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As usual for this time of year, we had a power outage. No big deal, our generator kicked in pretty quick and brought about 1/4 of our lights back on, and our registers work for about 20 minutes. Customers in the store figured out pretty quick that they needed to GTFO. The backup batteries on the registers died just as the last few customers were trying to pay - standard procedure in our store when that happens with a small purchase is to just give it to them. Bigger orders, we'll see if they can write a check for the last amount the register showed before it shut off (if not, they'll get it anyway).
Then when we started turning people away at the doors... oh man.
"Why's the power out?" I don't know. "Why don't you know?" It's out all over town. "Why?" Call the electric company, I don't know.
"Why are you closed?" Our power is out. "When will it be back on?" I don't know.
I laughed my ass off when a guy on his cellphone walked RIGHT into the (locked) door, at eye level with the "Closed due to power failure" sign taped to the glass. Then he looked all around the sign, but not AT the sign, trying to figure out why the door didn't open for him.
The power finally did come back on around 9:15, 45 minutes before the normal closing time. It had been such a slow day to begin with, and frontend wound up cutting the majority of the cashiers when the power went out, that the decision was made to just close for the day. Add to that fact that the server for the registers didn't shut down properly and it was going to take at least 15-20 minutes just to get the registers working again.
Jesus christ, there was almost a fucking riot in the parking lot when the crowd outside found out. So glad we hire off duty cops for security - I got to see several people start yelling at the cop that was turning them away. I laughed when the cop told them "You know it's a bad idea to yell at a cop right?".
Few things I found really strange though - apparently our electric doors are on generator power. So are all of the scales/printers in meat, seafood, and deli. But not any refrigeration or any of the registers. We could also still take credit cards (they were obtaining authorization fine), but not debit or checks.
Then when we started turning people away at the doors... oh man.
"Why's the power out?" I don't know. "Why don't you know?" It's out all over town. "Why?" Call the electric company, I don't know.
"Why are you closed?" Our power is out. "When will it be back on?" I don't know.
I laughed my ass off when a guy on his cellphone walked RIGHT into the (locked) door, at eye level with the "Closed due to power failure" sign taped to the glass. Then he looked all around the sign, but not AT the sign, trying to figure out why the door didn't open for him.
The power finally did come back on around 9:15, 45 minutes before the normal closing time. It had been such a slow day to begin with, and frontend wound up cutting the majority of the cashiers when the power went out, that the decision was made to just close for the day. Add to that fact that the server for the registers didn't shut down properly and it was going to take at least 15-20 minutes just to get the registers working again.
Jesus christ, there was almost a fucking riot in the parking lot when the crowd outside found out. So glad we hire off duty cops for security - I got to see several people start yelling at the cop that was turning them away. I laughed when the cop told them "You know it's a bad idea to yell at a cop right?".
Few things I found really strange though - apparently our electric doors are on generator power. So are all of the scales/printers in meat, seafood, and deli. But not any refrigeration or any of the registers. We could also still take credit cards (they were obtaining authorization fine), but not debit or checks.
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