Not Good Business

This morning I was going about my normal pre-opening duties and another key-holder (who was scheduled to start work at the same time we opened) let herself into the store a few minutes early. An elderly man was waiting by the door, and was angry that she wouldn't let him in (several minutes early).

When our clock struck opening hour, I unlocked the doors. The man came in and immediately asked for a manager. "I'm the manager," I answered, knowing what he would say.

"You are?" he asked in a shocked tone of voice. "Well, it's not good business to leave customers waiting outside for 30 minutes."

"Sir, we opened on time."

"Not by my watch."

"I'm sorry, but that's what time our computers say. We have morning chores to get done before we open." {Our computers tend to run a little slow. We're constantly fixing the time to the correct time. It might have been a minute off of regular time.}

"Why couldn't she {pointing at the key-holder} let me in?"

"We were still getting ready to open."

"It's still not good business." He said this as if he, with his many years of experience, knew all about how to run a business and we young folk needed to be taught a thing or two.

I half expected him to ask for the main office phone number to complain about me not letting him in. I would have been glad to give it to him--I did nothing wrong. But he smugly got what he needed, paid, and left.

The other key-holder and I looked at each other in disbelief at the man's comments. We watched him drive off and then burst out laughing. He was the first conversation topic of the day. Or, rather, the first customer we made fun of for the day.

We're open quite a long time each day, and our hours are clearly posted. Certain tasks CAN NOT be done when customers are in the store. Among them are mopping the floors (liability), and messy tasks that require hand washing before handling anything else (like money or helping customers with products). In the morning we've got to get the computers ready to open, count the cash, go to the bank, take down old sale flyers/coupons and put up new ones, ETCETERA!!

Not good business? Please! He has no idea what's involved with running a business like mine.