... ... oh boy.
So. Today, three interesting things happened; each of escalating disaster. I was quite amazed during each one, and thought the day couldn't be more interesting.
Backstory: Lowes-like Hardware store. It's ".. is the place," .. etc. I worked Electric, since nobody was in that department. I was there from 7:30 to 4.
11:35 - I'm stocking some flashlights, when behind the wall in front of me, I hear a tremendous clattering of lightbulbs onto the floor. I quickly dash around the corner and see a palette jack hauling a dirty empty palette, and a slew of boxes and shattered lightbulbs on the floor all around the area.
Apparently the palette had nudged one of the boxes on the bottom shelf, which had nudged yet more boxes, etc etc etc, and had tilted over a tall stack of bulbs in boxes just beyond the shelf. Awful damage. Helped the guy clean up, reconciled the bulbs, and went back to stacking.
12:03 - Not ten feet from where the first incident occurred, this disaster happened.
In the middle of the store, roughly, we have (Well ... had. ) this awesome stone fountain. It was like, .. imagine a square flowerpot, made of stone, filled with pebbles and vertically stacked horizontal slates. It was a fountain. It happened to be off at the moment.
The guy, the same guy who did the first disaster, was trying to lift it to move it aside to stack some new merchandise in the middle of the store. Little did he know that there was still 15 gallons of water in the darn thing. It tips over, spilling its lifegiving fluid across the floor, ruining inflatables and heaters and such. Much destruction. We spent the next hour roving around the spill site, mopping and wiping and shoo'ing away customers and ensuring no old ladies tripped and slid in and through the chaos. Happened just as the head manager arrived too. Luckily he's an awesome guy, and stayed in a good mood. I think (Hope?) that cheered people up.
I commented to the guy who started the fiascos that this was quite the welcome relief from having to do the truck, as I know diddly squat about electrical... He chuckled, and I hope his day brightened a bit. He's an awesome guy, and definitely deserves the best.
2:09 - I think this one deserves an intermission of some sort.
Anyway. So a friend and I are in the back room, trying to haul a palette into the back, but the new non-youthful assistant manager is in there with the forklift putting goods away. We're trying to inch past him, as he's put a large palette of goods right in the middle of the bottleneck into the back room. Lovely. When we accomplish our task, we turn to leave, when he hear what sounds like a:
Oh boy. That can't be good. We turn around, and we see the assistant manager in the forklift with the tines all the way up in the air, trying to get a huge box onto the top shelf just below the roof. He had apparently snagged one of the pipes hanging down from the ceiling (AWFUL placement of pipes... If I had a picture, you'd groan. You'd absolutely groan and forehead-slap etc.) ... ...
... ... the sprinkler system had begun POURING into the stockroom. A torrential downpour of water was rapidly flooding the back room, raining down on scores of merchandise, ruining them. I have absolutely no doubt that if the head manager was a less patient individual, he would have died of a heart attack right there and then.
So most of us took off our vests and ran into the downpour to rescue whatever merchandise we could, and to put up a tarp to protect whatever we couldn't take down. We were positively drenched. We had ladders up there and everything; everything slick with water. Nothing was dry. Anywhere. The water was leaking halfway down the store.
About five or ten minutes later (Who could tell amidst the chaos...) the fire alarm went off. I suspected I had smelled some sort of smoke, (we had a fire some months earlier, in July or something, so the smell wasn't unfamiliar.) though I didn't quite see any fire or anything.
So we're trying to get people out the door. An unsurprising amount of people resumed shopping and said "Hey, would ya shut that racket off? I need my concentration to shop!" "Um, good sir, that's the fire alarm. I recommend leaving the building." "Without my stuff?" "What's worth more; your stuff or your life?" *He quietly takes his stuff and leaves*
Yeah. Spent the better part of an hour salvaging stuff from the back room.
So that was a fun day. I'm amazed I actually enjoyed myself. Am I crazy? Probably.
Sure beats doing the truck.
So. Today, three interesting things happened; each of escalating disaster. I was quite amazed during each one, and thought the day couldn't be more interesting.
Backstory: Lowes-like Hardware store. It's ".. is the place," .. etc. I worked Electric, since nobody was in that department. I was there from 7:30 to 4.
