What's your earliest?

[brantheman]

(DID A SEARCH, DIDN'T FIND ANYTHING)

So, this has been the slowest week EVER for me so far. Our deposits have been itty bitty, and i've been getting out earlier and earlier each night.

Tuesday night, I broke my own record and clocked out at 12:10.

Wednesday night, I broke that record and clocked out at 12:06.

Tonight, I clocked out at 12:02.

Granted, I cheat a tad. What some people call closing the store 10 minutes early, I call "going by my watch" :p

What's the earliest you've clocked out after closing the store? And just out of curiousity, how's business been this week at your stores?

[Antithesys]

On Tuesday I clocked out at 3:00 pm. Though I guess you're asking people who close.

[DAntiheroJ]

I got out at 11:06 tonight.

[brantheman]

okay, okay...That's pacific time. 11:15 EST

I'm guessing you're one of the stores lucky enough to close at 11?

On Tuesday I clocked out at 3:00 pm. Though I guess you're asking people who close.

Obviously :rolleyes: But I edited my OP anyway :p

[igniteice]

Earliest I ever got out closing was... hrm - this is a pretty fucking pointless thread. There can only be so many answers before it turns into who closed the store the earliest before it actually closes.

[OzMan]

Earliest I ever got out closing was... hrm -

If I had to guess, I would say 7.15AM :(

[Woodstock]

I once got out at either 11:04 or 12:04 (I can't remember if it was when we were open till midnight, or if it happened after our closing time was changed) on a Monday night. I was quite pleased, considering that there was a lot of movies to put out that night for opening Tuesday. What is the latest you have ever left (doing carpets/inventory doesn't count)? I got out at midnight when we closed at 11:00.

[OzMan]

What is the latest you have ever left (doing carpets/inventory doesn't count)?



How about moving a store??

I made the mistake of moving at the week-end when we moved to Daylight Savings Time, and was there until like 8AM.

On more than one occasion, I have been out in the boonies, and REFUSED to spend one more night in a hotel, and gotten home at 5AM.

But I think I could beat ANYONE in the latest I have left a store under ANY circumstances;)

[DraconianSM]

The ABSOLUTE EARLIEST you should be clocking out is 10 minutes after close. Following LP guidelines, you don't punch the time-delay safe until you have cleared all customers and have locked the doors. If you are getting out any earlier, then you must be hitting the safe code prior to closing time.

And so fucking what if you "got outa there" 5-10 minutes early. So you get to leave a little earlier and get paid a little less. Furthermore, the opening MOD has to pick up the slack from your poor close. looking at the timecards the opening MOD can see that the _______insert unfinished task here______wasn't done and the closing MOD left five minutes early.

[IrishSL]

so maybe we should rephrase this question... let's say that your final drawer's EMPBAL must show at least 23:00 in the upper right corner (assuming you're a lucky store that closes at 11), then what time is the earliest that you've clocked out??

[DraconianSM]

so maybe we should rephrase this question... let's say that your final drawer's EMPBAL must show at least 23:00 in the upper right corner (assuming you're a lucky store that closes at 11), then what time is the earliest that you've clocked out??

This is completely pointless because the minimum clockout time needs to be 10 minutes after you close. Otherwise, you are breaking policy and putting yourself at risk. See example of a speedy close:

22:55 run Compass end of day, print trade labels.
22:58 wave final customer to register.
22:59 complete transaction, customer leaves.
23:00 (closing time) lock doors and turn off open sign.
23:00 *runs to register. De-assign last till. Punch safe combination.

{count till, verify coupons, run daily, fill out bluebook over/short log}

23:10 safe opens. Put till/deposit in safe. close safe. clock out, push alarm code. Exit and lock doors.

Look at watch: 23:12.

[MissHailstorm]

8 minutes past is my record. I don't think I could really ever top that, based on how long our printer takes to spit out the required parts needed before close, but you never know. I'm upset if I'm clocking out later than quarter past (on a week night, that is). I'm usually out between 10 and quarter past. And that's closing on time, with everything spot on. :cool:

[sar94pga]

Earliest I ever got out closing was... hrm - this is a pretty fucking pointless thread. There can only be so many answers before it turns into who closed the store the earliest before it actually closes.

teehee :)

The ABSOLUTE EARLIEST you should be clocking out is 10 minutes after close. Following LP guidelines, you don't punch the time-delay safe until you have cleared all customers and have locked the doors. If you are getting out any earlier, then you must be hitting the safe code prior to closing time.

