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Ugh, this day just didn't get off to a great start...
So it was my "on" day with Rear Door LP at the wholesale club. Every other Saturday, I come in at 5am, scan in some vendors' stock at the DSD door, break down a pallet (or two) of some mixed-stock, checking which ones need EAS tags attached, which ones go in the lock-up cage, etc.
As per usual, I didn't get quite as much sleep as I needed. I've learned to get around this by drinking some Monster energy drink, and periodically munching on a piece of jerky for some protein. So I managed to stumble through the morning. I did briefly screw up as our first vendors arrived. One of the major deliveries is a truckload of 'Lito-Fray' brand chips, which can take a while to scan in, depending on how much there is.
As it happened, one of our bread vendors arrived as the Lito-Fray guys were unloading their truck, and asked if I could scan him in quickly before I started on them. I said sure, and Bread Guy goes to unload his truck. Unfortunately, because I was only semi-functional, I went on auto-pilot as the first part of the Lito-Fray order was brought up to scan, and started doing so.
The way the DSD system is set up at the store, once I start on a ticket, I can't back out. (It's possible I could, but I don't know the procedure for it, and knew enough to not try to fudge around with it and possibly screw up the computer.) When Bread Guy came in to find I'd already started on the L-F order, he was pissed. He cursed a bit, snapped, "I don't have time for this!" and threw his load back in his truck (not literally) and drove off.
I felt bad, but just went back to work. I knew that Bread Guy would come back, and I could apologize then. That's exactly what happened, too, as about an hour or so later, he comes back, and immediately accepts my apology and explanation (my being tired) and we go about our routine without mentioning it again.
The real suck of the day would come later.
Nine-a.m., we open up the club. I'm up at Front Door LP now. The day proceeds more or less normally. Then, about half an hour after we open, I notice the lights flicker slightly. I wasn't sure if it was real, or I was seeing things (not enough sleep, remember), and then I hear the FLS on the radio: "(MOD), we just lost power."
Uh oh.
There's another flicker, and then the air-curtain at the front door (used for keeping birds and flying bugs out of the store) shuts off. So do about half of our demo TVs in electronics, and the TV hooked up to the demo Blu-Ray player loses picture. (Sound still works fine.) But many parts of the store have lost power:
* Food court. No power to the soda fountain, pizza oven, hot dog cooker, popcorn machine, warming lights, register, nothing.
* Gas station. No power to pump the gas, or ring up the transaction.
* Tire bay. No lights, no power to their tools or propane pump.
* Refrigeration. Our dairy cooler and freezer are no longer producing more cold. Management quickly acts and uses rope to tie the doors shut (to keep what cold air was still in the freezers and coolers in there), and prints up some signs (the GM office computer and printer are still working) to hang in that area to explain the situation. Because of this, we didn't lose any of our perishable stock. (Except seafood, which was quickly pulled.)
* Air conditioning. This was the worst for us employees, since the club gets pretty warm during the day in the summertime.
Now, I was fortunate, in that the outlet by the front door into which a portable fan is plugged was still working, so HA! I had a fan! That was better than nothing. I shut off the Blu-Ray demo player, since audio with no picture isn't much fun.
I had to field a lot of questions from customers ("How come ya'll's gas station is closed?" "We lost power out there. Pumps aren't working."), but thankfully every single one of them accepted that answer. I offered no timetable on a resolution to this ("We'll have power back when we get power back") nor a definitive answer on the cause of the power failure.
We didn't have an answer at that time, either. We knew that it was only affecting us. Our neighbors (Wally World and Tarjhey) had power. That ruled out a brownout. I guessed some kind of power surge, while the GM suspected a blown transformer.
Right around 11am, suddenly the rest of the lights in the club go out. What illumination there is is provided by the emergency lights and the sun from the skylights. A quick radio check confirms that the registers are still up, albeit on back-up power. As a result, I start informing everyone that enters the club "We've just lost power. Our registers are working for the moment, but we can't guarantee they'll stay that way." Most customers chose to continue shopping anyway, and I hadn't been given the word to turn people away.
Fortunately, that's when my coworker Little Miss Panicky took over for FDLP duty so I could take my long-awaited break. Despite my moniker for her, she handled the situation well, while I went next door to get food from the Way of Subs, buy some bottled water, and (after eating my lunch) use their bathroom.
By the time I went back to the wholesale club around 12pm noon, the power had been restored! ...to the club, at least. Gas station was still not up and running. The rest of the shift went without incident (the occasional "why's ya'll's gas station not open?" notwithstanding) until Hoss came in to relieve me.
Ugh. A pox on the deity of technological gremlins!
