Trials of a Closing Store

[ThanosIsKing]

Just another bit of an update on how bad it is now that the store is closing: our maintenance staff is nonexistent. We had two people scheduled to work maintenance today. One was fired the week before we learned we would be closing (and for some odd reason continues to get scheduled) and the other had his picture on the front page of the paper the day the closing was announced and got the same job pretty much the next day at Too-Huge Grocery Store just down the road, so he didn't show either. Nobody else was able to come in, so we had to make due with the overabundance of cashiers and front-end workers.

Which is why this next story makes me uneasy. Around 1 a couple comes in, a heavy woman and an older man who was, let's say "not all there". The woman told me he has Alzheimer's or something. She's also in a wheelchair. They go towards the restrooms, and after a short amount of time the woman tells me to go into the restroom to check on her husband. I open the door to find the man squatting over the TRASH CAN and taking a shit. It was disgusting! Since we had no maintenance it fell to our safety supervisor to take care of the trash in there. And it smelled horrible! Who thinks that a trash can is also a toilet!


What is it with stores closing that bring out the worst of humanity!?

[RootedPhoenix]

Ew. I haven't a clue. *offers cookies*

[Anakah]

I worked in a closing store once. It's hell and people are just as demanding and don't care that you're going to be jobless. They're assholes. All of them. I'm sorry about your store closing

Do you get severance pay? Can you get unemployment after? Ugh I can't believe they didn't tell you sooner!

[Teysa]

I've been through more than one store closing. I will give the grocery store where I worked credit: they did work hard to find everyone positions in a different location. Still, the experience was less than fun.

[WishfulSpirit]

Who thinks that a trash can is also a toilet!

Someone with dementia. He was literally out of touch with reality and honesty did not know he wasn't going in the right place. He probably needs an attendant to be with him all the time, and help with personal care, but good luck getting insurance to pay for that. If your store has a family restroom, or even one of those "one seater" rooms, it would allow his wife to help him.

It doesn't make the experience of cleaning poo any more pleasant (I used to do elder care, I've done worse than clean it out of a trash can) but please try to remember the old guy honestly thought he was just going to the bathroom. There was no malice here, he was NOT trying to make your life hard.

I'm not usually one to burn bridges, but if this store is going out of business anyway, and you're losing your job there because of it, why couldn't you "tell off" a few customers?

What are they gonna do? Complain? Get you fired? The store is closing anyway.

That has a way of biting you in the ass. The same person you were rude too (whether they deserved it or not) might be the one dealing with your unemployment claim or interviewing you for a new job. Also, if the company itself is still in business, or you want a good reference, it's a good idea not to burn bridges.

[EricKei]

Ugh I can't believe they didn't tell you sooner!

I can. I've read more than one story about stores that closed up (both mom & pop types and huge corporate ones), where the employees found out about it when they came into work in the morning and found that the doors were locked and the lights were off, along with a bit of paper in the window saying that the shop had closed down.

[Minflick]

Dementia is an ugly thing. My ex-step mom used to wet herself and hide the wet undies in the closet, in the bedding, all over the house. Refused diapers for a long time. That poor man would be mortified if he knew what he'd done, and it's a shame his wife doesn't just go in the bathroom with him, yelling out that a woman care giver is coming inside. I've seen that done, and I'd far rather that (either sex, in either single sex bathroom) than have the confusion cause that kind of mess. My mom took the last bathroom key at an ice cream store and then left it in there when she came out, announcing that she hadn't had a key, never saw it, what are you talking about! So, if we ever go back there (close to her facility, and she really likes the ice cream) I'll take the key and open the door, usher her in, and then hand the key over to the kid at the counter. Mom can still toilet herself, but the handling of strange objects now escapes her.

You can't take it personally, because there's nobody home inside anymore. It's painful for everybody to deal with.

[Lace Neil Singer]

That has a way of biting you in the ass. The same person you were rude too (whether they deserved it or not) might be the one dealing with your unemployment claim or interviewing you for a new job. Also, if the company itself is still in business, or you want a good reference, it's a good idea not to burn bridges.

My mate already had her reference, so that didn't matter.

I also had a similar situation when I was working out my notice for the pizza place, after I got a better job. I hated the bitch manager, but my cool boss had already written and sent off my reference, so I told her that if she said one thing to me that I didn't like, I'd walk out that door. Since we were short staffed (due to her being a bitch to everyone), she just had to bite her tongue all thru my notice. XD

[dalesys]

... she just had to bite her tongue all thru my notice...

I had the most delicious pizza there once... Topped with little oval slices of a very tart and spicy meat. I tried to order it again, but the staff said it was a one time special... said it was topped with Hündin Zungenwurst. (Bitch Tongue Sausage)

[earl colby pottinger]

I too

I'm just wondering why the SM was giving a rat's ass about making that customer happy...Unless, of course, he's already been guaranteed a job elsewhere in the company >_>

I was wondering that too. You are losing your job, why try to make someone happy who clearly is trying to rip you off. And at that deep a discount you know the item will still sell in the coming two weeks so there is no loss if she walks out.

[BPFH]

I can. I've read more than one story about stores that closed up (both mom & pop types and huge corporate ones), where the employees found out about it when they came into work in the morning and found that the doors were locked and the lights were off, along with a bit of paper in the window saying that the shop had closed down.

That almost happened to me once. Well, except for the bit about the bit of paper in the window. I showed up for work, and the lights were out, the doors were locked, and most of the equipment (except for the stuff that was too big to get out the doors) was gone. Fortunately it turned out that the business hadn't closed, the landlord just wanted us out, and we had another location where I was still gainfully employed, but still...

[MadMike]

I recently learned that my store is going out of business. Literally only two days ago.

Something like that happened at the first bar where I did karaoke. It went out of business in its current form, but someone else bought it and kept it going. Other than the name, nothing changed. It kept going for a little over a year, and I thought it was going strong.

Then after the Christmas and New Years holidays, I went out there on what I thought would be the first karaoke night of the new year. The parking lot was empty, and the place was dark. I later found out that the place had their big New Years Eve bash, and at the end of the night, the owner announced that the bar was closing at the end of that same night. All the staff found out they were out of a job just minutes before it happened.