2 evenings ago my wife and I were at Kroger doing the grocery shopping thing when the power went out in the store. We both thought it was actually kind of cool. It is rather odd to finish up shopping in a store with basically no lights and no power, adding at least a bit of a twist to the normal, boring shopping experience.
What I found really odd, was the generator that kicked on moments later. After about 10 seconds of being in total darkness, the generator started and provided power to the checkout scanners and to a few scattered lights. And then, the overhead radio station started playing. The freezers didn’t come on, the refrigerated section was off, and the doors didn’t work, but I had plenty of opportunity to listen to the Backstreet Boys and the newest release by Britney Spears.
No major point or anything, it just seemed like an odd choice of things to power up.
I’m guessing that the radio system uses a lot less power than the refrigeration equipment, and the doors. So simply turning off the radio still wouldn’t have “freed up” enough power to run either of those systems.
Let’s see. Wally would push his cart down the freezer aisle, leaving each door ajar in his quest for Cinnamon Fudge Ripple Haagen Daz. Reaching the end, he would suddenly remember the need for Mrs’ Paul’s Fish Sticks and Tater Tots, which would send him scampering back up to the head of the aisle, where he would slide, arms waving frantically in the air, on the long slick of melted food that had oozed out all of the open freezer doors, directly into the pyramided maple syrup display, with extremely messy results.
Somehow his pants would come off, but I haven’t figured that part out yet.
Ike, his pants come off because, using the darkness as covera herd of gerbils bent on revenge for their fallen comrade sneak up on him and gnaw through this belt. Then using their tiny, evil little gerbil hand unfasten the snap/button and zipper.
Wait, don’t you guys think Wally would try and convince the other shoppers to loot and riot? Then while being chased out of the store by an angry mob, he slips on the opened freezers, and the mob de-pants him.
He will discover that Kroger’s has a pet section and they are having a father’s day sale on Gerbils. The sight of all those Gerbils lurking in the shadows will fill him with horror. He will drive his cart backwards and hit an aisle display of Folger’s coffee. One of the cans will bounce off his cart and hit the latch on the gerbil cage releasing hordes of the critters into the store. Pandemonium will ensue.
Keith