And so fucking what if you "got outa there" 5-10 minutes early. So you get to leave a little earlier and get paid a little less. Furthermore, the opening MOD has to pick up the slack from your poor close. looking at the timecards the opening MOD can see that the _______insert unfinished task here______wasn't done and the closing MOD left five minutes early.

Yeah, I agree, I am a bitch about that rule. Even when i take my sweet time, i am out right around :15 after. Now if i opened the next morning, i might be more inclined to leave the store messier than i would if someone else was opening. but, its my store, i can do that. But, 15 minutes is more than enough time to get the store straightend and ready for the morning. and i am with Drac, i am not going to hurry up to get out 9 minutes sooner than i was scheduled. i am more apt to leave 9 minutes early when i open.

[whorehoppin]

set the safecode 5 minutes prior to close and don't allow any customers in the store after 11:00 (meaning make sure that anyone who is already in the store is at your register at least 2 minutes prior to 11).

If you can control your customers and not let them hang around for 10 minutes after you closed then you have nothing to worry about. I know managers that let people in at 11:01 and don't even bother to tell them the store is already closed...then 15 minutes later they finally get rung up (and no one ever said a word to them about the store being closed). Plus the safe was open with customers in the store if they set it at 11:00 and they end up clocking out at 11:30, wasting 30 minutes in labor for no reason and they didn't even do returns or clean anything.

I usually get out no later than 11:15, but I can easily be out by 11:07 any slow night.

[brantheman]

The ABSOLUTE EARLIEST you should be clocking out is 10 minutes after close. Following LP guidelines, you don't punch the time-delay safe until you have cleared all customers and have locked the doors. If you are getting out any earlier, then you must be hitting the safe code prior to closing time.

And so fucking what if you "got outa there" 5-10 minutes early. So you get to leave a little earlier and get paid a little less. Furthermore, the opening MOD has to pick up the slack from your poor close. looking at the timecards the opening MOD can see that the _______insert unfinished task here______wasn't done and the closing MOD left five minutes early.

My closing's are damn near perfect :rolleyes:

There's a fine line between getting out early when the store was completely dead all night and getting out late when the store was packed.

On a busy night, I tend to get out around 12:30.

[HardcoreKeith]

12:07. Of course I don't leave if there's anything left to be done, but still have never clocked out later than 12:20 on a normal night.

[igniteice]

But I think I could beat ANYONE in the latest I have left a store under ANY circumstances;)

True but I bet I'm second in line here! Excluding an inventory in which I was at the store still 4:30am (having closed at 10 also) I was once at the store till 3:30am to convert a hellish amount of movies from another store that closed. I mean, they all had to be unlocked and put into new cases, and these movies were locked up using every type of lock possible (and I mean ALL of them because they ran out of one kind and moved on to the next.)

I had a saturday night that had some kind of tornado of customers come through and destroy my new release wall. I spent literally an hour fixing it bay by bay, so I got out of there at about 1:30 or 1:45am.

There were a few monday nights where I let my CSR leave and 10 and this was when we got movies from distribution so I would put out all the hundreds of movies and then I'd change all the signage (title strips up front and at entrance) and then I would rotate all the 4-panel posters and the endcaps to display new posters for things just coming out and things coming out.

So I was there till 12:30 or 1am, having closed at 10, on several occasions.

[kyzaskiwi]

10:07 was earliest for me. I came in for just 3 hours because another sl couldn't do the last 3 hours and i didn't know the safe was left open (which isn't a problem in our area and is not breaking rules since it said the safe is not to be open between 11pm and midnight... still i try to keep it closed as often as possible but this time i didn't know it was open.. its covered by a cabinent). We closed 5 minutes early because the SM said because so many people were coming in and keeping us open 15 minutes late that she wanted us to lock the doors at 5 minutes till and only help the customers in the store.. this time there were no customers in teh store so we just locked all doors and started closing (one of the clocks is 5 minutes fast tho so we could always show it to people if they compained).. anyways our pos computer is a little fast too so i was able to run daily and count the last drawer (first drawer already counted) and get out only 7 minutes after.. it was fun.. probably will never happen again tho

[zooworker]

This has been discussed before, but my earliest is about 5 minutes after closing. And not cheating with a good close.

[whorehoppin]

I know a manager that claims they sometimes clock out before 11pm...when its really slow they count down all the drawers and only put one back in if a customer comes in the store. If they don't get any customers, they close about 5 minutes early and run daily.

the latest I've ever left was after an inventory, it was 8:30am - the worst inventory ever (started at midnight) - we finished scanning everything about 7am then tried to find all the missing shit but hardly got to do any looking - if we had more time we would've found some of the missed items.

