Escalators and how not to use them

[Department stores *sigh*]

Anyone else have these problems with escalators? just to name a few fast stories....

Incident 1: Old lady decides to take cart down escalaytor. cart falls. cart is fubar. thank GOD no one is hurt. We then recieve a sign that says "please use the elevator if you have a cart or stroller" yes....people use strollers.

Incident 2: coule comes down escalator barely holding onto a cart. i ask them to use the elevator next time. they tell me to get a sign. i point out sign they passed. they glare at me as they leave.

Final incident: Mid 40's ;lady decided to take a cart up the escalator.......with child in cart....proceedes to alost kill child as the cart gets stuck on the lip at the top and my manager had to dive in and wrench the cart from the escalator. he was so mad he had to walk away couse it was so dumb.


gah......venting.....poeple.......dumb.....

[Imogene]

Forgive me, but my urge to quote Mallrats is taking over:
"That kid's on the escalator again!"

Also: "What? Like the back of a Volkswagen?"

[Crosshair]

OK, it should be legal to beat people who are that dumb, that or at least give them a full auto burst from an airsoft gun. (Those things can HURT.) How bloomin dumb can you be. They SHOULD be charged with child endangerment.

[Coconut]

I was on a mall escalator a few weeks ago. I am standing behind an unknown woman. We are getting to the bottom floor and the woman slides off the escalator, but she STOPS right in front of me, right at the bottom of the escalator. Thank God I happened to be looking at her and not off somewhere, because I could have ran straight into her. I darted out of the way just in time.

[Becks]

If these people can't handle being on a escalator, I'd hate to seem them try to handle winding stairs.

[thegiraffe]

A small aside to this thread (though it does fit...)

We were at a Target in Boca Raton (I think it was actually in Deerfield Beach, but close enough). Anyhow, it was a 2-story Target. Nifty. They had a cart escalator. Neatest thing EVER. You push the cart through the doors and a little track thing comes through and grabs the front of it and it's like on a wedge so it stays level, then you take the escalator next to the cart. There are plexiglass panels to keep idiots from trying to reach into the carts while it's on the escalator, and employees watch to make sure no whack-job leaves their kid in the cart.

We went up and down a few times with it. We were thoroughly amused.

[BunnyJas]

How the heck- oh nevermind. Just when I thought people couldn't get any dumber.....

[Reyneth]

A small aside to this thread (though it does fit...)

We were at a Target in Boca Raton (I think it was actually in Deerfield Beach, but close enough). Anyhow, it was a 2-story Target. Nifty. They had a cart escalator. Neatest thing EVER. You push the cart through the doors and a little track thing comes through and grabs the front of it and it's like on a wedge so it stays level, then you take the escalator next to the cart. There are plexiglass panels to keep idiots from trying to reach into the carts while it's on the escalator, and employees watch to make sure no whack-job leaves their kid in the cart.

We went up and down a few times with it. We were thoroughly amused.

A Target by me (Cleveland, OH) has one of those too - it took me a 2nd trip to the store to figure out how it worked, and to actually use it. But wouldn't you know - there's a sign, warning customers not to leave children in the cart while using the escalator. So in all likelyhood, someone HAS in the past!

[Bliss]

A local commerce has a cart-friendly "escalator" basically imagine a flat escalator, it's like the moving walkways you guys have in some of your airports, but the moving belt is made of metal and it joins two levels like an escalator... basically the carts have special wheels, instead of a full wheel it has two metal circles, with a non-moving rubber axis in the middle, when you put it in the escalator the circles fall into the belt's holes makign the rubber rub against the rises, securing the cart.

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

A small aside to this thread (though it does fit...)

We were at a Target in Boca Raton (I think it was actually in Deerfield Beach, but close enough). Anyhow, it was a 2-story Target. Nifty. They had a cart escalator. Neatest thing EVER. You push the cart through the doors and a little track thing comes through and grabs the front of it and it's like on a wedge so it stays level, then you take the escalator next to the cart. There are plexiglass panels to keep idiots from trying to reach into the carts while it's on the escalator, and employees watch to make sure no whack-job leaves their kid in the cart.

We went up and down a few times with it. We were thoroughly amused.

There's one like that in downtown Minneapolis as well.

It's pretty neat.

Of course, people might get used to those things and then assume a regular escalator works just like that.

[rdp78]

I think I've seen a few people using strollers on those things and yeah I was like when I saw them but nothing happen. I don't think I have seen anyone use a cart on them but maybe years ago.

Anyway when my family went to Hanes Mall (Winston-Salem, NC)this past Saturday and when we got there there was crowd of people at the up escalator near one of the mall entrances (it's the one below across the food court). We figure someone fell and it was elderly lady on the floor so figure out it was her. There was a elevator nearby so we took that and as we were going up we found from one the mall security folk (or EMT person) what happen. From what I understand she must have slipped trying to get on it.

I tell you I hate using them I really do and I try to avoid unless I have to use them (I much prefer using stairs). If I have to use one I usually take my time getting on them and off as well. Anyway when I was little I was afaird of using them and refuse to go on them until well, I don't even know how I old I stop being afaird of them. I don't even know when that phobia started but it had to be oh, I don't know maybe five (my parents would remember) but I think it was before I started elementary but maybe when I started. I also think this has to be a common phobia among little kids because one time when I was at a local dept. store I saw a young mother trying to get her little boy to go on them and he was crying (I think) as they were going on the down one. I could tell he was afaird going on and boy did that remind of me when I was little.

[Seanette]

A small aside to this thread (though it does fit...)

We were at a Target in Boca Raton (I think it was actually in Deerfield Beach, but close enough). Anyhow, it was a 2-story Target. Nifty. They had a cart escalator. Neatest thing EVER. You push the cart through the doors and a little track thing comes through and grabs the front of it and it's like on a wedge so it stays level, then you take the escalator next to the cart. There are plexiglass panels to keep idiots from trying to reach into the carts while it's on the escalator, and employees watch to make sure no whack-job leaves their kid in the cart.

We went up and down a few times with it. We were thoroughly amused.

One of the WalMarts here in Sacramento has this feature. I like it myself.

My husband managed to jam it once. (sigh)

[BusBus]

The Ikea by my place has a similar moving sidewalk for their carts. The last thing you'd want to do is lose your cart full of Ikea things down a slope to the parking lot.

Anyways, when I was in a mall once with my sister. We went on an up-escalator, sister first. As we are approaching the top, my sister suddenly jumps up and tries to keep from moving forward. Turns out the lady in front of her brought her pram on the escalator and it got stuck. With a little maneuvering and pushing, the three of us got it unstuck. But geez, not smrt.

[Crawley]

For the folks (like me) who have never seen a cart escalator...

[JustaCashier]

I used to ride escalators frequently when I worked Downtown in the parking biz, and would wander through Department Stores, or multi-level malls on my lunch break. I would always allow at least two steps between me and the person ahead, especially if the person was old. My biggest pet peeve was people that would stand on the escalator landing, or barely off it, deciding which way they wanted to go (usually the old ones). Many times I had visions of being an unwilling participant in a demonstration of the Domino Theory.

Another escalator related story: Many years ago when my friends' daughter was little, they had to coax her to get on an escalator one time, because they had recently watched a Simpsons episode with an Itchy and Scratchy Cartoon where Scratchy gets skinned by being caught in an escalator.