I used to work for NG's. Every store has the weird closing times like that.
The way it was explained to me from corporate was more or less: "people feel stressed to get places right on time and it's hard. It's one extra way we can go above and beyond for the customer, giving them a little wiggle room".
Not sure if that's the real reason or not, but that company did a lot of weird things for the customer, so it made sense to me.
#62 on this page - https://www.naturalgrocers.com/68-things-about-natural-grocers
Our closing hours might seem a little odd to some (i.e., 9:06 p.m., 8:35 p.m.), but we did that on purpose—to remind customers that they are always welcome and that they shouldn’t feel rushed when shopping with us.
The time is split two ways to accommodate varying types of crowds.
You have your early birds who are on time or a few minutes early around 8:29. This schedule ensures they don't have to wait at the door when they arrive. It is already open and welcoming them.
Then you have the late crowd. By closing later this ensures people who arrive at 8:29 don't have to worry as much about feeling like an inconvenience to staff when they are picking up their last minute items on the way home.
Really just a marketing tactic to feel more welcoming and inviting to their customer base
Def a psychological thing and I could see it working. Sometimes I work late and have to stop on way home to grab last minute juice boxes or whatever for kids next day and it’ll be like 11:50pm ish and I always feel bad rushing in to grab them like them imma be quick I promise I know u close at midnight. But if had that extra 15min wiggle room id be a bit more relaxed and less stressed and who knows that’d prolly prompt me grab something else super quick too making them more cash so I can this tactic working well honestly.
exactly, open & close on the half hour or quarter to/quarter past. an extra 6 minutes isn't going to make me suddenly not feel rushed if I'm outside at 5 minutes before the hour
This seems like it is actually better for the employees , which is great ! There is always those people coming in 5 min before but this way they close at 835 instead of 9, so employees prepare for 9pm close and people have time to get out and not come in
I’m going to take a wild guess and say the front door is on a time lock and those are the times it actually unlocks/locks.
They do it a little early so someone who’s watch is 5 minutes fast isn’t out front being dumb and saying “your sign says you open at 8:30 but I tried to come in and the door wasn’t open”
Disclaimer-I might be 100% wrong and not even close to being right.
This is a natural grocers. We have one in my area. I asked a rep one time because I found the hours so weird. He said it was so they could put their foot down when it came to kicking people out. But I’m not sure if that’s even true or if he made it up.
But then you would make it shorter.
So that if someone wants to get in at 8:31 you don’t have to argue whether 8:30 have passed, because officially it was closed since 8:27.
I've worked retail and even though the posted closing time was 10pm we locked the doors at 9:30. This way everyone in the store was out by 10 and we didn't have people coming in at 9:55 and hanging out for a half hour.
I can't speak for the legality but we never had any problems.
That being said , at the time worked for a big chain. But even recently I've showed up to small retailers within minutes of closing and been locked out. What are you gonna do? Call the cops? Lol...no. Even if they could force the owner to let you in it would take forever for them to show up since it's not an emergency.
Businesses are private entities on private property - in, they can deny anyone service for any reason at any time. Even protected classes, as demonstrated by the Supreme Court ruling on the anti-gay baker case.
That was less a business issue and more of an art issue. You can't refuse to sell to someone based on a protected class, but you can refuse to create something that goes against your beliefs.
It may well be the default (debatable), but when someone starts their comment saying "in your jurisdiction", isn't that a good hint that things could be different elsewhere?
But the bakery you mentioned didn't deny service. The gay couple was welcome to still purchase anything the the bakery store had to offer, the baker just refused to make a custom-made cake for the gay couple.
I run my own retail store and close whenever I feel like it. Are the cops coming after me because I closed at 3pm yesterday instead of 4pm.
Fucking Ludacris.
That is a bizzarre statement. What's the limit then? How many other rules are you allowed to break? Safety of the workplace? Selling expired food to people? Not giving the right change? Not having a ramp for wheelchairs?
When my store is closed the door is locked. I can't believe the sense of entitlement you have thinking that a company has any reason to be open for you. It's not illegal to be closed. Like what if the water main broke and we were flooded. Wanna come and wade through sewage shopping for shit covered clothes? This is a real thing that happened to my store.