[zooworker]

I know a manager that claims they sometimes clock out before 11pm...when its really slow they count down all the drawers and only put one back in if a customer comes in the store. If they don't get any customers, they close about 5 minutes early and run daily.

the latest I've ever left was after an inventory, it was 8:30am - the worst inventory ever (started at midnight) - we finished scanning everything about 7am then tried to find all the missing shit but hardly got to do any looking - if we had more time we would've found some of the missed items.
Ha, I remember I had this really dumb manager. He selected full inventory instead of just retail, I came to the store at 9 am and he was still scanning product. i told him to call me on my cell when he was finished and left. It was 10.30 before we opened.

[DraconianSM]

set the safecode 5 minutes prior to close :eek:

That is not a good idea. Whether your store is in a bad neighborhood or not, you should exercise caution and follow LP policy/guidelines. Cutting the time-delay time in half only makes it easier for the robbers.

Another good closing practice is the "staggered" exits. Those closing minutes are critical and I also advise you keep your cell phone at hand.


A reminder:

22:59 complete transaction, customer leaves.
23:00 (closing time) lock doors and turn off open sign.
23:00 *runs to register. De-assign last till. Punch safe combination.

[coldie]

I never have a problem with locking up at 11:55 Fri-Sat/10:55 on Sun-Thur. Nobody shows up, nobody argues five minutes, it's a useless thing to do.

However, if someone locks up any more early than 6 minutes it needs to be for one of two things...

A) No customers in the last two hours.
B) Power outage

Anything else is unacceptable.

[coldie]

:eek:
Another good closing practice is the "staggered" exits. Those closing minutes are critical and I also advise you keep your cell phone at hand.

Our district requires them, though our small town doesn't get those problems often. On the rarest of occasions the one gas station next to the ghetto will get knocked off, but the cops are always close to it pinning for drug dealers.

I'm waiting for some team of hoods to get the wild idea of getting "strapped" and trying to knock off Super Walmart.

[Suli]

I got out at 11:06 tonight.

I to have gotten out at 11:06pm it was beautiful thing

[DraconianSM]

I never have a problem with locking up at 11:55 Fri-Sat/10:55 on Sun-Thur. Nobody shows up, nobody argues five minutes, it's a useless thing to do.

However, if someone locks up any more early than 6 minutes it needs to be for one of two things...

A) No customers in the last two hours.
B) Power outage

Anything else is unacceptable.

OK, since safety isn't a concern for you, think on this:
You lock your doors consistently five minutes early and you clock out 5 minutes (or more) early always. You work 5 shifts/week adding up to about 1/2 hour of labor or more per week. In a month you will have saved 2 hours. In a year about 24 hours. Assuming you make $10/hour, your efficiency has saved Blockbuster $240/year (and cost you). Congratulations!

[OzMan]

:eek:

That is not a good idea. Whether your store is in a bad neighborhood or not, you should exercise caution and follow LP policy/guidelines. Cutting the time-delay time in half only makes it easier for the robbers.

Not just that.... IF you get robbed and didn't follow LP procedures, you will not only get fired, but BBI's insurance carrier will likely not cover the loss. They will pressure the police to investigate.... and since YOU (not you, Drac... you know where this is going) failed to follow policy, the police will first look at it as an inside job, and try to pin it on YOU.

You really, really, really need to follow policy. Not just because it's for your safety from robbery, but also because it's for your safety from being investigated and losing your job.


I'm waiting for some team of hoods to get the wild idea of getting "strapped" and trying to knock off Super Walmart.


Oh, trust me, it's done quite often enough.......

[SaintGRW]

12:01am Followed the old SM's lead and locked the door at 5 of.

[sar94pga]

:eek:

That is not a good idea. Whether your store is in a bad neighborhood or not, you should exercise caution and follow LP policy/guidelines. Cutting the time-delay time in half only makes it easier for the robbers.

Another good closing practice is the "staggered" exits. Those closing minutes are critical and I also advise you keep your cell phone at hand.


A reminder:

when i watch the tapes, that is one of the things i look for. we pull our cars up to the front of the store. the csr leaves first, starts the car and turns the headlights on into the store, I lock the door behind them, go set the alarm, then i go. This procedure is in place for our protection. Will it 100% guarentee that your store won't get robbed? no. but it helps.

