We Lost Our *#!$%! Roof! We Are NOT Going To Open!!!

[LillFilly]

Sooo... You know that storm with tornadoes that covered a half-dozen states? Well it got mine too, and it took our roof with it. Yes our GORRAM ROOF! So, not only was the mall filled with water, and without power, and leaking gas, WE HAD NO ROOF! So we didn't open today (normal hours 12-5 Sundays). Only the large departments stores opened, as their areas hadn't sustained any damage and they have exterior entrances that customers can go through. But despite the videos on youtube, despite it being on the front page of the paper and DESPITE there being signs on every entrance that WE WILL NOT BE OPEN TODAY, we must have turned-away a good 3-400 people that just could not comprehend that the mall WAS NOT OPEN!!! After several hours of this I finally snapped at one guy who was pissy when I said the mall was closed. He huffed "What's so special about today!?" I yelled at him "Sir, it was tornado-took-our-roof-day!" That shut him up! Unfortunately, one of the department store's corporate safety regs demands they have their interior mall entrance open any time they have customers. Soooo, even though we strung caution tape and signs over their doorway, I'm coming down the dark, wet, empty mall and find a family of 6 milling around and UNDER a roof that construction workers are trying to repair!!!! I admit, I screamed at them to get-out from under the construction, herded them to the nearest door, and instructed a coworker to escort them outside while I stood guard to make sure nobody else tried to get in. The whole time they were whining "But we want to go to --------'s!" I told them they'd have to walk around the other side of the building to get there, as I would not allow them to walk through the mall. No matter how much I explained it, they WOULD NOT understand that the rest of the roof had the potential to go at any time! I mean, seriously? SERIOUSLY!? This was compounded by the fact that I would watch people walk-up to a locked door, read the sign, see the dark mall, try the door anyway, and then walk down to the next entrance and repeat the process, somehow hoping that one of these doors would magically enter a mall that was not closed! You wouldn't believe how many people claimed to not even know that we had had storms in the area! I swear, I almost died of stupid intoxication today....

And we're not open tomorrow either!

PS. Nobody was hurt, which was a miracle, as the roof peeled-away instead of breaking into pieces and falling in.

[Aethian]

Holy crap, talk about clueless. How long should it take to fix?

[Phone Jockey]

Yeah, sounds pretty much like most customers out there today. MORONS.

[fireheart]

Holy crap, people are idiots.

There was an evacuation of one of the supermarkets near me recently (not my work or the one I visit regularly) and appareantly people were STILL trying to get into the store. Idiots.

[ravevolution]

Bunch of 'derps' same kind of people that even when the doors are closed and business hours clearly stated in front of them they still try to shake the door open and then yell through the glass asking if your open

[Ben_Who]

You know, this behavior actually intrigues me. I've read a lot about customers getting pissy because they couldn't get into department stores that were ON FIRE. While I doubt such brainlessness exists in the majority, what you describe here is quite a mass of customers.

I'd love the opportunity to sit down with one of these people and try to pick apart the thought process involved. It can't possibly just be entitlement or stupidity that is encouraging people to march blithely into an emergency situation. There must be more.

The yelling and screaming could be pride: "Oops, I screwed up, I'd better cover it up to hide my humiliation." But it sounds more like people who can't bear to have a routine interrupted. Why are you doing this? Why are you walking past caution tape into a closed area? Why are you bringing children into a construction zone where there may be a gas leak? Are you in the habit of walking into unsafe areas? Why do you feel that's appropriate? Why do you feel harassed when people tell you not to do it?

Unfortunately, there isn't a mall on fire around here, and I would really rather not the local mall HAVE a fire, since I tend to use it. Still, most people don't even walk in areas where there are wet floor signs; why would anyone walk into an area without any structural stability at all?

Love, Who?

[Jester]

It can't possibly just be entitlement or stupidity that is encouraging people to march blithely into an emergency situation.

Why yes. Yes it can.

There must be more.

Not necessarily.

why would anyone walk into an area without any structural stability at all?

My opinion? Stupidity. Nothing more. Nothing fancy, no great psychological explanation, no hidden reasons. Just idiocy, moronity, imbecility, old fashioned, grade A, 100%, good ole red-white-and-blue American stupidity.



"This mall is no more! It has ceased to be! It's expired and gone to meet its maker! It's a stiff! Bereft of life, it rests in peace! It's pushing up daisies! It's roof structures are now history! It's off the twig! It's kicked the bucket, it's shuffled off this mortal coil, run down the curtain and joined the bleedin' choir invisibile!! THIS IS AN EX-MALL!!"



