Power failure!

[CrazedClerkthe2nd]

So the power went down at work yesterday for like 90 minutes. Assistant manager put a sign on the door saying we were closed due to lack of power.

SIX, count 'em, SIX customers showed up and violently yanked on our doors during this time. Apparently they failed to notice the sign and the fact the store was completely dark AND the fact the whole BLOCK was without power AND the fact the street light in front of us was out too!

This was the third time the power has gone out on me while at work.

- The first was the big blackout in August of 2003 that took out most of southeastern Canada and the Northeastern U.S.

- The second was at the call center, we lost power for about 6 hours. How nice it was to NOT be on the phones for awhile!

[Emrld]

I was in a store that had a black out.
There was also a tone of high school kids at the same time.
They asked us all to come up front - well I was mid clothing try on . . .I was able to get a female manager to go back to the dressing rooms with me and allow me to put on a shirt that fully covered me. (had been trying on a sweater that would need a shirt under it . . .didn't know till it was on and power went out)
They were not going to let us leave the store as the sensors didn't work during a power outage.
I knew I wanted to buy some pieces and some things I wanted to buy - so I made a deal with the manager. I left my store brand card with them and they held the items that had been in the dressing room.

Power outages are not fun.

side note - it was storming and most likely not all that safe to be out in it. I had a Dr appointment that I could not miss. As an adult making that choice the store let me - for the tweens/ teens they were keeping them safe.

[Bella_Vixen]

Last summer, we had what I am convinced was an almost-but-not-quite-tornado.

We closed the store--shut off the pumps, shut down the registers and locked the doors. This was some serious weather. We weren't messing around.

We had a camera man from one of the Milwaukee news stations in our parking lot, filming this storm.

People kept coming up to the doors, wanting to buy stuff. We informed them that we were closed, and had the registers shut down. They kept arguing. My coworker (and co-AM) finally got pissed and shouted "We are in the middle of a possible fucking tornado!! You can feel free to come in until the storm passes, but we canNOT sell you ANYTHING!"

They left.


We talked to the camera guy later, and even he thought about coming in for shelter. It was bad.



And I won't even get started on the people who actually tried to pump gas during this.

[CrazedClerkthe2nd]

And I won't even get started on the people who actually tried to pump gas during this.

Reminds me of that scene from Dante's Peak where people are pumping gas AS A MASSIVE VOLCANO ERUPTION takes place behind them.

[El Pollo Guerrera]

At my former job (video store), a power outage would be crazy time. Yes, the entire town could be stone cold dead and people would still go to rent a movie! We had a backup power supply that would last an hour (keep the computers running) and we would be busy until the backup died. THEN we would lock up, but people would still be trying to rent.

[CaroPhoenix]

I used to work at a Roy Rogers restaurant that was in a small strip mall. It had a Grocery store and few other stores. In the 4 years I worked there, we had like 6 power failures (either from storms, or once there was an accident where the car hit the power box in front of the strip mall).

Anyway, when the power would go off at the grocery store, people would wander to Roy's and try to order food and wait out the power failure. They were always ticked off that we were closed (with HUGE signs that read "Closed due to power failure"). How dare the power failure affect us too!?

[artifical sweetner]

hmm i remember one time the power went out due to a storm at the food store i worked at and some older guy tried to run out of the store with a cart FULL of food....he didnt make it very far lol.

people would also ask why the registers/scales didnt work on GENERATOR POWER and DAMMIT THEY WANT THEIR FOOD....well im not superwoman, sorry

[PepperElf]

They were not going to let us leave the store as the sensors didn't work during a power outage.

i know they dont want to have any shrinkage but... at the same time it doesn't sound legal to force customers to stay inside the store until power goes back on.

[KellyHabersham]

So far, the only job I've been at where the power went out has been the library, and we weren't allowed to close or ask customers to leave.......although many of them did because they couldn't use computers for anything.

[draftermatt]

If the power goes out here we go home. Phones, computers, machines in plant, etc. all need electricity to work.

I worked at Burger King when the power went out once. We were told to grab our pencils and pens and take orders that way since the stuff that was made was still warm enough to sell.

Thankfully the power kicked back on quickly.

[Peppergirl]

Kinda OT, but it relates to customers acting like idiots when they dont get their way, so here goes:

My ex-bf worked at Famous Recipe in high school. FR is a chicken chain here in the midwest that's almost gone, I think.

Anyway, they actually ran out of chicken on a sunday. Ran.out.of.chicken. All the chicken, apparently.

The best part, the manager wouldn't let them close, and made them stay open to sell people the side dishes and gizards.

He said he got literally THREATENED with bodily harm by people who were pissed that they couldnt get their chicken.

Granted, I'd be annoyed, but the person who deserves the MAIN beat-down for this stupidity was the manager, who should have gotten chicken from another store, or just fuckin' shut it down.

/Off Topic

I now return you to your regularly scheduled thread.

[BethB]

Due to a tornado this past summer our Wally was out of power for about a day and a half. Rumor was 7 tornados spotted, 3 touched near wal-mart. You'd swear this was the beginning of the apocolypse. Most of the town was out of power and we were working to claims out the cold food(such a horrible waste. rant later if I remember). We had signs but so many ignored the signs tried to walk in only to be stopped and told we have no power we are closed. Well. how dare we not have power?! How dare that tornado touch down near the holiest of all discount shopping?!

[mandaliz8704]

I remember shopping in a Publix the day after Hurricane Wilma. They had no power (like 98% of the rest of us) and it was really strange being in the store when it was so dark in there. They had enough generator power to run 4 registers and maybe 4 lighting fixtures? I just went to get something for my kids to snack on... we had food, but they were bored with PB&J. People were remarkably calm and polite.

Everyone who came in got a free bag of ice...before it all melted anyway.

[mattm04]

I remember shopping in a Publix the day after Hurricane Wilma. They had no power (like 98% of the rest of us) and it was really strange being in the store when it was so dark in there. They had enough generator power to run 4 registers and maybe 4 lighting fixtures? I just went to get something for my kids to snack on... we had food, but they were bored with PB&J. People were remarkably calm and polite.

Everyone who came in got a free bag of ice...before it all melted anyway.

I read that Publix installed monster generators in most of their stores to run piratically the entire store in the event if hurricane. We were in FL recently and I saw a generator almost the size of a semi trailer next to one of their stores.