[coldie]

when i watch the tapes, that is one of the things i look for. we pull our cars up to the front of the store. the csr leaves first, starts the car and turns the headlights on into the store, I lock the door behind them, go set the alarm, then i go. This procedure is in place for our protection. Will it 100% guarentee that your store won't get robbed? no. but it helps.

It'll guarantee you squat, but it does help, I agree.

1) Any robber attempting to be smart will know that a CSR won't be sent out with any cash, so there's no point in holding him/her up.

2) The robber will see the CSR pull up the door to let the manager out safely. This gives him no shot at hiding by the trashcan, around the corner, down the sidewalk, etc. The CSR will see first (hopefully) and give away his location.

3) Now having a witness safe inside the car, then MOD can walk knowing there's an eye open.

One time I had to close alone, as my closing CSR had a problem, her child was going into seizures and had to go to the ER, so she bolted immediately. It was twenty minutes to close and impossible to reach anyone else to stagger the place out for me. One MOD never answers his phone, one lives 90 miles away, another is working is first job, and the CSRs at the time lived 40 miles away.

So, I just ran like hell to my car.

Then I ran back to clock out, I forgot to.

Then I ran back to my car again.

[brantheman]

So, I just ran like hell to my car.

Then I ran back to clock out, I forgot to.

Then I ran back to my car again.

Too panicy!

We follow the CSR-leaves-first rule at my store, too, though. We both clock out, CSR leaves and gets in car (parked at the very front), turns on headlights, signals MOD to set alarm and lock doors. Works nicely.

I have absolutely no problem closing the store five to ten minutes early if we're completely dead all night. Then of course you get the people who decide to come in five minutes before you lock the doors and just take their time. I usually say, "Our computers automatically shut down in just a few minutes, just to let you know". That always makes 'em speed up and get out ASAP :D

[zooworker]

I have absolutely no problem closing the store five to ten minutes early if we're completely dead all night. :D
One day you will have that one customer bang on the door and call corp about closing early. We had a SL fired for closing 5 minutes early one time. Customer complained and the DL viewed the tape and then fired her.

[kyzaskiwi]

when i watch the tapes, that is one of the things i look for. we pull our cars up to the front of the store. the csr leaves first, starts the car and turns the headlights on into the store, I lock the door behind them, go set the alarm, then i go. This procedure is in place for our protection. Will it 100% guarentee that your store won't get robbed? no. but it helps.

I ride the bus so staggered exits just dont work. Many many times when i was a CSR i was left abandoned in front of the store waiting for a ride.. and many many times as a SL i am locking up alone because the CSR refused to stay 5 more minutes so i didn't have to close alone. And then the SM schedules me for carpets alone so i get out at 1am by myself, locking up, by myself.. It kinda sucks that my managers, coworkers and BBV itself doesn't really seem to care about my safety at all... But honestly its a good thing i live in a good neighborhood because if i didn't id be screwed..

[whorehoppin]

OK, since safety isn't a concern for you, think on this:
You lock your doors consistently five minutes early and you clock out 5 minutes (or more) early always. You work 5 shifts/week adding up to about 1/2 hour of labor or more per week. In a month you will have saved 2 hours. In a year about 24 hours. Assuming you make $10/hour, your efficiency has saved Blockbuster $240/year (and cost you). Congratulations!

I hate closing so I don't mind getting out as soon as possible...plus its good business because you aren't wasting labor and you can use the time you save on a peak shift...I figure that if I clock out at 11:10 at the latest (compared to 11:20 for my other managers) I've saved 10 minutes x2 each night. So 20 minutes times 7 is 140 minutes so 2+ hours each week. Now if I figure that into the month, that's 8-9 hours a month which can be used for projects or a couple extra CSRs on a Saturday night when you really need them. Or you can just not use those hours and your DL will be happy. I used to clock out late just to get more money, but its just not worth it, closing sucks and I wanna get home as fast as possible.

[AbandonedDreams]

I never have a problem with locking up at 11:55 Fri-Sat/10:55 on Sun-Thur. Nobody shows up, nobody argues five minutes, it's a useless thing to do.

However, if someone locks up any more early than 6 minutes it needs to be for one of two things...

A) No customers in the last two hours.
B) Power outage

Anything else is unacceptable.

My SM once had a customer call our DM and complain that we closed a minute early. Customer got a free rental and now we can't close until 10:00 exactly.

[yousickf'ingbastard]

wouldn't be a little awkard to come back to a store you complain about? confidential my ass. they'll get fucked eventually