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After a little incident at my local Wal-Mart, I was reminded of some fun stories dealing with a variety of doors. Some on display, some roll up, and some regular store doors. So, I thought I'd share mine. Anyone have good ones to add, share too 
Roll Up:
This is my favorite story. At Lowe's, we had this huge roll up door down in lumber. All controled from a push button at my register. When a customer was leaving with lumber, i'd roll the door up for them and let them load there in our awning. Other times, I'd have to do it for a lift to go out, come in, or for the guys to unload things. You'd think, this door wouldn't cause problems. Yet, sometimes it found a way. One gentleman in particular gave me a very sheepish look and a laugh at one point.
I was rolling this door down, looking not at the door but down the aisle. As I'm doing this, I turn for a moment to see this guy walking up in the direction of the door. Now, this door is moving steadily down, and he never slows. Looking back down the aisle, I hear a loud SMACK! looking back I see (through the windows) this man rubbing his face and looking rather sick. He had walked right into the roll up door. After a moment, he comes inside and says quote. "Your damn door is broke. It didn't sense me and roll up." Looking at him a moment I said. "There's no sensor on that door." He blinked, saw the control, looked at the door and asked sheepishly. "Do you carry sheetrock?"
Sliding Doors:
Gods, I love these things. Knock them off track and you can panic a customer. Even when it's so simple to put them back. Still, I wonder about people reading.
I remember one store where the entrance and exit doors only allowed you to do that. Enter only opened one way, as did exit. It always struck me as funny watching these people walk up to the exit door and then stare at it like a monkey doing a math problem when the door wouldn't open for them. Some, rather than walk the twenty feet to the entrance, would wait for a person to exit, and then sneak inside. Others cursed it openly.
What's worse, (and I've said this elsewhere) are the people who try to open the doors when the store is closed. It doesn't matter whats in front of the doors. Whether a lawnmower, car, truck, forklift, two associates telling them the store is closed, or the darkend recesses of the store; there's always some customer trying to get inside. It's like moths to a light really. And, lest we forget, the customer is always right; if wal-mart is open twenty four hours a day, every one else must be.
Display Doors:
These can be fun too. Doors on big funky hinge things that let a person see how it looks. Yet, it seems the concept of a display model is lost on so many people. Furthermore, for some insane reason, Corporate thinks it best to put the heavy doors UP on the risers. As opposed to making the hernia/fall factor go down. Oh yes, space is a necessity.
I can't tell you, how many times I've seen customers walk up to one of the special order doors; take the time to order one and then get irate because they think that the associate should take the display down. I mean, didn't they just buy a door? Wish it were that simple. Then, there's the suprise of finding something behind the doors. This was common. Kids loved hiding behind the things only to jump out at their parents, or associates, or anyone too close. This was usually followed with the reflex reaction of slamming the door in the kid's face, a scream, and a call for someone to clean up the blood from said kid's bloody nose.
Still, I think my favorite were the idiots that couldn't understand that yes, the door comes in other colors than green/blue/red. This particular door was painted that way to show various styles. Really weird looking one too. This couple comes up, orders that door's primary style and then begins to argue with the salesman about whether or not the door comes in tri color. I ended up in it, accidentally, by laughing. The customer, Irate to begin with, turns on me and asked what's so funny. I didn't say anything, but pointed to the sing proclaiming that the door could come in one of the three styles and designs shown. Also it came in half a dozen colors. Irate customer was pacified rather quickly, though the husband's "I told you so." most likely didn't help his case with his wife.
Sliding Doors: Part Deux.
Sliding doors can be fun, yes. They can also be somewhat unnerving and tend to have a mind of their own. We had one door, I called the evil door. This thing hated me. Rather openly hated me. (Yes, doors can hate).
At the time I worked returns. Meaning I spent half my time cleaning the doors more than anything else. Wash, wipe, wash wipe, return, wash, wipe... You get the picture. This door, seemed to have a perverse sense of humor. Many times as I washed the door, it'd suddenly open on me. Trapping my hand or giving me a nasty pinch. With nothing near the electric eye to cause it, I'd usually grumble, squall if it got me good, or just curse under my breath.
That wasn't all it did. It was supposed to have a fail safe. In an ideal situation, if it closed on something, the door was supposed to snap back open to release it. Most of the time it did this. When I tested it, though, it didn't snap back open. Rather it clamped down like a dog on a bone and wouldn't let go. To make matters worse, it had to be pried off me. One time, it caught my hand at the wrist. The other, it caught my head. (this last one caused me to be the butt of many jokes.) One day, it's glass shattered. That was the strangest I've seen. Never figured out what caused it.
I remember standing there one closing, the doors closed and locked. I, was behind my counter, inable of leaving until my Head Cashier had closed the registers. Another guy, was standing by the front, locking up after bringing in the equipment. I look up at him, just in time to see one of those doors shatter and fall. Being safety glass, it went into a million tiny diamond like pieces, falling everywhere around and even flying out. Almost as though something had gone through it. Both he and I just stood there staring at each other through the now open window. When managment came up, we said in unison. "I didn't do it."
