Every Store Has Its “Incident”

On the walkie, a call goes out for two workers to take an item out to a car. We get to the front of the store ready to take it out, but the customer stops us.

Customer: “I’m sorry, but the car isn’t here yet. My sons will pull right up in front of the doors so you can load it there.”

Me: “Actually, we cannot load anything in front of the doors due to it being a fire lane. We’ll take it to wherever they’ll park.”

The woman does not like this and proceeds to throw a fit the entire time we wait for her sons. Finally, she asks for a manager.

Customer: “This is ridiculous! I don’t even know where the car will be parked. Every other store lets us load at the front of the store!”

Manager: “I’m sorry, but we have to take it to where the car is parked. Other stores may allow you, but this is our policy.”

Customer: “And why is that?! You’re all the same store, just different locations!”

Manager: “There was an incident here.”

After that ominous message, the customer leaves, and eventually, the sons park the car and we take the item out. The entire time, she’s swearing that she’ll never shop here again and that she organizes the local toys for tots and they won’t use our store ever again, either — a total lie.

After dealing with the woman, my coworker asks me a question.

Coworker: “What did [Manager] mean by ‘There was an incident’?”

Me: “Oh, you didn’t get this during orientation? A worker was unloading something and a car pulled up behind. They forgot to put the car in park, went to get out, realized the car was moving, and slammed on the gas instead of the brakes. They pinned the worker, and they had to be life flighted. That’s why our store is the only one with that rule — because we’re the only one that had something happen.”

Coworker: “No… we were not told that in orientation! We were just told about the fire lane!”

Me: “Well, now you know and be extra careful just in case!”