to think if a fire alarm goes off in a supermarket that people should leave when asked?

[thecaptaincrocfamily]

Was at work tonight and this happened and when I asked someone to leave the store they tutted like it was my fault that their shopping had been disrupted! .

Next time I will leave them to burn!

I think they assume it's a drill or a test.

I've been at work where you could see the smoke and they still faffed.

Obviously those tins of beans are to die for...

Fools. Clearly that is the best time to shoplift as the security guards are distracted by the hoards milling around

PMSL at the beans! Honestly it was ridiculous! " Sir, please could I ask you to leave the store" 'tutt, tutt, tutt!' Well burn then! Unbelievable

Ah tis funny you should say that because I saw some dodgey customers down the isle and wondered if they had done it! (I am miss marple irl )

well tbh Ive never seen a supermarket that's open at the time on fire on the news, so I would assume its a drill and be a bit pissed off if I was busy doing my shopping and it turned out to be a drill . There's doors all over the place to get out of if there is a fire the most risk would be to the staff upstairs and they can practice that when the stores closed.

This was not a planned drill Hence lots of blank faces about what to do! Never mind...... next time I won't bother and will just see to myself

Wasn't there actually a really famous horrible case in the 60s where a huge branch of Woolworths caught fire, and people just ignored the alarms? People were sitting eating in the cafe while smoke was coming through there as well. Loads of people got trapped inside :( Apparently the fire brigade use it as an example in their training to study the behaviour of the general public when there is a fire in a public place.

ooh this winds me up

i work in retail and once and a customer refused to leave the building as he wanted to pay for his shopping. took me no end of times to get him to understand that no one would be there to serve him.

twat

I might be wrong but I think by law you have to have one fire alarm drill per year whilst the store is trading so you can ensure you have adequate procedures for getting both staff and customers out safely.

People in cafe's are the worst during fire alarms, they will not leave their coffee!! What is more important your life or a coffee? (especially if you have been offered a free coffee when/if the store reopens!)

Ive worked in hospitality and if ive asked someone to leave and they refuse, I just let them get on with it. Im not burning alive so they can finish their sarny!!

bertie, yes it was a Woolworths cafe, which was packed with people having lunch.
I used to work in a lab complex that had fire alarms every couple weeks, almost invariably because it was a real fire (bunsen burners, loads of types of alcohol, huge amounts of other flammables, gas cylinders...)
We could evacuate an 8-storey building in 2 1/2 minutes flat. And did. Or else.

We also had 6-monthly drills and fire safety training involving watching a video - such as the one of the Woolworths fire, the Bradford football stadium burning down, and the Kings Cross fire - and it's amazing how people go on autopilot in any emergency, all going for the one usual exit and not any of the emergency ones, and in KX people still pushing onto the escalators to go down into the station to get home, violently pushing aside the guy standing at the top trying to stop them.

I now work in a similar sized office and they take over 12 minutes to evacuate, which terrified me when I worked on the higher floors. People just stand there and send a couple emails before getting out!

I worked at one of the big IT companies some years ago when the building we were in caught fire. We were congratulated on getting out in less than 4 minutes. Good job we did, too: the building was completely blazing in 20 minutes. The speed of that fire terrified me: I had no idea fire could travel so fast until then.

We have to have 6 monthly drills while my shop is open (someone burns their toast in the tearoom at least once a month anyway!) and yes, the general public are unbelievable.
"but I'm just looking for..."
"it's only a drill, it always is"
"I just wanted to ask..."
"tut, tut, tut... This is making me late"
Well fucking burn then!
I hasten to add I run a bookshop, so the likelihood of the building going up in flames very fucking quickly is pretty high!!

So no, YANBU and I really think cosysocks is right. You've warned them, they won't budge. Are you paid/insured enough to risk your life any further?

Perhaps supermarkets should use those huge profits for a public information tv advert (yeah, right!)

I don't think people realise quite how dangerous a fire in a supermarket is. There may be lots of doors to get out, but that because the big open space with no fire breaks will go up like a box of matches.

I worked in a large supermarket when the renovators managed to start a fire in the roof. The alarm went off, the tannoy announcement was that this was NOT a drill and yet some people were actually refusing to leave. One woman who's shopping was almost entirely through the checkout had to be dragged out by security because she completely flipped her lid because the checkout girl wouldn't finish the job.

Off their trolleys!

They are crackers lol I just couldn't believe how stupid they were! I had to explain to an old lady that she needed to leave the trolley because there would be no checkout operator

when this happened at our local tesco, some blokes having breakfast, took the table and chairs out with them and ate in the car park

This happened in marksies once when they were being refurbished. Everyone left in an orderly fashion though.

People who ignore the fire alarm should be left. If it's a real fire they'd be doing society a favour

It is ridiculous, but it's probably because there are so many false alarms going on nowadays. not excusing their behaviour, people just probably don't take them seriously anymore.

That said, I was in a building a while ago when the fire alarm went off. A computer voice kept saying there is a fire in the building, don't panic and do not leave the room you are in just now... this kept going on for 10 minutes. I felt really on the edge and wanted to run outside and definitely not remain there and wait for them to assess whether it's a real fire or not. First time I heard to not leave somewhere. Peculiar.

I've done that training course Bertie and yes they do. It's horrific. After I'd done the course, the alarms went off at work because one of the floors was full of smoke but we couldn't see any cause. The General Manager threatened to sack me if I set the alarms off (I did it anyway). The Firemen were fab and gave him quite a hard time when he was telling them how 'daft' I was 'making such a fuss'. People just don't realise how fast fire spreads, if I hear an alarm, I leave and encourage others to do the same, but I don't hang around and wait for them.