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Post Info TOPIC: Customers coming in during power outages
Anonymous

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Customers coming in during power outages
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Why do customers still come in to shop during power outages? We had one a few days ago and people were still streaming in despite the fact that we hadn't had power for 4 hours and we told them so. In the deli department they had a tarp over the pre-sliced meats to keep the cold in and the employees were told not to remove or touch it, yet some customer grabs it and started yanking it off. I told him he couldn't do that and he got cranky, but left it alone.

Eventually they put employees near the doors to discourage people from walking out with stuff without paying (no cash registers open) but I don't think they should have let them in to begin with.



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Haha, So your store was still open without any way for customers to pay? Our register operate off the emergency generator +ECR.

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Anonymous

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EUID_Unknown wrote:

Haha, So your store was still open without any way for customers to pay? Our register operate off the emergency generator +ECR.


 Ours do too but most of the lights won't work, so it's pitch dark inside. Older store. When ours goes off, if the store's open, we lock doors immediately. Hard to prevent shoplifting, but can prevent more potential shoplifters from entering. A few months ago I did our grocery order in the dark due to a city outage that lasted around 20 minutes due to utility work.



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Bakerchick25

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Anonymous wrote:

Why do customers still come in to shop during power outages? We had one a few days ago and people were still streaming in despite the fact that we hadn't had power for 4 hours and we told them so. In the deli department they had a tarp over the pre-sliced meats to keep the cold in and the employees were told not to remove or touch it, yet some customer grabs it and started yanking it off. I told him he couldn't do that and he got cranky, but left it alone.

Eventually they put employees near the doors to discourage people from walking out with stuff without paying (no cash registers open) but I don't think they should have let them in to begin with.


 YES!!!! I hate when they let customers still come in and shop. We've had a few power outages at my store as well. I mean not much can be done for those that are already IN the store really. But those that are still in there have no brains either at times!. Cause I swear without fail they are forever trying to come up to the counter and demand you slice them something!

We can't do that as they don't even want us to open anything to get it out and we damn sure have nothing to slice it on. And some people get so pissed, like "You sure you just can't do X,Y, or Z?" And that is when the managers have to go around and let them know as they clearly don't believe the clerks. That no we CAN NOT, just cut or scoop you up anything. Heck it was so bad for this one female customer, as she got so up in her feelings about it. Was all like "Well I would have had to wait 2 hours anyway" and just storms off. Again that can't really be helped when you opt to shop on some of the busiest days of the damn week in the first place.

But thankfully they got to working on things and got our power back up. But good grief, you really see the nasty side of customers when they can't get things exactly when they want them. Good grief.



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Out by me, I kinda hate the way our store was remodeled as they did not include a UPS for each register like our old system had so registers were out while we had waited for an electrician, ECR was half on backup / half offline as our entire phone / wifi system was down and paging was out, obviously someone's wonderful idea of having CallManager on an online system or the onsite 6000 or 7000 controller went offline, and when it went, it took everything with it, except when power was on, that stupid "top of the hour" and ads messages, but noooooo no phone system, ****ing horrible design that makes me as an IT disgusted with Krog as I honestly felt like wringing someone's neck because of their freaking incompetence in IT business practices. Horrible Disaster Recovery planning and contingency if you ask me. Store Director was not happy in the slightest. Most of our areas were completely dark vs our old setup, we had emergency lighting lights that were an auto-fail over / standby type that provided a bit of light so you were not completely in the dark if main power went out. Krog honestly ****ed it up big time, even our Pharmacy lights were flickering and glitching terribly like a light show. Center store and refrigeration came back up smoothly though when the strip we were on had been restored. But honestly, it's a lot less stable now that Krog moved in and just seems to be getting better by the day (sarcasm)

No customers allowed in during a failure, so we didn't have to worry about that as we had doors manned. You want out, sure by all means, coming in, nope not a chance until the Lead MOD / Store Director says otherwise. 



-- Edited by UC151 on Monday 15th of January 2018 08:04:39 PM

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The last store I worked in before my current one, was a really old building that as I found out, was prone to losing power almost every time the wind blew.

The big power outage we had back in the summer knocked us out for almost a whole day and as soon as the power went out, the registers went down so we got all the customers out the door and locked up. We turned people away and i'm sure they were pissed but what could we do? by midnight the power was still out and those of us who stuck it out finally left. Saving as much deli meat as possible by putting it on a reefer truck at 11:30 at night was....interesting to say the least.

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Anonymous

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We usually only lose power during summer monsoons.  There's usually not too many customers since the weather scares them away.

A couple years back during a heat wave, a drunk hit a transformer and knocked out power for at least the whole block.  We had lots of customers coming in to buy ice, ice cream, or to try to cool down since they didn't have AC.

Our registers run, but the whole store is on limited power.  The lights dim, the music is shut off, and we lose AC too.  Sometimes the conveyor belts on the registers slow down or die completely.  The UPS for the SCO podium is set up wrong or worn out, so it dies and effectively disables SCO.



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Anonymous

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4hourrush wrote:

The last store I worked in before my current one, was a really old building that as I found out, was prone to losing power almost every time the wind blew.

The big power outage we had back in the summer knocked us out for almost a whole day and as soon as the power went out, the registers went down so we got all the customers out the door and locked up. We turned people away and i'm sure they were pissed but what could we do? by midnight the power was still out and those of us who stuck it out finally left. Saving as much deli meat as possible by putting it on a reefer truck at 11:30 at night was....interesting to say the least.


 Our store lost power on Christmas. No one was in the store to see it, so all sorts of stuff had to be thrown away the next day. It was a really fun day to come back to.  



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We had a major remodel that caused the ECR room to be moved, after the power outage I definitely learned what equipment was on emergency power. I was the one that made the major decision and plugged the equipment into the backup outlet. Most equipment in the ECR room should be plugged into orange outlets. I believe its standard now that all ECR outlets are emergency power backedup, when ECR rooms are planned/installed. I loved it when all the registers had emergency power, but the POS Controllers were plugged into normal outlets.....like really. I kinda miss the old days, you learned the stuff the hard way, but you definitely remembered what to do. Now, Help Desk...well if the computer isn't on......Help Desk is helpless.

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