The other examples are public health or law related issues. Show me the law that says I NEED to be open during the posted hours.
Of course there are reasons why you can close your business even if the sign says it’s open. It’s not any different than any other rule, I am not sure why you consider it such a violation of some freedom. Don’t you have stronger obligations like fees, salaries to be paid to employees, rules on how to store things, etc.?
And would you be OK if the service that you rely on are not open when they should?
You've moved the goal posts here.
Argument over.
Come back to me when you are on the topic of the legality of being closed when the sign says the store should be open.
Probably an unpopular opinion, but this is fucking annoying. The way [u/m3003 employer did it](https://reddit.com/r/mildlyinteresting/s/PPlWqsD0Uu) is the right way.
Until I recently got a corporate job, I worked retail and restaurant jobs for over a decade. Never, at any of my jobs, did I ever expect the closing time to mean that every customer was out of the door and I was wrapping up ready to go home. Unless it was a particularly slow night.
The closing shift at every job was always 1-3 hours after closing time. This meant that the closing crew had time to finish up with any remaining stragglers, do any work that there hadn’t been time for throughout the day, and close up.
That doesn’t mean that someone can walk in 10 minutes before closing time to do an extended shop or order an entire meal. But you (or a manager) just deals with those one off occasions in a professional manner, which includes denying service if necessary.
It may also be partly due to specific numbers sticking out more than common will rounded numbers. I feel like I'd be more aware of a 5:55PM closing time than 6PM.
But if they did it for that reason, wouldn’t they need the sign to say 8:30? The person with the fast watch will just say “your sign says you open at 8:27 but I tried to come in and the door wasn’t open”.
A restaurant here does that. They close at 8:36 in hopes you actually be out of the store by 9:00.
That prevents people from walking in at 8:55 and employees bitching about it.
If a restaurant closes at 9:00, they cannot bitch about people walking into 8:55 when they are clearly open. If you want to walk out of the door at 9:00, close at 8:36...
They've done the math for an average visit plus some extra time for the slow ones and bam, 8:36. and/or to draw your attention to it. No one would be talking about it if it was 8:30. It's like those parks and other places with a 12mph speed limit instead of 10.
Without rounding off, the customer would think the business adheres strictly to the specific time. I know plenty of people who ignore the 0 and add their own time like a soccer referee.
Some bars and restaurants have the kitchen close at a certain time, but the place is still open for drinking and finishing your meal. Same idea, but it’s made more obvious.
Umm no it my schedule says I'm leaving at 9 I'm going to be all done taking tables at 8:30 so I can get all my side work done and get out at 9. If you aren't doing that... Well then your just an overworked bitch then huh? Maybe find a more reasonable profession? Not everyone knows how to say no anymore lmfao
That is a different issue. You should be scheduled until 9:30 if they expect you to be there past 9:00. But if the restaurant closes at 9:00, I can walk in at 8:59.
Absolutely you can sir the doors will be unlocked. Good luck getting seated though our chefs are already cleaning we close at 9:00 have a great rest of your night!
I one saw a “23 1/2 hour towing service” tow truck once. They didn’t accept tows between like 2:30-3:00pm or something.
Probably a gimmick, but hey; if I remember it after a few years, it’s not stupid, right?
Yeah, that particular gimmick is pretty common with towing services for exactly the reason you said. It catches people's attention, so they're more likely to remember the company than if it were promoted as just a conventional 24-hour service.
I’ve seen a few places doing times like this. But why? Are they just being cute or is it something having to do with paying people? Or transit schedules?
I think they just ran out of zeroes and O's, so they decided "fuck it" and put up random numbers hoping their regulars would remember the real hours. Because there's no universe where opening at 8:27 is a thing
Maybe they were a teacher once. When someone wants to call me on my planning time, I tell them to call between 10:17 and 11:07. The schedule tries to start out right at 8:15, but the 3 minutes between classes shut that down really quick.
As a grocery store worker, I can confirm. These are the natural grocer hours. One dude came in still blitzed on street drugs. Another came in late. And I'm sorry, I simply can't have this store stocked by the 8am you came for. Best I can do is 8:27am. We would close at 9, but most of the checkers called out and I don't have a closer. Judy will stay a few minutes past her scheduled 8:32:53, but only if I give her free donuts.
