I hear a woman shouting “help!” from the middle of the store. I rush over and see her standing between floors in the middle of an escalator. The escalator has stopped.
Me: “Are you okay, ma’am? Did you fall when the escalator stopped?”
Customer: “No, but now I’m stuck!”
I climb halfway up the escalator, expecting to see a shoelace or something wedged into the mechanism, but… nothing. She’s just standing there like normal.
Me: “What’s stuck, ma’am?”
Customer: “I am! The stairs stopped! How am I supposed to get down?”
Me: “Do you have any mobility issues?”
Customer: “No!”
Me: “Then you could just… walk the rest of the way down?”
Customer: “I don’t understand.”
Me: “Just walk the rest of the way down the stairs, ma’am.”
Customer: *Blank stare.*
Me: “You see how I walked up the escalator to get to you?”
Customer: “Yeah?”
I turn around and walk the rest of the way down the stairs.
Me: “Just do that.”
Customer: “I don’t understand.”
Me: “Okay, so the escalators were moving stairs… and they are now just… stairs. Use them as you’d use any normal staircase.”
Customer: *Slowly places one foot a step down, followed by the other.* “Oh, wow! I didn’t know you could do that!”
She cautiously takes another step.
Customer: “Oh my god! This changes everything!”
She walks the rest of the way down, smiling like crazy. She almost looked disappointed when she turned to the other escalator to get down to the first floor, and it was… working.
Related:
This Story Just Escalates And Escalates
