When I think about the things I have been forced to clean up at this company, the first things that come to mind are vomit worthy material, but then i think of this not so little situation. It took three people almost three hours to clean up. During a normal shift there will be someone at the front register, a photo tech, a cosmetician and the on duty manager. Four people...
If this had happened during a night shift, we would have been screwed. Fortunately it was during the day shift during the week so we happened to have more people. There were two managers on duty (the SM and an AM) and our inventory control/3rd key was working that day. I was working the 8-4 shift. It was around 11:30 and i had just finished the task I was on (I forget what i was working on, this was a few years ago.) I was on my way back to the photo lab to see if there were any orders that needed to be printed when I hear *crash**crash**crash**crash**crash**crash*
It came from the photo corner. I stepped up my pace and rushed over there to see what happened. I smelled it before I saw the small lake that had overtaken the photo corner. Alcohol. White wine. A shelf had come down and SIX GALLONS hit the floor.
The noise caught the attention of everyone in the store. Seconds after I arrived so did both managers, the 3rd key, the cosmetician and even the Pharmacist. I turned to the front cashier and asked what happened?! She turns to me and says that a child had been bouncing one of the large bouncy balls and it had hit the shelf with wine on it. Now, these things are probably 2 feet in diameter, and easily capable of causing some damage. The shelf was at least 5 feet in the air and the impact had spread glass easily outside the lake of alcohol. And where was this child and the parent who was supposed to be accompanying him? As soon as the wine started to fall, the mother grabs her son by the arm and hauls ass...
I audibly sighed and simply said "I'll go get the spill magic..." Spill magic is this super absorbent white powder used to clean up spills. We only had 3/4 of a box left. It just was not going to be enough. I started spreading the spill magic at the edges of the mess to stop it from spreading further. The 3rd key came back with a broom and started sweeping the glass that was not surrounded by alcohol. The AM started at it with a mop and bucket. After the 3rd key swept up the dry glass, he got paper towel. When we started lunch breaks the SM even jumped in and helped, so we had three people working on it almost constantly. We didn't finish until 2:20. We only had 2 returns that whole time. In many ways this could have been worse. This is the largest mess i have ever had to deal with. And thus ended The Great Cleanup.
P.S. I was a bit light-headed by the end of this, not exactly tipsy.
If this had happened during a night shift, we would have been screwed. Fortunately it was during the day shift during the week so we happened to have more people. There were two managers on duty (the SM and an AM) and our inventory control/3rd key was working that day. I was working the 8-4 shift. It was around 11:30 and i had just finished the task I was on (I forget what i was working on, this was a few years ago.) I was on my way back to the photo lab to see if there were any orders that needed to be printed when I hear *crash**crash**crash**crash**crash**crash*
It came from the photo corner. I stepped up my pace and rushed over there to see what happened. I smelled it before I saw the small lake that had overtaken the photo corner. Alcohol. White wine. A shelf had come down and SIX GALLONS hit the floor.
The noise caught the attention of everyone in the store. Seconds after I arrived so did both managers, the 3rd key, the cosmetician and even the Pharmacist. I turned to the front cashier and asked what happened?! She turns to me and says that a child had been bouncing one of the large bouncy balls and it had hit the shelf with wine on it. Now, these things are probably 2 feet in diameter, and easily capable of causing some damage. The shelf was at least 5 feet in the air and the impact had spread glass easily outside the lake of alcohol. And where was this child and the parent who was supposed to be accompanying him? As soon as the wine started to fall, the mother grabs her son by the arm and hauls ass...
I audibly sighed and simply said "I'll go get the spill magic..." Spill magic is this super absorbent white powder used to clean up spills. We only had 3/4 of a box left. It just was not going to be enough. I started spreading the spill magic at the edges of the mess to stop it from spreading further. The 3rd key came back with a broom and started sweeping the glass that was not surrounded by alcohol. The AM started at it with a mop and bucket. After the 3rd key swept up the dry glass, he got paper towel. When we started lunch breaks the SM even jumped in and helped, so we had three people working on it almost constantly. We didn't finish until 2:20. We only had 2 returns that whole time. In many ways this could have been worse. This is the largest mess i have ever had to deal with. And thus ended The Great Cleanup.
P.S. I was a bit light-headed by the end of this, not exactly tipsy.
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