Work yesterday was moderately interesting at least early in the morning. The store manager is on vacation so the annual fire drill fell onto the shoulders of the assistant manager, and one could tell she wasn’t terribly comfortable in the role. On the day before, word passed down that there was going to be a drill, but not necessarily when. Some thought it was going to be early in the morning, others reported that it might be in the afternoon. Eventually the rumors coalesced, and it was confirmed to be eight the following morning.
As it approached 8 am, finally the ASM announced that ‘in a few minutes we’re going to be instituting a fire drill in the store. Please leave your shopping carts and exit the building through the nearest exit. Employees please exit the building and assemble at the rally point’ and almost immediately she activated the fire alarm. Classy. For the next few minutes, the store was evacuated. Employees left the building via either emergency exits; the back receiving door or the main entrance/exits. And then the hilarity ensued.
A few minutes after we gathered at the far side of the parking lot, a local police cruiser arrived at the store. He prowled around the parking lot, didn’t stop at all, and then continued his circuit around the lot and finally paused before exiting again. Whether it was a pre-planned or scheduled visit no one knew, he never stopped or asked questions or anything. Didn’t even return the wave I gave him as he passed by. Cheeky.
A couple of minutes after he left, we heard a siren coming from up the street and a large pickup truck entered the parking lot with red and white lights flashing, sped up until he got to the entrance of the store. He ran over to us and exclaimed “Where’s the fire?“ Um, no fire here dude, we’re having a fire drill.
Apparently, no one from management let either 911 or emergency services know that the store was having a drill. Someone saw people streaming out of the store and reported it. The chief was a little exasperated, said that he had 2 trucks on the way and had to stop them from arriving. Nurtz. I would have liked to see some fire trucks but can understand the necessity of not having them arriving on a false alarm.
Fortunately, that was almost the limit of the escapades for the day. Except that about 45 minutes later the store fire alarm went off again and instead of leaving the store en masse, we sort of looked at one another and wondered what to do. Seeing as it was probably a false alarm, we stayed put and waited for some sort of announcement over the intercom, but none came, and moments later the alarm shut off. But I guess you could suggest that the drill didn’t really do its job, since when another alarm happened, no one seemed to know what to do. So, mission accomplished?
I expect there will be some sort of message handed down when the store manager returns. Or not. The store does seem to have a strange way of doing things. Just another day in retail.