greg334
Veteran Expediter
I had to deliver to a mall on black Friday – what a trip.
I arrived there at 9 AM and it was madding. People were everywhere, like Manhattan during rush hour.
I saw the most bizarre behavior from people who were trying to save a buck and I saw the most accidents at one location in my life.
I saw people parking every where they could, the grass dividers between parking rows, on the little hills between the parking lots and the roads. I saw a truck (4X4) parked over a fire hydrant and another one parked over a group of parking stoppers with cars parked in the parking spots.
I saw several accidents, most of which were people backing into others and not really caring much about it. I saw a lady (she must have been 100 years old) push a car out of her way to get by. The best one I saw was an Escalade parked on the lawn between the main road and the parking lot access road backing into a car full of ‘shoppers’ waiting for a parking spot to open. It was a valet guy in the Escalade who hopped into it, started it up and floored it off the hill into the car, with dirt flying. He hit the car so hard it pushed the car into the next lane. Opps!
After I check in, I call dispatch to ask where they want me. I am told that the customer will not be there until 3 PM and I can do what ever I want. OK so off to Wal-Mart I go. It took me 20 minutes to get out of the mall parking lot by the way.
Wal-Mart was much better; I didn’t have too much problems parking. When I got in to the store, I found that it was crowded but bearable. People were not friendly and I learned that there were at least 9 different languages spoken by the Wal-Mart employees, including Tagalog. I saw a lady from Trinidad who I worked with and she was surprised that I was so far from home. The shoppers were typical, grabbing things off the shelf because they were on sale.
There were digital cameras for sale at $80 a piece from 5 to 11 (it was 11:30 when I saw this happen) and a lady just rolled her cart up and took the last one. Two other ladies were going toward the display at a fast pace and missed out on the camera. They followed the first one around until I spotted them all in one isle and the first lady was turning around as one of the others ladies grabbed the camera out of her basket and made a bee line to the check out. Needless to say she didn’t get the sale price.
I can not believe the amount of people who left their purses in the cart as they ran down the isles to grab things. I was getting some can goods and a lady walked away from her purse with money showing to grab Pringles what was on sale 2 cans for a buck. There was one who left her cart to get a clerk to help her with a TV, I felt obligated to watch her purse and cart – she was gone for almost 5 minutes.
I returned to the mall and most of the mess died down at that time. But come 6 PM, it seemed like someone turned a switch on and here come the people. This time it wasn’t too bad, the people who unloaded my truck put cones everywhere (about 25 cones with signs) and most of the people of course ignored them and walking through the narrow passage between my truck and the job site. Mind you I was carrying architectural glass which each piece took 6 to remove it from my truck and 4 to handle getting into the building and only 23 pieces on board with three racks. One piece they had 15 people helping out, so there was some weight involved but having people ignore the signs “DO NOT WALK THIS WAY†is a bit too much for the job site supervisor. They finally had someone stand at each end and hold their arms out and say don’t go this way, walk around. One girl was so insistent that she walked on the sidewalk that she was ready to shove the guy out of her way, she worked at the restaurant next to the job site and didn’t want to walk in the street. After 4 hours of unloading, the decision was made not to unload the 1500lb racks that are still on my truck until Monday.
I survived Black Friday, and think overall the trip was worth it.
I arrived there at 9 AM and it was madding. People were everywhere, like Manhattan during rush hour.
I saw the most bizarre behavior from people who were trying to save a buck and I saw the most accidents at one location in my life.
I saw people parking every where they could, the grass dividers between parking rows, on the little hills between the parking lots and the roads. I saw a truck (4X4) parked over a fire hydrant and another one parked over a group of parking stoppers with cars parked in the parking spots.
I saw several accidents, most of which were people backing into others and not really caring much about it. I saw a lady (she must have been 100 years old) push a car out of her way to get by. The best one I saw was an Escalade parked on the lawn between the main road and the parking lot access road backing into a car full of ‘shoppers’ waiting for a parking spot to open. It was a valet guy in the Escalade who hopped into it, started it up and floored it off the hill into the car, with dirt flying. He hit the car so hard it pushed the car into the next lane. Opps!
After I check in, I call dispatch to ask where they want me. I am told that the customer will not be there until 3 PM and I can do what ever I want. OK so off to Wal-Mart I go. It took me 20 minutes to get out of the mall parking lot by the way.
Wal-Mart was much better; I didn’t have too much problems parking. When I got in to the store, I found that it was crowded but bearable. People were not friendly and I learned that there were at least 9 different languages spoken by the Wal-Mart employees, including Tagalog. I saw a lady from Trinidad who I worked with and she was surprised that I was so far from home. The shoppers were typical, grabbing things off the shelf because they were on sale.
There were digital cameras for sale at $80 a piece from 5 to 11 (it was 11:30 when I saw this happen) and a lady just rolled her cart up and took the last one. Two other ladies were going toward the display at a fast pace and missed out on the camera. They followed the first one around until I spotted them all in one isle and the first lady was turning around as one of the others ladies grabbed the camera out of her basket and made a bee line to the check out. Needless to say she didn’t get the sale price.
I can not believe the amount of people who left their purses in the cart as they ran down the isles to grab things. I was getting some can goods and a lady walked away from her purse with money showing to grab Pringles what was on sale 2 cans for a buck. There was one who left her cart to get a clerk to help her with a TV, I felt obligated to watch her purse and cart – she was gone for almost 5 minutes.
I returned to the mall and most of the mess died down at that time. But come 6 PM, it seemed like someone turned a switch on and here come the people. This time it wasn’t too bad, the people who unloaded my truck put cones everywhere (about 25 cones with signs) and most of the people of course ignored them and walking through the narrow passage between my truck and the job site. Mind you I was carrying architectural glass which each piece took 6 to remove it from my truck and 4 to handle getting into the building and only 23 pieces on board with three racks. One piece they had 15 people helping out, so there was some weight involved but having people ignore the signs “DO NOT WALK THIS WAY†is a bit too much for the job site supervisor. They finally had someone stand at each end and hold their arms out and say don’t go this way, walk around. One girl was so insistent that she walked on the sidewalk that she was ready to shove the guy out of her way, she worked at the restaurant next to the job site and didn’t want to walk in the street. After 4 hours of unloading, the decision was made not to unload the 1500lb racks that are still on my truck until Monday.
I survived Black Friday, and think overall the trip was worth it.
