EXTENDED OPENING HOURS AT CHRISTMAS - VIEWS

[billyhayes]

mainstreet.jpg

This is our high street after 5.30pm.

Not a soul to be seen except, as Travis Bickle once voiced, "All the animals come out at night - whores, skunk pussies, buggers, queens, fairies, dopers,
junkies, the sick and the venal."

We are not in Bluewater, we are not on Oxford Street we are a normal shitty little town where all the other shops, banks, etc shut at between 5 and 5.30. Always have, always will.

They have really thought about this i can tell.
Lets put it in these terms;
Do we sell Chanel No.5?
Do we sell kids toys?
Do we sell clothes?
Do we sell chart dvds/cds/console games?

We sell absolutely feck all of the things our so called 'target audience' want from their 'late night shopping experience'.

We did have a chuckle in WTL when they announced this as all the counter staff said bollox, but our managers have got no choice
as there is enough of them for us to stay open

Although on the other hand feck it! I might do it just for the overtime! Money for old rope springs to mind. £10.52 an hour between 5.30 and 8pm. To serve the Invisisible Man and Lord Lucan, (riding in on Shergar of course).

Another well thought out plan from our masters. Just how much of an asshole have you got to be to shop around for an ISA at 7.30 in the evening???

[axeman]

Bet you armani if he's sill got a job would jump at it for the customers sake of course and to apease his masters

[baldrick]

Another well thought out plan from our masters. Just how much of an asshole have you got to be to shop around for an ISA at 7.30 in the evening???

How much of a dickhead have you got to be to shop around for an ISA at all in view of current stock market collapse?

[billyhayes]

Another well thought out plan from our masters. Just how much of an asshole have you got to be to shop around for an ISA at 7.30 in the evening???

How much of a dickhead have you got to be to shop around for an ISA at all in view of current stock market collapse?

The free-bus-pass-brigade are lapping it up in our place. Talk about mis-selling the product, (the investment ISA), on the premise "get in now 'cos the market will be ok in 5 years"

Those in the know reckon it could take up to 10 years to return to a 'normal' level.

If you saw could see some of 'em they won't see 5 months let alone 5 years...

[DGP1]

What's the point of staying open late over Christmas whenever the posties won't come down to collect the outgoing mail and parcels

[billyhayes]

What's the point of staying open late over Christmas whenever the posties won't come down to collect the outgoing mail and parcels

Another good point. IF we do get any customers we will just have to tell them that it will sit in the office 'til the next morning as our last pick-up is at 5.30.

[bigjames]

What's the point of staying open late over Christmas whenever the posties won't come down to collect the outgoing mail and parcels

Another good point. IF we do get any customers we will just have to tell them that it will sit in the office 'til the next morning as our last pick-up is at 5.30.

Our Area Manager is trying to get us a later Special Delivery collection for the 2 weeks, yes 2 weeks! we are opening later. All opening later will do is serve to confuse an already irate group of customers, and if their post is not going to go out that night, even though we are open it will be hard to explain why. It is hard to see any justification for opening later in most offices, although I did manage one in a shopping centre a few years back, and that would make sense. This has been tried before under various regimes, and usually found to be an expensive waste of time. The difficult time will be after Christmas when the opening times revert back to normal, and we have the rows at the door at closing time. Every day that I go out to shut the door I have an argument - without fail! This will just make it worse.

[axeman]

Yes and no doubt the arguments are from the staff becuse they again are forced to work over there hours because you have not got the bottle to enable you to close the doors early enough to finnish on time... or have you not ''floated'' the idea to your staff and senior manager yet ??

[bigjames]

Yes and no doubt the arguments are from the staff becuse they again are forced to work over there hours because you have not got the bottle to enable you to close the doors early enough to finnish on time... or have you not ''floated'' the idea to your staff and senior manager yet ??