No, that really never does get old, actually. But thanks for asking.

[Mytical]

I have to side with Jester on this. This wasn't even BSoD, this was beyond that. The lights wouldn't even come on, the hard drive was laying in a million broken pieces, and the hamster was sitting in the corner sucking its thumb and rocking back and forth.

How in all of sanity do you miss a roof not being on a building?

[Jester]

...and the hamster was sitting in the corner sucking its thumb and rocking back and forth.

This gave me the giggles. Seriously. Of course, my midnight hangover didn't hurt the situation.....

How in all of sanity do you miss a roof not being on a building?

I hate to be a broken record, but the answer is simple: stupidity.

[Racket_Man]

How in all of sanity do you miss a roof not being on a building?

we know there are certain customers (and the number seem to be growing) that are for all intense purposes blind and deaf and dumb. as in they can not read a sign or a price tag or a receipt or a warranty or a return policy, they can not drive a 2 ton vehicle or scooter or a bicycle or for that matter a shopping cart properly, AND feel the need to disconnect with the rest of the human race when it comes to civility, common sense, politeness, and intellegance.

these people have been well trained by their corp overlords to NOT have to think for themselves, do anything for themselves and when thing do NOT go their way to howl loudly and watch their overlords quake in their boots in fear. the people also have had the fear of public humiliation driven out of them so that makes their behiavior "acceptable" .

in short they are in their own little world with its own rules and policies and proceedures. all things are to the PERSON'S liking and no one elses. nothing out of the ordinary EVER happens and if it does, the person just goes blind deaf and or dumb so as not to upset themselves and they keep their little happy world goind but only in their minds.

[Argabarga]

Maybe they thought it was one of those "door-buster" sales? And it just got a little out of hand?

[Mytical]

I understand that SC's are in their own world..but still seem unable to wrap my head around the so called logic of not being able to see a roof missing.

Not seeing a sign..ok..I can comprehend. Barricades, tape, etc..I can grasp the 'doesn't apply to me' entitlement mentality. Huge holes in walls, roof missing, etc..makes my three redundant systems* just .. fail.

*I like to imagine peoples brains with three redundant systems. 'Lights' - Ie electricity..the first redundant system that anybody who has ever had an actual thought has.

Hard Drive - Backup emergency 1..with it's own power supply..while this one only allows basic comprehension..it can get a person through the day on 'autopilot'. This is the level that the normal SC functions on normally. When this fails it is called the 'Blue Screen of Death'

Hamster on a wheel - The backup backup emergency. The EW sc's basic (and only) system. Fails to notice most things that is beyond 1" in front of a persons face, but is the sole difference between zombies and the living..barely. Normally destruction will at least register however.

When the hamster gives up and moves to Hawaii (or worse) then..well...

[Erin]

It's the normalcy bias.

The normalcy bias refers to a mental state people enter when facing a disaster. It causes people to underestimate both the possibility of a disaster occurring and its possible effects.

The assumption that is made in the case of the normalcy bias is that since a disaster never has occurred then it never will occur. It also results in the inability of people to cope with a disaster once it occurs. People with a normalcy bias have difficulties reacting to something they have not experienced before. People also tend to interpret warnings in the most optimistic way possible, seizing on any ambiguities to infer a less serious situation. (sorry, I took a psychology class once, and random bits of trivia from that class pop into my brain sometimes)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Normalcy_bias

Or, it could just be that they're stupid.

[Kristev]

I know what it is. I'm a janitor for the little shop of horrors, and frequently end up having to mop up all kinds of nightmares on the floor.

They insist on walking through my water, intruding on my bathroom cleaning, and anything else I'm cleaning. As it turns out, they've put their empty excuses for minds on a single object, usually a sale item. Nothing will deflect them. Reason doesn't exist for them in this circumstance.

They have their brain focused on a single thing, and they won't be deflected by a little thing called reality, in any way at all.

[DeltaSierra]

You know, this behavior actually intrigues me. I've read a lot about customers getting pissy because they couldn't get into department stores that were ON FIRE. While I doubt such brainlessness exists in the majority, what you describe here is quite a mass of customers.

Yep. When I worked at crappy tire, we had an electrical fire in the warehouse one day (no serious damage done thankfully, but a lot of smoke) We were herding people out, firemen were coming in, and Super Speshul Snowflake, when told she couldn't come in because the warehouse was on fire said "Oh that's okay I just need to get some sparkplugs, I won't be 30 seconds!" and tried to push past us. She got all huffy when we told her she couldn't come in and couldn't fathom WHY!!! I weep for humanity.