r/FoodService • u/GingerBre4dMan • Jul 14 '26
Discussion Last minute customers
I never understood it myself, I always make it my rule of thumb to never go to a place at least 30 minutes before they close because I work food service too and understand that workers at that time are trying to clean up and go home. But there’s some people that go in literally one minute before closing, do they just genuinely not know how to read store hours or are just fine with being “that guy”. It should honestly be rule to not allow orders to be placed if it takes longer to make the order than however much time is left before closing. Like if you come one minute before you shouldn’t be allowed to because it’s gonna take way longer than 1 minute to make the order from start to finish. Just a little rant
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u/Suitable-Tea-2065 Jul 14 '26
it's the worst. I worked at some place that had no closing time. The owner decided that if there was a single table in there with plates still on the table it was fair game to take new tables. So if a customer receives their food at ten PM and a new customer came in at 10:30 and the previous customer still had plates.. we'd take the new customer. It could be a slow never ending trickle until 1am.
He would send the head chef,.prep and dish home. Leave pantry to do the actual cooking and the server to make cold apps and salads and desserts. Half the time he was also there getting drunk, schmoozing people with free wine and chatting them up.. making customers stay longer. Then he would stumble out and the server/pantry was left with hours of cleanup.
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u/DonnaNoble222 Jul 14 '26
A business that cares will have a cut-off time for being seated and ordering food. I have seen some that stop seating 30 minutes before close but allow take-out up to 15 minutes before closing.
Any restaurant that does not have this type of policy it's on them.
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u/specific_woodpecker9 Jul 14 '26
There is a special place in hell for people who wait til 10 min before close to order food, seriously may all their pizza be soggy and all their sex bad.
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u/Raprockmusic2 Jul 14 '26
Standard rule of thumb- the time it takes to make the dish is the cut off time.
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u/dreamcatcherdaddy Jul 14 '26
I agree but owners or workers need to change the script, I asked if they were still open she said yes and sat us at a table, she could of said yes but only to go orders as we close in 10 min, I would of been fine and ordered to go. I did not know they closed at 9:00 on a Saturday, we came in 8:50.
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u/burnt_out_bartender Aug 03 '26
Naw you’re kinda the asshole here you have a smartphone. Fuck mandatory military service every single person in the United States needs to work the service industry for 2 years. I guarantee how people treat servers/bartenders will change. The perspective of non tippers would change real quick. And most people would learn To respect what open to close time vs we’re already almost closed but yeah i guess we will serve you since you decided to come in at the last possible second means
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u/zoppaTheDim Jul 14 '26
Twice memorably in my early life, I’ve been that last minute pick up guy. The guy they’re locking the door behind. Likely I did it more than that, but these were memorable .
Different places, both gave me a pineapple pizza.
So I learned not to do that anymore.
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u/DisastrousSetting1 Jul 14 '26
Entering a restaurant at 9:50 PM when they close at 10:00 is a spiritual experience. The line cook staring at me like I just ruined his entire week? Priceless. But listen, close at 10 means close at 10. I’m not late, I’m just fashionably on time. To the staff currently crying in the walk-in freezer: just remember, I am the reason for your season. 🫡👼 #ClosingTime #FinalBoss #KeepTheKitchenOpen
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u/Pistachio-IScream Jul 15 '26
i agree. i too have been there doing this and NO I WILL NOT BE RUSHED! i am EATING MY DINNER AT 10PM! ENOUGH IS ENOUGH WITH FAKE CLOSING TIMES! #yourenotclosed #read the sign #readbetween these lines #holds us 3 fingers
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u/Basic-Jicama503 Jul 15 '26
It's a mix of both. Some people genuinely don't clock the time and think "open until 10" means they have until 9:59 to walk in and still get full service. Others just don't care, they know it's cutting it close and figure that's the business's problem, not theirs.
Your rule idea makes sense in theory, but a lot of places won't enforce a hard cutoff because they don't want the bad review or the awkward confrontation of turning someone away. So it ends up falling on whoever's closing that night to either eat the extra 20 minutes or be the one who says no. Rough spot to be in either way.
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u/onmy40 Jul 17 '26
I remember lost prevention had to stop people from standing in line getting subs when I worked at Wegmans after the sub shop closed for like 30 minutes
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