I'm not sure this is the right place for it. I had typed this up for the power outage thread before this latest hack.
Y'all are lucky you get to go home when the power goes out. We have generators that kick in within 2 seconds. They power the registers and perimeter lights for a good long while (longest I've ever seen the power out was 2 hours - not counting hurricanes since the store was closed anyway). The registers are old, so they don't always appreciate the power disruption. They'll lock up and lose an order now and again during the switch, but overall, we're still in business.
Get this though. Of all things the generator DOESN'T cover, it's the coolers and freezers. I work in a grocery store. Most of our stock (expensive stuff, that is), is kept in a cooler or freezer. The walk-in ones that seal will stay cold for a lil, but the open-faced ones warm up VERY fast. After 15 mins of no power (that's usually all it's out for), we all team up and take giant sheets of cardboard - which are just broken down boxes- and tape them in front of the open-faced coolers and freezers to try to save as much product as possible. Then we write "SEALED - DO NOT OPEN WITHOUT MANAGEMENT". Works most of the time, but the customers get PO'd. We live in central Florida - lightning capital of the world. They're just gonna have to get used to it.
I'm sure many of you are familiar with Hurricane Charley of 2 years ago. Friday, August 13, 2004. Holy freaking crap. I worked that day - that's when I was in the bakery. We made everything we had, and sold most of it. Living near Orlando, we thought we were in the clear and were planning on closing the store around 5-ish. So much for that. At 230, the storm turned, and we made a last-minute decision to close the store at 300. We made an announcement, and that's when mayhem broke loose. The departments immediately closed down (deli, bakery, meat/seafood, pharmacy, and produce) so we could cover all our machines (with trash bags, of all things). I know that I left around 315 when the skies were turning BLACK and the rain started coming down, and there were STILL customers in the store. They were herding them out and through the registers. I prolly should have stayed b/c I'm also a cashier, but....I didn't. Oh well. Anyhow, I left for school 2 days after Charley hit, but the entire stock crew (my brother's on it) had to clean out ALL the dairy and frozen coolers and displays, and dump them in the compactor. The day after the storm, they had tape all across the displays, and idiots would STILL try to buy it! It's like they were under a rock the night before and didn't realize that we had a category 2 hurricane (sustained winds of 115-120 in my area), and the power was knocked out for 10-12 hours. Duh! It's bad! Grr...idiot customers want this or that SO bad, but then they complain when it's bad.
So those are my power/hurricane/idiot customer stories
Y'all are lucky you get to go home when the power goes out. We have generators that kick in within 2 seconds. They power the registers and perimeter lights for a good long while (longest I've ever seen the power out was 2 hours - not counting hurricanes since the store was closed anyway). The registers are old, so they don't always appreciate the power disruption. They'll lock up and lose an order now and again during the switch, but overall, we're still in business.
Get this though. Of all things the generator DOESN'T cover, it's the coolers and freezers. I work in a grocery store. Most of our stock (expensive stuff, that is), is kept in a cooler or freezer. The walk-in ones that seal will stay cold for a lil, but the open-faced ones warm up VERY fast. After 15 mins of no power (that's usually all it's out for), we all team up and take giant sheets of cardboard - which are just broken down boxes- and tape them in front of the open-faced coolers and freezers to try to save as much product as possible. Then we write "SEALED - DO NOT OPEN WITHOUT MANAGEMENT". Works most of the time, but the customers get PO'd. We live in central Florida - lightning capital of the world. They're just gonna have to get used to it.
I'm sure many of you are familiar with Hurricane Charley of 2 years ago. Friday, August 13, 2004. Holy freaking crap. I worked that day - that's when I was in the bakery. We made everything we had, and sold most of it. Living near Orlando, we thought we were in the clear and were planning on closing the store around 5-ish. So much for that. At 230, the storm turned, and we made a last-minute decision to close the store at 300. We made an announcement, and that's when mayhem broke loose. The departments immediately closed down (deli, bakery, meat/seafood, pharmacy, and produce) so we could cover all our machines (with trash bags, of all things). I know that I left around 315 when the skies were turning BLACK and the rain started coming down, and there were STILL customers in the store. They were herding them out and through the registers. I prolly should have stayed b/c I'm also a cashier, but....I didn't. Oh well. Anyhow, I left for school 2 days after Charley hit, but the entire stock crew (my brother's on it) had to clean out ALL the dairy and frozen coolers and displays, and dump them in the compactor. The day after the storm, they had tape all across the displays, and idiots would STILL try to buy it! It's like they were under a rock the night before and didn't realize that we had a category 2 hurricane (sustained winds of 115-120 in my area), and the power was knocked out for 10-12 hours. Duh! It's bad! Grr...idiot customers want this or that SO bad, but then they complain when it's bad.
So those are my power/hurricane/idiot customer stories

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