I work at a Shaws store as a bagger. We have two main exits, one to either side of the checkout lanes. We also have an emergency exit in the middle. It is clearly marked “EMERGENCY EXIT”, and several other signs warning not to use, and that alarms are attached.
Yet somehow, multiple times a day, someone goes through the door, leaving all of us working to listen to the ear splitting alarm until someone manages to shut it off (anywhere from 30 seconds to 5 minutes).
Is it really that hard to read the sign? Really. For a while, I wondered if maybe it was mostly people who don’t speak or read English so well. That would be at least moderately understandable. But no, they manage to figure it out. It mostly tends to be people who speak perfect, unaccented English, wearing expensive clothes, and talking on a cell phone.
So, I would just like to state, for future reference, if using a cell phone impairs your ability to think or read that much, maybe you shouldn’t be using one?
Four friggin times today! Argh!
You work in a grocery store, and you’re surprised that many of your customers don’t pay any attention? :dubious:
You must be new. It only gets worse.
Sorry.
Unfortunately, I do understand… but that doesn’t help my ears after listening to that horrible sound…
Is there a purpose to the ear splitting alarm? Is it really that important to inform the whole store that this particular door was opened?
Ok, I can see it with a back or side door, to try and prevent theft. I can’t see it when the emergency door is right between both main exits, just not designated as a main exit.
Maybe they can read it and don’t care. First of all, from your description it sounds like there is no good reason for that to be an emergency exit, since it’s past the checkout lanes. I dislike arbitrary restrictions that make no sense, and it’s possible that if it were raining or very cold, and I had my kids, and my car was parked right outside the “emergency exit,” I just might decide to ignore the signs and go out that door. Maybe the management should reconsider why that exit has to be an emergency exit.
That’s what I was thinking. Usually emergency exits are on a different side of the building from the main door. If all the exits are in the front and there’s a fire in the front, well, you’re fucked.
Simple solution- just chain it shut.
You really would? Wow. So, your convenience is more important than courtesy to everyone else? You must be really important.
Screw that shit; I’d take a frozen turkey and smash my way through to the loading dock.
Since the emergency door can (obviously) be pushed open manually, I’d guess it’s at the front because the nearby standard doors need electricity to open and someone anticipated an emergency coupled with a power failure. Of course even then, I’d seriously consider breaking through the windows with the aforementioned turkey (or even a thrown shopping cart if need be). If escaping shoplifters isn’t an issue, the OP should just ask that the alarm be deactivated.
Such a soultion would totally defeat the “emergency exit” aspect of an emergency exit.
Actually, the door does have a valid reason for being there. The store is built in such a way where one side is connected to another building, and two sides have no customer access (as in, the entire side has employee only areas).
Although, now that I think of it, why is there an emergency door at all?
Oh how I wish we could… unfortunately, we’re not allowed to. We have tried though. And on preview Exgineer covered that.
I could understand this, somewhat… except the store is in the middle of Boston, and has no parking lot. In fact, anyone who leaves through the emergency door almost certainly has to walk past one of the other exits afterward to get where they are going. It actually makes them spend more time outside then they would otherwise.
I’m having a hard time picturing this. If you don’t mind (and I won’t blame you if you do), where is this store?
Whereas the rest of us might have figured that since an architect put the door there, the fire department approved the door there, the electrician wired the door there, etc. etc., there might actually be a reason we haven’t thought of for the door to actually be there.
We might also think to ourselves “Good Lord, I’m quite the selfish jackpipe for leaving a store full of people to listen to that God awful noise just to save myself ten seconds. Someone really ought to poke a hole in the bubble of glorious wonder that is the miracle of me.”
I don’t know what I can tell you if you haven’t been to Boston, but if you have, the store is right next to The Prudential Center.
I’ve been there occasionally. As in almost every day for the past 26 years. 
Is it the one that’s actually attached to the Pru, right on Boylston?
Right, I forgot that there’s never been a building in the history of the human race with a stupid layout.
To further clarify, is there anything – ahem – “legal” about what’s above you?
It’s not actually “connected” to the Pru, but yeah, it’s right there. It’s not quite on Boylston… I don’t think… to be honest, I only go there from Huntington. So I can safely say it’s on Huntington.
Ah.
In that case, I have no fucking clue where it is. It’s not the Star (or what used to be called that)?
Well, there might be, I haven’t seen them all yet. They keep digging up new ones.
By the way, your argument is what is know as a logical fallacy. See if you can figure out which one!