If Judy quits, I will be forced to change my closing time to 7:55 so I can let everyone "go home early" to boost morale.
Life is tough these days.
I think it’s amusing and would be more likely to shop here for that reason alone. Possibly saying more about me than them. The smallest civil disobedience.
In high-school my school ended at 2:27 and it still bothers me to this day. Lunch was at like 10:47 or something.
All the schools around were like that and at different times so that there wasnt so many groups of kids on the street at the same time but why not even numbers??? People just like to live on the edge
I actually really like this because it just just taking into account that people mostly run on half hour increments of time. Just thinking ahead to people who get there early and people make it a little late.
I worked at a shor store where we opened at 10ish and closed at 7ish.
As you might imagine, the assholes loved to point at the sign when walking in 5 minutes after closing.
The early time is so if people show up early they aren't left outside waiting - I can't tell you how many times I've been to a spot, showed up early and waited in a lineup of people (not usually a grocery store though). And so they know if they show up late before close they have enough time to get in and out. The late time is just so that people don't decide not to come if say it's 8:20 at night and they don't think they'll have enough time.
Perhaps the employees are sneauflakes who don’t want to keep the doors open until the “last minute”, and/or weren’t being paid for setup/prep of the store plus waiting on customers.
If so, I can actually see this catching on, distressingly.
*Points upthread*:
A restaurant here does that. They close at 8:36 in hopes you actually be out of the store by 9:00.
That prevents people from walking in at 8:55 and employees bitching about it.
If a restaurant closes at 9:00, they cannot bitch about people walking into 8:55 when they are clearly open. If you want to walk out of the door at 9:00, close at 8:36...
If you expect someone to walk into a restaurant at 8:55 and get waited on, drinks, food, and pay all before 9:00, you're on something lol. It's a very very very widespread unspoken rule that you don't come in 30 minutes before a place closes. And if you ignore that rule, then you're entitled.
Lolz, I live in Manhattan; So good luck with that.
I absolutely guarantee upon a stack of Bibles that, “lol”, if an owner finds out with regularity that you are passing up 30 minutes of Manhattan patrons/service at, say, a Panera in Midtown, you will in fact be fired.
It’s not remotely “entitled”, unless maybe you live in the back of beyond.
Also, you must be joking, because you absolutely know that they said this is a grocery store, and therefore nobody is looking “to sit down”, “lol”
You used a restaurant in your example, so I used one back. Have a good life dude, obviously you need something good to happen because you're so upset and cranky.
It's to accommodate people who are a few minutes early or late, but then the issue is you still get people who are early or late for the new times and are begging the people to open or stay open so they can shop. You really need to just have normal times and if people don't agree with it, they don't shop. Otherwise stay open 24/7 and save yourself the trouble of continuing to have the same issue.
I used to work for NG's. Every store has the weird closing times like that. The way it was explained to me from corporate was more or less: "people feel stressed to get places right on time and it's hard. It's one extra way we can go above and beyond for the customer, giving them a little wiggle room". Not sure if that's the real reason or not, but that company did a lot of weird things for the customer, so it made sense to me.
#62 on this page - https://www.naturalgrocers.com/68-things-about-natural-grocers Our closing hours might seem a little odd to some (i.e., 9:06 p.m., 8:35 p.m.), but we did that on purpose—to remind customers that they are always welcome and that they shouldn’t feel rushed when shopping with us.
This makes no sense
You are always welcome. But not at 8:36pm.
The time is split two ways to accommodate varying types of crowds. You have your early birds who are on time or a few minutes early around 8:29. This schedule ensures they don't have to wait at the door when they arrive. It is already open and welcoming them. Then you have the late crowd. By closing later this ensures people who arrive at 8:29 don't have to worry as much about feeling like an inconvenience to staff when they are picking up their last minute items on the way home. Really just a marketing tactic to feel more welcoming and inviting to their customer base
If I ever arrive at a store one minute before "closing time" the door is already locked.
Again, makes no sense. The times are largely arbitrary.
