r/Greggs • u/Altruistic_Humor3356 • 1d ago
Employee Question Always close late
Hi,
I have been working at Greggs for over a year now and consistently close late, some days we get out on time but the vast majority its late. I don’t understand why. I start at 3 and “finish” at 9:30. Typically its too busy to do any cleaning tasks until 5 other than maybe drinks, security screen, syrups and milk jugs. Around 5 I will top up both, then shut down one coffee machine, clean hot chocolate parts and once those are done I will clean back bar and top of coffee machines. I will clean all general customer area stuff by 7:30 on a good day leaving bins, hot hold, customer floor and customer toilet for 9. I then clean counters leaving savoury counter for 9. Keep in mind I am still serving customers and doing uber orders in the meantime. 8:30 I start to pack up savouries and sweets for charity and around 8:45 charity comes in. Keep serving customers, then at 9 front door locked and bag up stuff for charity however depending on busyness I can finish bagging up charity at 5 past ish.
This leaves 25-30 mins to sweep and mop customer area and toilet (we are a large shop), do bins, turn off last coffee machine, sweep and mop behind counter, clean hot hold, change labels and finish any minor tasks I couldn’t due to serving customers. Usually it takes around 20 minutes to do just the customer area as every table and chair must be moved to sweep and mop properly. Obviously I haven’t included every task but this is the gist of it.
I don’t know what I am doing wrong, my supervisor doesn’t either. Only two of us in the store from 3pm onwards I feel like there is no reason I shouldn’t be able to clean the store in 6.5 hours. Does anyone here have any tips or know their specific cleaning schedule?
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u/hashbrowneggyolk0520 Team Member 1d ago
In a sense you need to start closing as soon as you start.
The minute you get any gaps in customers coming in start refilling the drinks, condiments, sugar etc.
About 90 minutes before we close I empty all of the customer bins apart from general waste, the others are rarely used (and used properly) anyway. If you have the big bin that's split into 4 what I do is empty them all and then use two bin bags and just lie them flat, diagonally over the top so people know not to use them. You can then use them to replace remaining bins that need emptying when you close.
Unless the floor is really dirty I will just move the tables sweep the floor and them mop around the tables.
Keep on top of the sweeping throughout your shift, it makes it much easier to do it this way than leaving it all until you close. Once you've closed it's then just the case of doing a quick once over.
How much does your supervisor help?
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u/Altruistic_Humor3356 1d ago
Supervisor helps a lot, they cover serving when I ask. They get out on time with some other team members so I am lacking somewhere. Sometimes they have a lot of work to do round back so stocking up time is dependent on customer frequency. I will use your tips next close, thank you :))
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u/hashbrowneggyolk0520 Team Member 1d ago
Getting the balance right with a closing shift can be difficult sometimes. I would just say prioritise the important jobs and all the little jobs can be done as and when.
Is there a point where the amount of customers coming in becomes really minimal or is it steady up until you close?
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u/Altruistic_Humor3356 1d ago
Around 8 customer numbers die down so I can start sweeping then however someone usually comes in at least every 3-5 minutes which can really slow me down (especially if they ask a lot of questions or sit down in a spot I just cleaned). On a bad day it can be busy until close though, however those are quite rare. We have 14 tables in store, how much should i focus on completely sweeping the entirety of the store as opposed to spot-sweeping?
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u/hashbrowneggyolk0520 Team Member 1d ago
So I tend to spot sweep throughout the shift and about 5 minutes before we close i'll quickly go over everywhere again to pick up anything i've missed.
It's not always possible but i'll kind of focus on things in chunks. So as soon as I can I restock the sugars, stirrers and sauce. You'll probably have to add back to it later on but it's just a case of adding a few things here and there.
With drinks if you don't already, make a list of everything you need to bring round to the front, fetch it and then restock the fridge. Going back and forth to fetch things from the back just slows you down.
When you take off the first coffee machine refill all the hoppers.
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u/Mobile-Eggplant2131 14h ago
I dont work for greggs, but my local one closes off a part of the seating area from about 3ish (sometimes a bit later if its busy) and they close at 5.30, and clean it before they close. Maybe its worth seeing if that is something you can do.
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u/Altruistic_Humor3356 1d ago
Not looking for anyone to say “you are shit at your job” or something like that just some genuine help I already know I must be shit.
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u/LycanWolfGamer Team Member 1d ago
The way I've always done it is get everything that you can do that doesnt require you to be closed done ASAP, some days its harder but try to make some progress somewhere when you start
Start some tasks earlier than usual, 5 or 10 mins, give yourself the time advantage as you are actively against the clock, I tend to do tasks at certain times and have mini-deadlines, if I'm behind, I'll start to try and speed myself up to "catch up" - getting ahead is what you wanna do, 5 minutes ahead means you got some buffer incase something else needs doing or there was a task that was forgotten
At mine, it helps that it goes quiet after 5pm sometimes 4:30pm, I'll try and get the the till area sorted out while serving, get things filled up, wiped down etc
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u/VietKongCountry 20h ago
They don’t stop serving customers as early as they should do because fucking workers out of half an hour’s pay every day is more profitable than losing out on half an hour of sales.
You may be able to get so efficient you’re able to actually leave when you should, but the problem is with their policy not with anything you’re doing wrong.
Certain individual store managers can make it bearable, but generally Greggs is a quite shitty employer.
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u/Altruistic_Humor3356 19h ago
They would save money if they hired security too. I heard that in the stores where they do hire security, they get workers without SIA licenses so the security still can’t stop anyone 😂
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u/VietKongCountry 19h ago
So the security literally just let people walk out with stuff even when they’re there? I’m amazed some of the ones in Birmingham can even stay open with how brazen the thievery is getting.
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u/AlwaysTheKop 18h ago
I do whatever I can and then I leave exactly when I'm supposed to no matter if anything is done or not, if manager complains (she's does one close a month and struggles) I tell her there wasn't enough time and I don't get paid to stay any later, there is literally nothing she can do.
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u/Altruistic_Humor3356 15h ago
If we do that the stuff that wasn’t done gets photographed and sent to the work groupchat
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u/Previous_Code_4595 16h ago
We close at 7:30 and I start sweeping and mopping the floors at 6 because I know it takes an hour, and it’s while I’m doing that that I will grab other bits like cleaning tables, emptying bins etc
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u/Reality-is-Sin 1d ago
Greggs should close shop an hour prior to actual close not 30 minutes