Sometimes, just one dawdling customer in a retail establishment can be the one thing keeping employees from going home. One Walgreens employee took matters into his own hands when a customer was hanging out in the store 10 minutes before the store’s posted closing time.
In a video posted to TikTok by @thenidoqueer, they decided to give the customer a “gentle reminder” that the store was closing, letting her know that they would also like to go home that evening.
“Attention Walgreens customers, the time is 11:50pm,” the poster says in the video. “We will be closing in 10 minutes. In honor of Independence Day and the land of the free, I would appreciate the freedom to be able to go home and relax after a long day of work. Thank you for shopping at Walgreens, and have a great night.”
The reminder had the intended effect—the woman left when it was time for them to close the store—but maybe not quite in the way they planned.
“She proceeded to book it past my CSA and not pay for any of her items at exactly 12am,” a second text overlay on the video reads.
@thenidoqueer Let me go home. #fyp #fypシ #foryou #foryoupage #furyou #furyoupage #walgreens #walgeens #floorbrowns #retail #retailtherapy ♬ original sound
The Daily Dot has reached out to @thenidoqueer via Twitter direct message, as well as to Walgreens via email regarding the video.
Some viewers shared their own versions of the warning they would give to a customer who was about to overstay their welcome.
“I always used to say registers get locked out automatically at closing so you better hustle,” one commenter wrote.
“Mine would be, we’ve been closed for 50 minutes, this is not back to school season times so please leave so we can all go home,” another commenter wrote.
“I would’ve said ‘Attention Walgreens customers. It is 11:50pm,'” a commenter wrote. “‘If you don’t get out of the store before 12:00 am I will lock you in here and go home.'”