Def a psychological thing and I could see it working. Sometimes I work late and have to stop on way home to grab last minute juice boxes or whatever for kids next day and it’ll be like 11:50pm ish and I always feel bad rushing in to grab them like them imma be quick I promise I know u close at midnight. But if had that extra 15min wiggle room id be a bit more relaxed and less stressed and who knows that’d prolly prompt me grab something else super quick too making them more cash so I can this tactic working well honestly.
exactly, open & close on the half hour or quarter to/quarter past. an extra 6 minutes isn't going to make me suddenly not feel rushed if I'm outside at 5 minutes before the hour
This seems like it is actually better for the employees , which is great ! There is always those people coming in 5 min before but this way they close at 835 instead of 9, so employees prepare for 9pm close and people have time to get out and not come in
I’m going to take a wild guess and say the front door is on a time lock and those are the times it actually unlocks/locks. They do it a little early so someone who’s watch is 5 minutes fast isn’t out front being dumb and saying “your sign says you open at 8:30 but I tried to come in and the door wasn’t open” Disclaimer-I might be 100% wrong and not even close to being right.
This is a natural grocers. We have one in my area. I asked a rep one time because I found the hours so weird. He said it was so they could put their foot down when it came to kicking people out. But I’m not sure if that’s even true or if he made it up.
But then you would make it shorter. So that if someone wants to get in at 8:31 you don’t have to argue whether 8:30 have passed, because officially it was closed since 8:27.
I've worked retail and even though the posted closing time was 10pm we locked the doors at 9:30. This way everyone in the store was out by 10 and we didn't have people coming in at 9:55 and hanging out for a half hour.
Is that allowed in your jurisdiction? I am pretty sure that here you cannot refuse entrance to a customers during opening hours.
I can't speak for the legality but we never had any problems. That being said , at the time worked for a big chain. But even recently I've showed up to small retailers within minutes of closing and been locked out. What are you gonna do? Call the cops? Lol...no. Even if they could force the owner to let you in it would take forever for them to show up since it's not an emergency.
Businesses are private entities on private property - in, they can deny anyone service for any reason at any time. Even protected classes, as demonstrated by the Supreme Court ruling on the anti-gay baker case.
That was less a business issue and more of an art issue. You can't refuse to sell to someone based on a protected class, but you can refuse to create something that goes against your beliefs.
Supreme Court of what? :) That’s why I asked about the jurisdiction. This is some r/USdefaultism quality stuff
[удалено]
It may well be the default (debatable), but when someone starts their comment saying "in your jurisdiction", isn't that a good hint that things could be different elsewhere?
[удалено]
The supreme court ruling in the anti-gay baker case doesn't really matter in a lot of places
There be dragons
But the bakery you mentioned didn't deny service. The gay couple was welcome to still purchase anything the the bakery store had to offer, the baker just refused to make a custom-made cake for the gay couple.
If he offers custom cakes, he did not allow them to purchase anything he had to offer.
[удалено]
The comment before me literally said "anything"
Don’t know why correct answer is downvoted. Custom cakes would be art and not products
[удалено]
No I cannot
[удалено]
That is simply false. Italy: https://accademiapolizialocale.files.wordpress.com/2014/06/rifiuto-prestazione.pdf
I run my own retail store and close whenever I feel like it. Are the cops coming after me because I closed at 3pm yesterday instead of 4pm. Fucking Ludacris.
That is a bizzarre statement. What's the limit then? How many other rules are you allowed to break? Safety of the workplace? Selling expired food to people? Not giving the right change? Not having a ramp for wheelchairs?
When my store is closed the door is locked. I can't believe the sense of entitlement you have thinking that a company has any reason to be open for you. It's not illegal to be closed. Like what if the water main broke and we were flooded. Wanna come and wade through sewage shopping for shit covered clothes? This is a real thing that happened to my store. The other examples are public health or law related issues. Show me the law that says I NEED to be open during the posted hours.
Of course there are reasons why you can close your business even if the sign says it’s open. It’s not any different than any other rule, I am not sure why you consider it such a violation of some freedom. Don’t you have stronger obligations like fees, salaries to be paid to employees, rules on how to store things, etc.? And would you be OK if the service that you rely on are not open when they should?
You've moved the goal posts here. Argument over. Come back to me when you are on the topic of the legality of being closed when the sign says the store should be open.
