Fire Drill brings out the SCs

[Ree]

We had a fire drill today.

So, there we are, the whole staff, standing in a group at the designated meeting place on the edge of the parking lot.

A car pulls in and drives past us and slowly up to the door, then back to where we were standing.
She rolled down her window and asked, "So, does this mean I can't get into the store?"
"Gee, I don't know, lady. You do the math on that one."

I mean, really, if it had been a real emergency, wouldn't that have been nice with her pulling up to the doors to try and get in?

We told her to wait just a few minutes, as we were having a fire drill and it would be over as soon as we took a roll call.

She drove out, but I did see her come back a short time later.

We had announced the fire drill over the PA a few minutes before hand.

One of the sales guys told me, when the alarm started, he was with a customer.
As soon as the alarm started, he said, "That's the fire alarm, so the drill has started. You are going to have to come outside with me until the drill is over."

Now, I do understand, if I'm in a store buying, and I get told I have to go outside when it's only a drill and not the real thing, it's a bit of an inconvenience, but what if it had been real?
She got rather pissy with him and said, "Oh, yeah, anything to interrupt business and get out of work."
WTF???

[RootedPhoenix]

Yeah, it's inconvenient, but...augh. Turkey SC.

[Marmalady]

*nods* Get this sort of thing whenever there's a fire drill at my store.

"Can I take my shopping out with me?" Have you paid for it? No? Well it's not your shopping yet then, is it?
"But if I leave my basket / cart here, someone else might take it!" Madam there's not going to be anyone else in here to take it, only the firemen and I doubt they'll be interested in 3 tins of cat food and a pack of outsize knickers.
"I'm never shopping here again!" If the place burns down while you're still standing here whining, that may not be a problem for either of us. Now get out!!

[pitmonkey]

It is just as fun to clear the store when there is a bomb threat. You can't say that is the reason but everyone knows that is what is happening. Then you get to stand around in what ever weather there happens to be and wait for the police and fire to clear the building. One time it took 3 hours in the cold and rain. That is when I started to have car keys and ID on me at all times.

[cinema guy]

At the cinema we have fire drills before we open. So we practice evacuating non-existent customers.

[Lace Neil Singer]

I remember a fire evacuation in the supermarket just a few weeks after I had started. It wasn't a drill, it was the real thing; there's this general store that's in the same building as the supermarket, and they'd reported a fire. So we had to get all the customers out; customers whining, "But I haven't finished my shopping!" and generally being arseholes. Yeah, and burning to death won't make it any easier for you to finish, idiot.

We had to wait outside in the car park til after the fire brigade had arrived and checked out the building; it turned out to be an electrical fault, and as soon as they had dealt with it, we all went back in. Even while we were waiting, we had to stop customers from going into the store, as if the fire engine parked outside wasn't any kind of clue that there was a reason why they couldn't shop. -.-

[blas]

Not in retail, but at my work, once per year, we have to do a real evacuation type fire drill, and it's timed and supposedly, if everyone isn't out of the building within x many minutes, OSHA is informed. It's just what I heard, probably not Gospel, but who knows?

Second shift always failed, I was told. They were too busy trying to keep getting work out.

One year, they asked for volunteers to stay inside and keep working, because we couldn't lose production.

It was more than tempting to call up someone.

[emax4]

Also not a retail story, but while I worked at Dish Networked a former disgruntled employee (which we discovered later) was calling in randomly with bomb threats to this particular call center. So, we'd all evacuate orderly, but it became almost commonplace that we stopped taking it seriously. Imagine hundreds of people in two parking lots away from a call center tossing frisbees, throwing footballs. It was almost like a tailgate party.

[Lace Neil Singer]

I remember a bomb threat when I was at college; the entire complex, consisting of the college, an adult education centre and two schools, had to be evacuated.

I and my fellow students went down the pub and had a rip roaring party that went on all afternoon. To be safe from the blast, of course.

[Ree]

I actually worked in a store that burned.
It was probably the scariest experience of my life.

The store was completely gutted within an hour.

I had nightmares for weeks, and even after I started a new job, I kept having dreams that it was burning.

I remember that one lady had to have her hands pulled off the shopping cart, but it was only because she was frozen with fear.

Everybody handled themselves quite well, I recall, with not a bit of suckiness on anyone's part.

As a result of that whole experience, I take fire safety and fire drills in my workplace very seriously.

[telecom_goddess]

I actually worked in a store that burned.

Wow. I've never been involved in an actual fire, just fire drills.

[Quillsilver]

When I worked at the bookstore, we had to call the FD for an electrical issue...and yeah, customers would walk right past the fire truck and firefighters gathered outside and reach for the door handle. "What do you mean, I can't go in? Why not? I just want one thing!"

That experience aside, I have never worked anywhere that had a fire drill....

[Kiwi]

We had a customer passout in the craft store and while tending to her and waiting for the paramedics people were bitching that they couldn't get to the cake decorations behind where she was laying. They wanted to keep shopping over her.

[earl colby pottinger]

I do computer repair at schools. If it is a test of the alarm system I stay in the school and work, if it is a fire drill I exit and stand outside with the students. I have seen a lot of fire drills in the local schools, and about half the time you will see all the students being trooped outside by the teachers but any parents who may be in the main office demand to still be served and talked to, often by people who have far more important duties taking care of their children during a real fire.

[tech_monkey]

Previous employer, as a helpdesk agent, i sat through no fewer than 5 fire drills in a year, had to keep taking the phone calls. Half the time the user would ask what the noise was. I usually told them that the building was on fire. Cue the audible blink, and they would ask if it was a drill. Then ask me why we weren't participating in fire safety. The usual response was I would have a heart attack from the 15 flights of stairs. That got giggles.