What is it about thunderstorms that makes customers go looney (moreso than usual)?

[dbblsanta]

Everytime we get thunderstorms or heavy rain we know we're in for extra hassle. I work at a discount supermarket (only during the summer when I'm out of school -- which is why I haven't posted in a while) where we have a long ledge set out in front of the window for customers to bag their groceries after they've checked out. About 1/2 the customers bag their groceries at their car, but understandably when it rains they all do it inside so the front end gets rather hectic.

BUT when they are done bagging their groceries, they all go to the tiny little enclosed foyer area in front of the exit doors (there are two sets of automatic doors, so this small space in-between them) AND BLOCK THE ONLY EXIT TO THE STORE with their huge carriages! They want to wait out the storm, and until we tell them they have to leave they will not leave until the last drop of rain has fallen from the sky.

What's even more frustrating is that we see a lot of couples doing this. Hmm why doesn't one drive the car up to the curb?

Regardless if you get wet you get wet. A little rain never killed anybody... and it's a lot better than everyone dying should there be a fire.

[EricKei]

Of course, if there WAS a fire, people's lives would be endangered by the fact that they're blocking the exit. You just can't win sometimes >_<

Hell, TELL them that they're a fire hazard/it's illegal to block and see if it actually gets them to move.

[LillFilly]

Similar thing where I work, except all the cars line-up in the firelane outside the stores; sometimes 20 cars at a time! So you get cars pulling-in, pulling-out, kids darting from between the cars, cars pulling-out without looking and almost hitting people running through the crosswalk without looking. Part of my job is to move people out of the firelane, but when it's raining I just can't keep-up!

[Automan Empire]

Oh yeah... I can just IMAGINE explaining to SCs the fire danger risk when they're inches from pouring rain.

Of course, the more obvious fact that you're IN THE WAY, IN THE ONLY DOOR IN AND OUT OF THE PLACE doesn't faze them, either. I suggest cattle prods.

[BookstoreEscapee]

That happened once when my mom and I were at Sam's. It was absolutely pouring and everyone was in the vestibule. We couldn't get out if we wanted to for several minutes. On the up side, they were closing so there wasn't anyone trying to get in, but still.... There were several people waiting for whoever they were with to run and bring the car up (including one woman with a small baby whose husband went to get the car) so I couldn't really say much. Not that I wanted to go out there, either, but when we were finally able to get out the door, my mom and I just ran for the car.

[Jay 2K Winger]

I see this all the time at the wholesale club. Now, most of the rainstorms we get are moderate enough that it's not a problem in, say, the summertime, as all the bay doors in the vestibule are opened (or most of them), thus giving people an option.

When the weather turns REALLY nasty (like when the clouds turn GREEN before the storm arrives), we pull those bay doors down because the wind is going to be strong enough to blow the rain INTO the store, and we don't want that.

If I'm on the door in these situations, and things start piling up, I'll step outside long enough to tell people, "Please leave a path for people to exit, please! Don't block the exits!" And people are actually decent enough to do so.

One winter, though, we had a problem. The automatic doors at one end of the vestibule were broken, and we had blocked off that side of the vestibule, even stacked some wooden pallets in front of the door and put a yellow "caution" ribbon across the way. So the only exit at this time (near closing time) was at the far end of the vestibule, at the bay door. It was snowing that night. And someone had parked their van up on the sidewalk, laterally in front of the bay door, to load their groceries and things, having the side effect of blocking everyone else inside.

I only found out about it because someone told me. (I can't see that part of the vestibule from my station at the door.) By the time I got outside to tell them to move their van, they'd already finished up and were getting in to leave. I settled for giving them a withering glare, which they seemed to accept as a "whoops, we did a bad thing."

[mikoyan29]

The thing I hate about rainstorms is going into the stores and not watching people stop for people crossing the street between the lot and the store. Fuckers, at least you're all nice and dry.

[mattm04]

I got to shoo people out of the vestibule a few days ago. Ours are not huge maybe 25ft X 25ft or so i a "L" shaped exit patten so it is not hard to clog up. It was impossible at one point to even walk outside.

I eventually got them to move out of the area but they just blocked the doors either under the covered sidewalk or inside the store.

And if anyone has experienced a evacuation do to a fire or other emergency you will sadly notice that SC will most likley push their cart right up to the door and abandoned them in front of or next to the exit forcing employees to stand near the exits and grab the carts and send them down a empty aisle.