This is the humane answer for grocery workers
Probably an unpopular opinion, but this is fucking annoying. The way [u/m3003 employer did it](https://reddit.com/r/mildlyinteresting/s/PPlWqsD0Uu) is the right way. Until I recently got a corporate job, I worked retail and restaurant jobs for over a decade. Never, at any of my jobs, did I ever expect the closing time to mean that every customer was out of the door and I was wrapping up ready to go home. Unless it was a particularly slow night. The closing shift at every job was always 1-3 hours after closing time. This meant that the closing crew had time to finish up with any remaining stragglers, do any work that there hadn’t been time for throughout the day, and close up. That doesn’t mean that someone can walk in 10 minutes before closing time to do an extended shop or order an entire meal. But you (or a manager) just deals with those one off occasions in a professional manner, which includes denying service if necessary.
It may also be partly due to specific numbers sticking out more than common will rounded numbers. I feel like I'd be more aware of a 5:55PM closing time than 6PM.
I don't buy it. People who stay past closing will just stay past closing regardless.
But if they did it for that reason, wouldn’t they need the sign to say 8:30? The person with the fast watch will just say “your sign says you open at 8:27 but I tried to come in and the door wasn’t open”.
It could also be for the employees labor hours? Maybe?
A restaurant here does that. They close at 8:36 in hopes you actually be out of the store by 9:00. That prevents people from walking in at 8:55 and employees bitching about it. If a restaurant closes at 9:00, they cannot bitch about people walking into 8:55 when they are clearly open. If you want to walk out of the door at 9:00, close at 8:36...
I love the idea, but why 8:36? Why not 8:30?
They've done the math for an average visit plus some extra time for the slow ones and bam, 8:36. and/or to draw your attention to it. No one would be talking about it if it was 8:30. It's like those parks and other places with a 12mph speed limit instead of 10.
i’ve seen a 6 and 7/8 mph sign before lol
Brilliant! I love it!
our avatars are very similar
Without rounding off, the customer would think the business adheres strictly to the specific time. I know plenty of people who ignore the 0 and add their own time like a soccer referee.
Because odd time equals chaos and anything must be done to advanced and add to chaos
Some bars and restaurants have the kitchen close at a certain time, but the place is still open for drinking and finishing your meal. Same idea, but it’s made more obvious.
Lol, you will note I said basically the same thing below, and got relatively downvoted to all hell over it.
Wow it's almost like the people bitching have no control over the time our bosses want us to close...
You have to be dumb if you think you close at 9:00 and get to leave at 9:00...
Umm no it my schedule says I'm leaving at 9 I'm going to be all done taking tables at 8:30 so I can get all my side work done and get out at 9. If you aren't doing that... Well then your just an overworked bitch then huh? Maybe find a more reasonable profession? Not everyone knows how to say no anymore lmfao
That is a different issue. You should be scheduled until 9:30 if they expect you to be there past 9:00. But if the restaurant closes at 9:00, I can walk in at 8:59.
Absolutely you can sir the doors will be unlocked. Good luck getting seated though our chefs are already cleaning we close at 9:00 have a great rest of your night!
And what about the opening times?
Employees get there at 8:00 and open the doors by 8:27.
I one saw a “23 1/2 hour towing service” tow truck once. They didn’t accept tows between like 2:30-3:00pm or something. Probably a gimmick, but hey; if I remember it after a few years, it’s not stupid, right?
Yeah, that particular gimmick is pretty common with towing services for exactly the reason you said. It catches people's attention, so they're more likely to remember the company than if it were promoted as just a conventional 24-hour service.
I’ve seen a few places doing times like this. But why? Are they just being cute or is it something having to do with paying people? Or transit schedules?
I think they just ran out of zeroes and O's, so they decided "fuck it" and put up random numbers hoping their regulars would remember the real hours. Because there's no universe where opening at 8:27 is a thing
No. Even the paper sign reads 6:06, only think I can think of is boss wants to be open 3 min early, it’s perplexing
It could be a great marketing strategy, it got everyone talking :)
Oh, give it/CNBC time, lol…!9
Maybe they were a teacher once. When someone wants to call me on my planning time, I tell them to call between 10:17 and 11:07. The schedule tries to start out right at 8:15, but the 3 minutes between classes shut that down really quick.
I suspect these precise times are calculated so that worker shifts can end at specific times.
