all that - I told you before!"), and all of which will have to be put away again by the night staff.

Customers, please, please, time your department store visits to end before closing. Even if you want to buy "just one" item - that "one" item is holding up all of the staff, who just wanna get home, not service your dim-witted self. And when the staff announce that it's 5 minutes, or 10 minutes, before closing - stop whatever you're doing and head to the checkouts.

Please.