Beverage explosions!

[protege]

I might have posted this before....

One of my duties while running the little store at scout camp was to make sure those damn vending machines were stocked up for the night. Usually, Wednesday nights were pretty slow, with the campfire/OA (Order of the Arrow--it's *supposed* to be an honorary scouting group, but usually is just a popularity contest) ceremony. As everyone is down there, I usually leave the festivities early, and head back to the store to get things ready. There's usually a run on pop and snacks after one of those things. Because I tend to get dirty while rearranging things, I'll take off my "regulation" scout uniform, and work in a camp T-shirt and shorts. We only have to wear regs during the evening flag ceremony and on parents' night. Otherwise, the boss doesn't care, as long as it's "scouting related." Usually, I have about 3 hours to play with--I'll crank up some tunes and get my work done. Usually, I don't have any problems.

This wasn't one of those nights. Not only did the sink behind the store counter spring a small leak, but that damn pretzel machine was having issues. I fixed things the best I could, and then went outside to restock the machines. Er, that was the plan, anyway.

Like most nights, I had the pop machine's door open, and was merrily tossing cans into the racks...when one fell out of the 6-pack plastic thingie. It wouldn't have been a big deal if it hit the ground--free pop for me--but it didn't. You know that big spike that helps hold the machine's door shut?

Yep, it hit that. Instant shower Pop sprayed all over the place--the sidewalk, the store windows, under the machine, all over me, etc. Good thing I'd removed my uniform...otherwise that would have been trashed, and I'd had a hard time cleaning it--the staff washing machine had blown up earlier in the week, and I'd been written up if I was a mess.

At least I was able to clean up the mess before the evening rush...

[BlakeMP]

Geez -- sounds like a disaster. Glad you got it cleaned up, though.

[El Barto]

I destroyed a 2 liter bottle of Sprite yesterday. I was carrying some shelves to the back room after changing a display. As I was walking past the area where we keep overstock soda one of the shelves hit the sprite. It wasnt the front of side of the shelf that hit, it was one of the hooks on back corner that holds the shelf to the wall. It puntcured the bottle and soda sprayed everywhere.

[HYHYBT]

Our Coke syrup is stored in 75-gallon tanks. You put the line to the drink fountain on the bottom, and a CO2 pressure line on the top to use it. There is an emergency relief thingy, in case the pressure somehow gets too high. Now, one winter day the tank wasn't quite empty when the delivery came, and they filled it anyway. Completely, not leaving the usual air space, trying to squeeze in the whole thing. As the syrup warmed to room temperature, it expanded... except with no air in the tank it had nowhere to go. So it popped, so to speak. As I understand it, it didn't make too big a mess, because the instant the thing popped the pressure was gone. Now, this was in no way my fault; I wasn't even there at the time, so why am I posting about it here? Because I didn't know the valve only worked once and then had to be replaced. A few days later, we needed that tank of syrup, so I hooked up the CO2 line... and got a shower of pure Coca-Cola syrup. Along with most of the stock room. Took half the night to clean that up, and as the only manager on the shift I couldn't go home and change either, though I did clean up fairly well with the sink's sprayer. Clean wet will dry, and is at least better than sticky wet

[ChanceNCinny]

This afternoon I was cleaning out the staff snack cabinet (everyone brings in something to share once a month that is indvidually wrapped and won't good bad quickly or $5, boss provides drinks) and some of the sodas dropped. Normally if that happens whoever does it leaves a note on the cans saying "dropped, open carefully". This time for some reason one of the cans opened; right around the middle almost in two. Can't figure out how that happend with a 1 foot drop but soda was everywhere. Took me about 25 mintues to clean up so not too bad but still wasn't fun.

[repsac]

I temp'd at a Freds store once. Now, this store was laid out rather strangely. I'm not sure if all the stores were like that, but this one had a series of shelves that ran along the wall. When they reached a corner, instead of more shelving, you had this box shaped protrusion that made for an "end."

Thing was, this box didn't go all the way to the ceiling, and the top was open.

I remember standing up on a shelf one day to stock sodas. I had the whole s helf FULL of two liter cokes when I noticed that way on the end there was a coke sticking out some. Without thinking I moved down there and pushed it back. This caused every soda on that rack to shift and I'm shocked to watch at least six two liter bottles fall off into the hole.

Here's the problem though: The way that wall corner was designed, anything that fell in there wasn't coming back out. Ever.

I told the manager, who just laughed it off. She said that there's no telling what all was down there, and even she wondered why they didn't cap it when they built the store.

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A few days ago, I talked to a friend who works there still. He says that the cokes are still in there, and have recently been joined by several loaves of bread, two cans of orange juice, some hot sauce, and christmas decorations.