Roll Up:
This is my favorite story. At Lowe's, we had this huge roll up door down in lumber. All controled from a push button at my register. When a customer was leaving with lumber, i'd roll the door up for them and let them load there in our awning. Other times, I'd have to do it for a lift to go out, come in, or for the guys to unload things. You'd think, this door wouldn't cause problems. Yet, sometimes it found a way. One gentleman in particular gave me a very sheepish look and a laugh at one point.
I was rolling this door down, looking not at the door but down the aisle. As I'm doing this, I turn for a moment to see this guy walking up in the direction of the door. Now, this door is moving steadily down, and he never slows. Looking back down the aisle, I hear a loud SMACK! looking back I see (through the windows) this man rubbing his face and looking rather sick. He had walked right into the roll up door. After a moment, he comes inside and says quote. "Your damn door is broke. It didn't sense me and roll up." Looking at him a moment I said. "There's no sensor on that door." He blinked, saw the control, looked at the door and asked sheepishly. "Do you carry sheetrock?"
Sliding Doors:
Gods, I love these things. Knock them off track and you can panic a customer. Even when it's so simple to put them back. Still, I wonder about people reading.
I remember one store where the entrance and exit doors only allowed you to do that. Enter only opened one way, as did exit. It always struck me as funny watching these people walk up to the exit door and then stare at it like a monkey doing a math problem when the door wouldn't open for them. Some, rather than walk the twenty feet to the entrance, would wait for a person to exit, and then sneak inside. Others cursed it openly.
What's worse, (and I've said this elsewhere) are the people who try to open the doors when the store is closed. It doesn't matter whats in front of the doors. Whether a lawnmower, car, truck, forklift, two associates telling them the store is closed, or the darkend recesses of the store; there's always some customer trying to get inside. It's like moths to a light really. And, lest we forget, the customer is always right; if wal-mart is open twenty four hours a day, every one else must be.
Display Doors:
These can be fun too. Doors on big funky hinge things that let a person see how it looks. Yet, it seems the concept of a display model is lost on so many people. Furthermore, for some insane reason, Corporate thinks it best to put the heavy doors UP on the risers. As opposed to making the hernia/fall factor go down. Oh yes, space is a necessity.
I can't tell you, how many times I've seen customers walk up to one of the special order doors; take the time to order one and then get irate because they think that the associate should take the display down. I mean, didn't they just buy a door? Wish it were that simple. Then, there's the suprise of finding something behind the doors. This was common. Kids loved hiding behind the things only to jump out at their parents, or associates, or anyone too close. This was usually followed with the reflex reaction of slamming the door in the kid's face, a scream, and a call for someone to clean up the blood from said kid's bloody nose.
Still, I think my favorite were the idiots that couldn't understand that yes, the door comes in other colors than green/blue/red. This particular door was painted that way to show various styles. Really weird looking one too. This couple comes up, orders that door's primary style and then begins to argue with the salesman about whether or not the door comes in tri color. I ended up in it, accidentally, by laughing. The customer, Irate to begin with, turns on me and asked what's so funny. I didn't say anything, but pointed to the sing proclaiming that the door could come in one of the three styles and designs shown. Also it came in half a dozen colors. Irate customer was pacified rather quickly, though the husband's "I told you so." most likely didn't help his case with his wife.
Sliding Doors: Part Deux.
Sliding doors can be fun, yes. They can also be somewhat unnerving and tend to have a mind of their own. We had one door, I called the evil door. This thing hated me. Rather openly hated me. (Yes, doors can hate).
At the time I worked returns. Meaning I spent half my time cleaning the doors more than anything else. Wash, wipe, wash wipe, return, wash, wipe... You get the picture. This door, seemed to have a perverse sense of humor. Many times as I washed the door, it'd suddenly open on me. Trapping my hand or giving me a nasty pinch. With nothing near the electric eye to cause it, I'd usually grumble, squall if it got me good, or just curse under my breath.
That wasn't all it did. It was supposed to have a fail safe. In an ideal situation, if it closed on something, the door was supposed to snap back open to release it. Most of the time it did this. When I tested it, though, it didn't snap back open. Rather it clamped down like a dog on a bone and wouldn't let go. To make matters worse, it had to be pried off me. One time, it caught my hand at the wrist. The other, it caught my head. (this last one caused me to be the butt of many jokes.) One day, it's glass shattered. That was the strangest I've seen. Never figured out what caused it.
I remember standing there one closing, the doors closed and locked. I, was behind my counter, inable of leaving until my Head Cashier had closed the registers. Another guy, was standing by the front, locking up after bringing in the equipment. I look up at him, just in time to see one of those doors shatter and fall. Being safety glass, it went into a million tiny diamond like pieces, falling everywhere around and even flying out. Almost as though something had gone through it. Both he and I just stood there staring at each other through the now open window. When managment came up, we said in unison. "I didn't do it."
and all was well. 
it must have been quite a sight.
I get the door open by walking to it and she asked "Why didn't the door open?" My reply "Uh..because that is the exit...it only works one way." The woman then giggled and said "Ooops." 
. 
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