One of the onerous tasks in my life is being forced to take my aged mother to the grocery store. Unfortunately, the store she chooses has a public address system that is so damn loud that it gives me migraine headaches. Alas, I can not talk her out of going to this store, I either have to listen to dangerously loud PA speakers, or her whining, both of which will give me headaches.
The speakers are obviously louder than legally allowed. They’re so loud you have to shout to be heard by a person standing right next to you. If I was an employee of the store, I’d just call up OSHA and they’d come out and measure the sound and give them 30 days to remedy it, then slap them with huge fines if they didn’t. So as a consumer, who should I be complaining to? Can I call OSHA and tell them that an unsafe workplace is threatening the health of both employees and customers?
I’ve talked about this problem with the managers at the store repeatedly over a period of 6 months. Each time, they give me some lip service, say they’ll look into it. Today, I went in and spoke to the assistant manager again, and he gave me the most blatant “we’ll look into it” blowoff again. But best of all, just as we were discussing it, a loud announcement blasted and neither of us could hear what we were saying. When it was done, I told him that they’ve been saying “we’ll look into it” for 6 months, and maybe I should call OSHA and see if they’ll buy that sort of excuse. A few minutes later I was asking some stockboy where an item was located, and another deafening announcement started blasting. I asked the stockboy if he wouldn’t rather lose his hearing listening to his favorite music rather than “cleanup on aisle 3.” He agreed, but I let it go. Later, he hunted me down in the store, took me aside, and said that the employees generally agreed with me, and he’d find the store owner and let me register my complaint with him. And as he started paging him, the owner slipped out the back door.
So I’m totally fed up, and trapped. I am forced to go to a place that causes me injury. I’m already going deaf, I don’t want to be subjected to deafening sound levels, and I don’t think anyone else deserves to be subjected to this either. So how (and where) do I lodge an effective complaint? The store obviously has no intention of addressing the problem. They won’t do anything without threat of financial or legal penalty.
intresting problem, I really don’t know what to do., maybe you should wear hearing protection. if the store doesn’t get the hint mayb you mother will and go to another store.
Have you ever asked them why it is so loud? Do they have a reason - like, most of their patrons are elderly and slightly deaf - or do they just have really old, crappy equipment and they can’t turn it down and the cheapskate store owner won’t pony up the dough for a new PA. If it’s an equipment problem, perhaps you could offer to fix it? Maybe it’s a matter of replacing a knob.
Until then, I’d get some foam ear plugs (although Flent’s Ear Stopples has the cooler name, the foam ones are better and cheaper).
I wonder: if the PA is really loud, the employees are protected by OSHA regs and a complaint could be filed. Are the customers protected as well?
I’ve heard two excuses as to why it is so loud. One manager said that their PA system is broken and the PA company can’t fix it. Another manager said it was deliberately that way because there are spots in the store where you can’t hear the announcements. I have noticed that there is no spot in the store where you cannot hear the announcements clearly and loudly, but there are some spots where it is so loud it is deafening. I also noticed that when people make announcements from the phones by the cash registers, the volume is normal but when they make announcements from any other place (hidden ones like the office?) it blasts.
I use earplugs if I go out to a noisy place like a bar with music, but then, I’m expecting loud noise in a place like that, a grocery store should not be a hostile, loud environment. I’d try earplugs at the store, but my mother embarasses me quite enough by screeching my name across the store, this would just make it worse. And for my own safety, it is probably not a good idea to block out sounds when they’re shifting heavy loads around the store all the time. And no, I’ve tried and tried to talk my mom out of going to this store, to no avail.
The situation is fairly clear to me, the store is behaving illegally, they could fix it but they just don’t care. I’d be inclined to grit my teeth and bear it, except for their attitude towards my complaint. I just need to know how to get someone on their case to fix it. Even if someone like OSHA doesn’t levy a penalty, perhaps their involvement would be enough to get them to take the complaint seriously. I guess I’ll try OSHA on Monday.