Bottle or not, the idea has been passed up through channels and I dare say it will never be heard of again. Like I said before, I like the idea, but if you honestly think that we can change our closing time on a daily basis based on the number of people in the queue at any given time, I fear you will be disappointed. Would any other retailer operate a similar policy? I think not. Imagine bowling up to Marks and Spencers half an hour before their advertised closing time, only to be told - sorry the queue is too long - come back tomorrow. Can you imagine the outcry? We have advertised opening hours, the door is opened and shut at the advertised time, and people can rely on that. What is required is a lasting solution to ensure that customers being served regularly after closing time is the exception not the rule

The arguments I refer to are with customers, both the ones trying to get in after we have shut, and the ones that have been in the queue for ages and when they get to be served the postman has already gone. I have been abused, spat at, my life threatened and even followed down the road by angry customers who I would not let in after our advertised closing time. It doesn't help that we have a glass door and customers can see all the people who did get in on time lined up and being served. It was better in offices with a wooden door!

Resorting to personal attacks devalues debate.

[axeman]

Wrong bigjames been to asda lately ? i was there this sunday and guess what i arrived at 3:30 and was told that i'd not be let in as they were closing at 4:0pm
now you could argue that was a sunday and sunday trading regulations does not allow openings past 4:0pm if you sell certain types of goods but this could be lesson for you that others do actualy address the situation with the closing of the doors earlier than advertised to allow clearence of the store at 4:0pm asda certainly do

[bigjames]

Wrong bigjames been to asda lately ? i was there this sunday and guess what i arrived at 3:30 and was told that i'd not be let in as they were closing at 4:0pm
now you could argue that was a sunday and sunday trading regulations does not allow openings past 4:0pm if you sell certain types of goods but this could be lesson for you that others do actualy address the situation with the closing of the doors earlier than advertised to allow clearence of the store at 4:0pm asda certainly do

I stand corrected! Although you may be right about the Sunday Trading Laws. The admin involved in closing an office outside of the advertised opening hours is tremendous, ignoring the inevitable problem of explaining it to the customers who arrive at what would have the correct time. I can see the obvious benefits in closing the door early, but I do not think it will ever be officially sanctioned.

Anyway - we have digressed - this is the Christmas Opening Hours Thread! Which links in nicely with your comments about Sundays as I have heard today that the Crown Office in Croydon will be opening on Sundays in the run-up to Christmas! I kid you not.

[bigjames]

I heard today that one of the reasons so much effort is being put into extended hours at Christmas is to persuade Postwatch or Postcomm (I forget which) that we are trying to address the problems regarding long queueing times. I believe that the idea is that it will go some way towards preventing a waiting time standard being introduced.

[axeman]

Ah but with the reduction in staffing levels caused by closures you'd be hard pressed to even get the ques through the doors let alone provide the service levels expected. unless you do the things you say you do on the other thread , it of course hinges around where your loyalty lies with the staff ...or as i suspect your bosses and just perhaps you'll do anything to apease them ..................

[bigjames]

Ah but with the reduction in staffing levels caused by closures you'd be hard pressed to even get the ques through the doors let alone provide the service levels expected. unless you do the things you say you do on the other thread , it of course hinges around where your loyalty lies with the staff ...or as i suspect your bosses and just perhaps you'll do anything to apease them ..................

Sorry - you will have to enlighten me as to why staffing levels have been reduced because of closures.

Queueing is an issue in many offices it is true, but if a service standard is imposed on us by our regulators it could be a disaster. The last time we had a standard it was to serve 95% of customers in under 5 minutes. With current staffing levels, even if it was set at 10 minutes we would be pushed to meet it 50% of the time let alone 95%. If the standard is set by a watchdog it will probably carry a financial penalty for failure, which could be a nightmare for a cash-strapped business like ours. We are told we can't afford extra staff, and we certainly couldn't afford big fines so it leaves us between a rock and a hard place.

You are entitled to your opinions about my loyalties, if you have ever been in one of my teams you would know that I do my best to look after people in my offices, but there are limits. I certainly don't 'do anything' to appease my bosses, which might go some way towards explaining my lack of promotion and poor PDR scores over recent years, but you can think what you like, as long as you don't make it personal I don't mind. I always try and be honest on this forum, if I can't say what I think I don't contribute, simple as that.

[axeman]

x= being the amout who require services at r.m counters y= being the offices that have or are going to close z= those who now have to go to another office to carry out the business that they would do at the local branch before closure does that make sence to you of course levels at the existing p.o counters will be up or am i in the strange world of royal mail accounting ? and of course the staff levels have decreased with the amount of sub office closures some i belive also would have had staff apart from those owning the business