So it was my "on" day with Rear Door LP at the wholesale club. Every other Saturday, I come in at 5am, scan in some vendors' stock at the DSD door, break down a pallet (or two) of some mixed-stock, checking which ones need EAS tags attached, which ones go in the lock-up cage, etc.
As per usual, I didn't get quite as much sleep as I needed. I've learned to get around this by drinking some Monster energy drink, and periodically munching on a piece of jerky for some protein. So I managed to stumble through the morning. I did briefly screw up as our first vendors arrived. One of the major deliveries is a truckload of 'Lito-Fray' brand chips, which can take a while to scan in, depending on how much there is.
As it happened, one of our bread vendors arrived as the Lito-Fray guys were unloading their truck, and asked if I could scan him in quickly before I started on them. I said sure, and Bread Guy goes to unload his truck. Unfortunately, because I was only semi-functional, I went on auto-pilot as the first part of the Lito-Fray order was brought up to scan, and started doing so.
The way the DSD system is set up at the store, once I start on a ticket, I can't back out. (It's possible I could, but I don't know the procedure for it, and knew enough to not try to fudge around with it and possibly screw up the computer.) When Bread Guy came in to find I'd already started on the L-F order, he was pissed. He cursed a bit, snapped, "I don't have time for this!" and threw his load back in his truck (not literally) and drove off.
I felt bad, but just went back to work. I knew that Bread Guy would come back, and I could apologize then. That's exactly what happened, too, as about an hour or so later, he comes back, and immediately accepts my apology and explanation (my being tired) and we go about our routine without mentioning it again.
The real suck of the day would come later.
Nine-a.m., we open up the club. I'm up at Front Door LP now. The day proceeds more or less normally. Then, about half an hour after we open, I notice the lights flicker slightly. I wasn't sure if it was real, or I was seeing things (not enough sleep, remember), and then I hear the FLS on the radio: "(MOD), we just lost power."
Uh oh.
There's another flicker, and then the air-curtain at the front door (used for keeping birds and flying bugs out of the store) shuts off. So do about half of our demo TVs in electronics, and the TV hooked up to the demo Blu-Ray player loses picture. (Sound still works fine.) But many parts of the store have lost power:
* Food court. No power to the soda fountain, pizza oven, hot dog cooker, popcorn machine, warming lights, register, nothing.
* Gas station. No power to pump the gas, or ring up the transaction.
* Tire bay. No lights, no power to their tools or propane pump.
* Refrigeration. Our dairy cooler and freezer are no longer producing more cold. Management quickly acts and uses rope to tie the doors shut (to keep what cold air was still in the freezers and coolers in there), and prints up some signs (the GM office computer and printer are still working) to hang in that area to explain the situation. Because of this, we didn't lose any of our perishable stock. (Except seafood, which was quickly pulled.)
* Air conditioning. This was the worst for us employees, since the club gets pretty warm during the day in the summertime.
Now, I was fortunate, in that the outlet by the front door into which a portable fan is plugged was still working, so HA! I had a fan! That was better than nothing. I shut off the Blu-Ray demo player, since audio with no picture isn't much fun.
I had to field a lot of questions from customers ("How come ya'll's gas station is closed?" "We lost power out there. Pumps aren't working."), but thankfully every single one of them accepted that answer. I offered no timetable on a resolution to this ("We'll have power back when we get power back") nor a definitive answer on the cause of the power failure.
We didn't have an answer at that time, either. We knew that it was only affecting us. Our neighbors (Wally World and Tarjhey) had power. That ruled out a brownout. I guessed some kind of power surge, while the GM suspected a blown transformer.
Right around 11am, suddenly the rest of the lights in the club go out. What illumination there is is provided by the emergency lights and the sun from the skylights. A quick radio check confirms that the registers are still up, albeit on back-up power. As a result, I start informing everyone that enters the club "We've just lost power. Our registers are working for the moment, but we can't guarantee they'll stay that way." Most customers chose to continue shopping anyway, and I hadn't been given the word to turn people away.
Fortunately, that's when my coworker Little Miss Panicky took over for FDLP duty so I could take my long-awaited break. Despite my moniker for her, she handled the situation well, while I went next door to get food from the Way of Subs, buy some bottled water, and (after eating my lunch) use their bathroom.
By the time I went back to the wholesale club around 12pm noon, the power had been restored! ...to the club, at least. Gas station was still not up and running. The rest of the shift went without incident (the occasional "why's ya'll's gas station not open?" notwithstanding) until Hoss came in to relieve me.
Ugh. A pox on the deity of technological gremlins!
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