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The Last Fifteen Minutes Before We Close

I have a confession to make.

I stop working fifteen minutes before we close.

Well, that isn't technically true.

Where I work, it takes about fifteen minutes to close up, but the public can come in right up until the second we're officially "closed."

I make sure everything is closed up the way it should be, but if anyone comes in during those last fifteen minutes, they are not getting my full attention.

What they get is a brisk (at times borderline rude) employee who is simply trying to convince them that they should come back when we aren't shutting off the lights or locking the doors.

Maybe it's the way I was raised.

When I was a kid, my parents never went in anywhere if it was near closing time. My mother still avoids entering a store if it's an hour before closing.

"I don't want to be rude," she'll say, "They want to go home."

Maybe that's why it amazes me when people show up at my work at 7:55 on a twenty-minute mission to find something knowing full well that we have to be out of there by eight.

I'm willing to admit that if someone does that, they are definitely not getting A+ service, and I think if more people admitted to that, it would help solve the problem.

And the problem, let's be clear, is NOT emergency situations when someone has to run into a store at the last minute. The problem is that people are inconsiderate. They take advantage of the fact that most places can't close until the last customer has left the store regardless of if they've actually purchased anything or not.

In other words, they want the world to revolve around them.

I'm not going to pretend that those people are getting the best of me, and no, I'm not even ashamed to say that.

The early bird doesn't just get the worm--he gets much better service.

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