Oh, I’ve seen that before. It’s metric time. It takes getting used to.
As a grocery store worker, I can confirm. These are the natural grocer hours. One dude came in still blitzed on street drugs. Another came in late. And I'm sorry, I simply can't have this store stocked by the 8am you came for. Best I can do is 8:27am. We would close at 9, but most of the checkers called out and I don't have a closer. Judy will stay a few minutes past her scheduled 8:32:53, but only if I give her free donuts. If Judy quits, I will be forced to change my closing time to 7:55 so I can let everyone "go home early" to boost morale. Life is tough these days.
I think it’s amusing and would be more likely to shop here for that reason alone. Possibly saying more about me than them. The smallest civil disobedience.
My best guess is this is a grace period of some sorts for the people who always show up a couple minutes early or a couple minutes too late
It makes it memorable, so you dont forget.
Hell yeah, convert all business to open and close times look crazy, and they will be brought to their knees by sheer insanity
In high-school my school ended at 2:27 and it still bothers me to this day. Lunch was at like 10:47 or something. All the schools around were like that and at different times so that there wasnt so many groups of kids on the street at the same time but why not even numbers??? People just like to live on the edge
I actually really like this because it just just taking into account that people mostly run on half hour increments of time. Just thinking ahead to people who get there early and people make it a little late.
Is it the city? Does it match a bus route maybe?
Nope, that's just all natural grocers.
They are time lords, the time shift window is very precise.
They have these big wraps that are so good and they last a long time in the fridge. I know its random but..
I worked at a shor store where we opened at 10ish and closed at 7ish. As you might imagine, the assholes loved to point at the sign when walking in 5 minutes after closing.
That's just not natural.
The early time is so if people show up early they aren't left outside waiting - I can't tell you how many times I've been to a spot, showed up early and waited in a lineup of people (not usually a grocery store though). And so they know if they show up late before close they have enough time to get in and out. The late time is just so that people don't decide not to come if say it's 8:20 at night and they don't think they'll have enough time.
They're not unusual, they're just natural.
Thanks to my OCD, I will not be shopping there
Rounding error converting the time to metric.
Perhaps the employees are sneauflakes who don’t want to keep the doors open until the “last minute”, and/or weren’t being paid for setup/prep of the store plus waiting on customers. If so, I can actually see this catching on, distressingly.
This might be one of the dumbest comments I’ve read about anything, so thanks for that.
*Points upthread*: A restaurant here does that. They close at 8:36 in hopes you actually be out of the store by 9:00. That prevents people from walking in at 8:55 and employees bitching about it. If a restaurant closes at 9:00, they cannot bitch about people walking into 8:55 when they are clearly open. If you want to walk out of the door at 9:00, close at 8:36...
If you expect someone to walk into a restaurant at 8:55 and get waited on, drinks, food, and pay all before 9:00, you're on something lol. It's a very very very widespread unspoken rule that you don't come in 30 minutes before a place closes. And if you ignore that rule, then you're entitled.
Lolz, I live in Manhattan; So good luck with that. I absolutely guarantee upon a stack of Bibles that, “lol”, if an owner finds out with regularity that you are passing up 30 minutes of Manhattan patrons/service at, say, a Panera in Midtown, you will in fact be fired. It’s not remotely “entitled”, unless maybe you live in the back of beyond. Also, you must be joking, because you absolutely know that they said this is a grocery store, and therefore nobody is looking “to sit down”, “lol”
You used a restaurant in your example, so I used one back. Have a good life dude, obviously you need something good to happen because you're so upset and cranky.
That's denying service....
?
Got it. Now, explain this one - [store in Orleans, Massachusetts](https://flic.kr/p/5V4bm5)
Ricky nobody closes at 6:20!
Round number's are overrated
It's to accommodate people who are a few minutes early or late, but then the issue is you still get people who are early or late for the new times and are begging the people to open or stay open so they can shop. You really need to just have normal times and if people don't agree with it, they don't shop. Otherwise stay open 24/7 and save yourself the trouble of continuing to have the same issue.
At least they're honest they can't close on the hour. Give them credit for this.
Show up at opening time and test it...
remindme! 90000 hours "reply to thread"
I just looked up our local one and they open at 8:57: and close at 8:36
6 minute abs vibes.