11:35 - I'm stocking some flashlights, when behind the wall in front of me, I hear a tremendous clattering of lightbulbs onto the floor. I quickly dash around the corner and see a palette jack hauling a dirty empty palette, and a slew of boxes and shattered lightbulbs on the floor all around the area.
Apparently the palette had nudged one of the boxes on the bottom shelf, which had nudged yet more boxes, etc etc etc, and had tilted over a tall stack of bulbs in boxes just beyond the shelf. Awful damage. Helped the guy clean up, reconciled the bulbs, and went back to stacking.
12:03 - Not ten feet from where the first incident occurred, this disaster happened.
In the middle of the store, roughly, we have (Well ... had. ) this awesome stone fountain. It was like, .. imagine a square flowerpot, made of stone, filled with pebbles and vertically stacked horizontal slates. It was a fountain. It happened to be off at the moment.
The guy, the same guy who did the first disaster, was trying to lift it to move it aside to stack some new merchandise in the middle of the store. Little did he know that there was still 15 gallons of water in the darn thing. It tips over, spilling its lifegiving fluid across the floor, ruining inflatables and heaters and such. Much destruction. We spent the next hour roving around the spill site, mopping and wiping and shoo'ing away customers and ensuring no old ladies tripped and slid in and through the chaos. Happened just as the head manager arrived too. Luckily he's an awesome guy, and stayed in a good mood. I think (Hope?) that cheered people up.
I commented to the guy who started the fiascos that this was quite the welcome relief from having to do the truck, as I know diddly squat about electrical... He chuckled, and I hope his day brightened a bit. He's an awesome guy, and definitely deserves the best.
2:09 - I think this one deserves an intermission of some sort.
<adorable dancing penguin>
Anyway. So a friend and I are in the back room, trying to haul a palette into the back, but the new non-youthful assistant manager is in there with the forklift putting goods away. We're trying to inch past him, as he's put a large palette of goods right in the middle of the bottleneck into the back room. Lovely. When we accomplish our task, we turn to leave, when he hear what sounds like a:
*Thud*
*SSSSSSSSSHHHHHHHHHHHHH
HHHHHHHHHHHHHTTSHSHSSSTHSSSTSTS
*Rain sounds*
Almost like a heavy mist from the produce aisle has begun to spray
*SSSSSSSSSHHHHHHHHHHHHH
HHHHHHHHHHHHHTTSHSHSSSTHSSSTSTS
*Rain sounds*
Almost like a heavy mist from the produce aisle has begun to spray
Oh boy. That can't be good. We turn around, and we see the assistant manager in the forklift with the tines all the way up in the air, trying to get a huge box onto the top shelf just below the roof. He had apparently snagged one of the pipes hanging down from the ceiling (AWFUL placement of pipes... If I had a picture, you'd groan. You'd absolutely groan and forehead-slap etc.) ... ...
... ... the sprinkler system had begun POURING into the stockroom. A torrential downpour of water was rapidly flooding the back room, raining down on scores of merchandise, ruining them. I have absolutely no doubt that if the head manager was a less patient individual, he would have died of a heart attack right there and then.
So most of us took off our vests and ran into the downpour to rescue whatever merchandise we could, and to put up a tarp to protect whatever we couldn't take down. We were positively drenched. We had ladders up there and everything; everything slick with water. Nothing was dry. Anywhere. The water was leaking halfway down the store.
About five or ten minutes later (Who could tell amidst the chaos...) the fire alarm went off. I suspected I had smelled some sort of smoke, (we had a fire some months earlier, in July or something, so the smell wasn't unfamiliar.) though I didn't quite see any fire or anything.
So we're trying to get people out the door. An unsurprising amount of people resumed shopping and said "Hey, would ya shut that racket off? I need my concentration to shop!" "Um, good sir, that's the fire alarm. I recommend leaving the building." "Without my stuff?" "What's worth more; your stuff or your life?" *He quietly takes his stuff and leaves*
Yeah. Spent the better part of an hour salvaging stuff from the back room.
So that was a fun day. I'm amazed I actually enjoyed myself. Am I crazy? Probably.
Sure beats doing the truck.
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