Retail Versus Teenage Sleep Cycles

The furniture displays in my store are on platforms positioned in each of the four corners. Their very existence drives everyone crazy because — despite the large signs telling customers that they must not go on the platforms for safety reasons — it seems like at least once a day we’re chasing away someone who has decided to climb up there. It’s a big store, so sometimes it takes a while for us to catch someone.

I arrive for my evening shift; I’m a supervisor. The display platform nearest our employee rooms happens to currently be depicting bedroom furniture, and I feel like I’m constantly checking the pillows on the bed to make sure they haven’t been messed up. Usually, they have.

Today, however, they’re not only messed up but they’re arranged in a pile over someone’s head — a fact I only realize when it dawns on me that I’m seeing a pair of sneakers sticking off of one side of the bed. Someone is lying face-down on the mattress with pillows over her head.

Me: “Excuse me.”

The individual, a teenage girl, doesn’t move. I reach out and pat her sneaker a few times, which makes her jolt.

Me: “Miss, you can’t be on the display!”

Girl: “I’m sorry… I was just trying to sleep.”

Me: *Blinking* “Well, you can’t do that! See the sign? Please get off!”

She scuttled away, looking embarrassed. Honestly, people, if you’re that tired, then don’t come out shopping!