For me, at my hospital, Code Pink means an infant is missing from one of the birthing units. We take it VERY seriously.
Assuming it means the same to Walmart, it may be that you’ve stumbled across one of their secret birthing labs buried beneath certain of their superstores.*
When I was a bagger at Safeway years ago, we used “Code Blue on (aisle #)” to alert earch other to gazeworthy females.
I got to several hospitals for scheduled inspections for my job and have noticed the code list posted in employee areas. Like Boyo Jim mentioned, Code Pink is child/infant abduction. Presumably, the entire facility is then placed on lockdown. I doubt this is what the OP witnessed.
‘Code Pink’ doesn’t do you justice. I’d have pressed some alarm button! 
Yeah, the photographic evidence confirms it. Rowwwwrrrr! 
[hijack]My sister the nurse had a coworker in one hospital that called “code brown” if a patient shat the bed.[/hijack]
Errrrmmmm… blush! Well, thank you very much. I’ll just step over here and continue blushing.
As far as the different codes go…this is fascinating. I had no idea this was something people did. Apparently, I’ve been working in entirely the wrong places!
The customs I’ve missed out on by avoiding service-industry jobs like the plague…
Do you have something to back that up?
Jesus, I feel like the two jobs I’ve had (Wal-Mart and McDonald’s) have more people who hate them than any other companies.
Yes, I do.
My local Wal-Mart’s Customer Sevice desk (a place where I have stood in line returning goods many times, before giving up on Wally-Mart) has a list of Codes posted on the wall, next to a phone. Visible to all, it includes a listing for “Unscheduled Media Event”.
Jeez, why have codes if you’re going to blurt out the meaning of it anyway!! (Yep, he definitely meant you if you looked anything like that picture.)
I always used “pancake” with my best friend at the time to alert him to guys I thought were cute.
I know what flip chart you’re talking about, and not all of those are codes. W-M has eight standard codes. That chart also contains procedures in the case of certain events, like an unscheduled media visit.
Maybe we could invent some codes for attractive students? Like, “There’s a student here with some interesting geodesic deviations”?
One time I went into a Safeway grocery store in Northern California and was looking for something very specific on the shelf. On the other end of the aisle were a couple of stockboys putting groceries up. Maybe I was spending too much time looking for whatever it was I was searching for, because eventually a manager walked near me, and eyed me suspiciously before circling around to the other end of the aisle, where he asked the stockboys, “are you guys alone in here?” They answered, “yes, sir.”
Maybe I’m being paranoid, but I assumed he was asking them if I was a [potential] shoplifter.
Sounds like a good manager. He could tell you were a Cagey Drifter just from the looks of you!
To be honest, depending on what results when that code is announced, the existance of a code for reporters showing up doesn’t necessarily mean anything bad is happening. Could be the procedure is to alert the managers of the reporters’ precense, in case they need to act as a spokesperson for the store or to show the reporters around to asist them in their jobs, could be the procedure is to herd all the shackled child laborers out the back door so they won’t be seen. All depends on what happens AFTER the code is called.
As for “Why would the managers need to know about the reporters, what do they have to hide?” remember that all reporters are human, and not all reporters are GOOD reporters (both in terms of good/evil and in terms of competence, having worked for a number of newspapers I can tell you that all sorts of people can end up writing articles).
Generally there’s only one “worker” in the room with “customers”. That is, there’s no reason for codes because by the time I can talk with other department members about my theories on how ribbed sweaters are attractive because while generally shrouding curvature they highlight geodesic deviations[1], the students are nowhere around.
[1] Seriously, I came up with this back in fall of 2002. It’s not just cooked up as a response to your phrasing.
There are of course regular announcements over the PA in London Tube stations (as in every railway station everywhere). They are done in any old accent and a basically casual style, as you would expect assuming they are done, ad hoc, by station staff.
Once I was standing on the platform when an extremely plummy voice said over the PA in a stilted and formal style “Would Mr Brown, please come to the ticket office”.
I immediately thought there’s something funny going on: that sounds like a pre-recorded message, and “Brown” just has to be a code for something. I could see from the faces of many other commuters standing on the platform that they were thinking something similar.
Sure enough a couple of minutes later the station was evacuated because some bozo had left a bag somewhere.
I thought it was pretty pathetic: if you are using codes to let staff know there’s something going on while avoiding a public panic, you could at least make it a bit less obvious.
The service codes at my work don’t match up with anything logical (they’re just numbers), but we do have fun with new staff by calling them to Aisle 12 over the PA (there’s only 11 aisles in the store).
Of course, if CarlyJay ever came into the supermarket I work at, you can bet most of the nightfill staff would suddenly decide the shelves in whatever aisle she was in were looking dangerously understocked…
Similarly, if you’re ever in the theatre and “Mr Sands” is paged, begin making your way nonchalantly towards the exit. Do not (for the usual obvious and excellent reasons) shout “Fire!”.
“Mr. Sands” means fire?