The lights went out at the mall today. . .

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Actually, they didn't go out all over the mall, just the large Belk department store. It happened to the Hungarian, who went to Belk to buy Clinique cosmetics today. Here's how it went.

The main doors wouldn't open, so The Hungarian went around and found an operable side entrance. Once inside, only a few dim emergency lights were on, just enough to see by. At the cosmetics counter The Hungarian requested the Clinique items she wanted. The clerk had no idea how much they were (the scanner/cash register being inoperable) and had no invoice or price list to consult. She telephoned another store to get the prices--the clerk at the other store used her scanner/register to determne the prices of the items. A carbon receipt book was used to complete the transaction.

Food for thought.

-- Old Git (anon@spamproblems.com), November 22, 1999

Answers

I'm rather surprised they let anyone into the store with the elec. off. I was in a major department store at our mall years ago when the elec. went off in not only that store but one side of the mall. The very minute it went off we were standing in the dark...no emergency lights or anything. Someone in a managerial position shouted very matter of factly, "Put the items you have not purchased on the floor out of the way and IMMEDIATELY go to the mall entrance and leave the store." No ifs, ands or buts about it...noone was buying anything.

While in WalMart this past summer during an outage things were a little more cordial. There WERE dim lights following the blackout and they had the cash registers just a hummin'...guess it was on generator power or something.

beej

-- beej (beej@ppbbs.com), November 22, 1999.


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