Zel-kun’s Words

Yes, that’s right folks, it’s time for another “Tale of Retail.”

I was working in Electronics at the time, wearing an ugly blue vest they insisted was called a ’smock,’ and had only been there a few months.  If memory serves, this was even before I made friends with Pete.  That seems like a long, long time ago.

I had finished ringing a customer out when the sirens began blaring and the emergency lights started flashing.  It was the fire alarm.  At this time, I instructed the customers in the department to go to nearest exit.  It seems like a simple enough concept, when the alarm goes off, you leave the building.  In school, we had fire drills every now and again, and it was always the same:  Hear the alarm, then leave.

But, as I found out, seems that some people weren’t paying attention in school.

After evacuating the department, I was asked to do a quick walk of the floor to make sure that there were no stragglers.  And sure enough… at least half of the people were just ignoring the alarm.  Most made their way to the front of the store when I asked them, some people outright refused until I assured them it wasn’t a drill.

I have shopped at many stores, and I have spent half a decade working in them, and there has NEVER been a fire drill.  Doesn’t make sense, why would you clear out your store?  The people you drill that day won’t be the same people there should a real fire break out, it’s pointless.

So we treated it as a real fire.  I can’t remember if there was a small fire somewhere or not, but the real point is that there COULD have been.  There was an older woman shopping, could have been about fifty or so, and I asked her to leave.  She agreed, walked four steps, and began looking at the shelves again.  This repeats four times until she finally shouts at me, “I need to buy food for my cat!”

Have we really fallen this far, people?  Do we have no survival instinct left?  People spend time formulating escape and evacuation plans so when a disaster happens, we’re prepared.  And what do we do?  We ignore them.  If someone tells you to evacuate a building, it’s probably not because they want to mess with you.

After telling her that she might be in danger, she finally acquiesced and left the building.  We stood in the parking lot for several minutes until they finally let us back inside.  Not sure what happened, but if I were to guess, I’d say someone pulled the alarm to be funny.  But if it had been a serious fire, many would have died from their own stupidity.

Zel-kun out.