AIBU to think customers’ behaviour about evacuating in the heavy rain was childish

[Loppp]

I visited my local supermarket this morning. It was dry at the time. The supermarket’s fire alarms were going off, when the thunder and lightning happened along with torrential downpours.

Some customers were being difficult to evacuate the store as it was raining! Guessing that from those who moaned at the staff and security were the older side.

How pathetic did these customers sounded?

The fire assembly point is not under cover.

I’ve been in a house fire. If an alarm is going off anywhere you need to get out and follow staff instructions, if the older ones weren’t doing this or were moaning at staff and security then OP is within her rights to point that out. It’s incredibly unsafe and stupid. It’s not ‘oldie bashing’ it’s ’ffs there’s a fire alarm, stop whinging’ bashing.

We have a fire drill at work every Monday (I work at a fast food restaurant)

99% of the time,we give a warning to customers and to ignore it unless told differently

One Monday,one manager thought the other had given the warning and that manager thought the first had

Fire alarm went off and not one person moved, not even battered an eyelid-they all just carried on chomping their food

Another was when a man walked into the toilet and im not sure if he meant to kill himself,but he died in there

Most where fab-they left with no issues but some didnt-they where eating their food,at their table and nobody was moving until they'd finished

Some even wanted to see the body still laid on the floor!

I was at work one day and just outside,a man was crossing the road and was hit by a car

He was killed outright

I shot upstairs (massive windows) and not one person would go downstairs

All where gawping out of the windows and some stood on tables for a better look

I was shouted at,spat at and threatened when I asked people to move downstairs

They finally left when they removed the body

Some people are dicks

What an incredibly ageist post.

When there was the dreadful fire at Manchester Woolworths some people refused to evacuate because they wanted to finish their meal in the cafe.

Since there is no record of who in terms of customers were in the store customers going to an assembly point is pointless, surely they would just go home or into another store.

Yeah, course they did.

I used to work in a large hotel and felt second most bad for the people who had been in the pool, but the most bad off all for the ones from the hairdressers with foils on their heads. I hope no one ended up with strange hair colours and over developed highlights!

I know! Imagine wanting older people to evacuate a shop because it might be on fire! How awful!

I always look for the green "running man" emergency exit signs wherever I go.

That's because of my previous job (and DH). You only get one life. I'd rather get wet than die in a fire.

The staff have to quickly close the tills/stop the conveyor belts etc. then get everyone out. The store need all staff on the shop floor evacuating to a place of safety. HOW is that unreasonable??

Anyone arguing should be banned from that specific store and all of it's other outlets. They are a danger to the staff.

Is standing in the rain for 5 mins, or coming back later/tomorrow assuming it's a false alarm that much of an inconvenience...there are other shops.

Woolworths Manchester fire - Wikipedia

taken from the wiki page - The disaster has become a significant object of study for academics interested in the behaviour of people in emergency situations, after research showed a number of customers (predominately in the public restaurant area) refused to leave despite the sounding of alarms, requests from staff, and even the smell and visibility of smoke; some even continued to queue at an abandoned check-out. The majority of those who perished were in this area.

The old are closer to death. Maybe they didn't want someone else's run of the mill death (albeit traumatic and terrible for the family/friends of the deceased) to get in the way of whatever little life they have left, unless it absolutely has to

I know as I get older, I feel more and more like this. Obviously if the person is alive and space is needed to provide help, absolutely I'd leave, get out of the way or provide help, whichever is appropriate but if they have died, I can't do anything to help so I'd rather not have my life impacted unecessarily.

I certainly would not stand around and gawp or take photos/video which so many young people seem to do nowadays, but assuming I knew that the appropriate help had been called for, I would want to carry on and make my purchase (perhaps at another till) and/or go to the coffee shop - If that makes me callous -so be it

YABU to make ageist comments. It gets tedious after a while, and shows a certain smallness of mind.

I'm in my 60s and volunteer for a lowland search & rescue unit. That involves going out in all conditions (and I mean all). The ages of team members are spread evenly between 25 and 65.

This.

If it's a drill, it's generally announced on the PA system, warning both staff and shoppers to expect the alarms to sound.

Generally alarms are held at a similar time/day of the week.

e.g. my local hospital - every wednesday morning - with a fire engine parked outside just in case, but that is an extreme, I'll admit.

In a tiny, independent bookshop? Where you would be having your coffee about 15 feet from the dead guy? and you’d what, step over his body to keep browsing? While the owner was trying to do CPR, one of the staff was on the phone to 999 and the other staff member is telling you to get out? And it wasn’t a coffee shop - we served coffee in a wee corner of the shop, the manage basically said “just give everyone a fiver back and take them out the back door.” And back then, a coffee was not £5 so they were getting a bigger amount back.

See, some people are really very pathetic, me me me, assholes.

Privacy and health n safety

Regular customers would know you have a fire drill on a Monday so would ignore the alarm.

I guess the man dying in the toilets would be a problem if they were the only men's toilets otherwise diners need not really know or be forced to abandon their food. It's an unlikely place for a suicide I would have assumed a heart attack or stroke. Perhaps stop taking orders so the restaurant would empty naturally by the time the police and ambulance arrived.

Why would people have to go downstairs because there was an accident in the street, it didn't affect anyone in the restaurant. I would have been telling them to sit down!

The more general point about older people not panicking about things is perhaps because they have seen it all before and it's usually not a real disaster, and they can't move fast anyway more likely to get in the way or get trampled in the rush if it's really serious. If I had children with me I would assume the worst and get out quickly.

I was at work one day and just outside,a man was crossing the road and was hit by a car
He was killed outright
I shot upstairs (massive windows) and not one person would go downstairs

Why did they need to go downstairs, wouldn't they have been less in the way if they'd stayed where they were?

Regards to the reason of the fire alarm. It wasn’t a drill. The massive rumble of thunder must have triggered it

As to @SnappyQuoter I have seen people collapsed in supermarkets and other shops over the years. People stepped over the collapsed person whilst being attended to by the shop staff first aiders and paramedics to get something. That is disgraceful behaviour. How would they like it if someone stepped over their ill OH, parent? They would not liked that one bit.

I don’t care that you can’t access the tins of tuna as being blocked by an ill person.

Guessing that from those who moaned at the staff and security were the older side.

I also have no idea what this means. Can you write it in a way that makes sense, OP?

There’s a lot of oldie bashing on here, from posters of low intelligence.

You have quoted my post but not said whether you agree the sentence I quoted made sense or not.
The OP said they were guessing the age of the people, guessing is hardly an objective measure.

Why were they were observing the people objecting instead of getting their own selves out?

I didn't say people (of any age) should not obey alarms or instructions given by staff.

I'm sorry you've been in a house fire but that experience is irrelevant to the OP's guessed complaint.

Really? People are stepping over a collapsed person while being attended to by paramedics?

To those who are thinking this is an oldie bashing thread - it’s not. Even fire alarms happen in university buildings and students are reluctant to evacuate. When an over heated photocopier/printer caused the smoke alarms to go off

How stupid is that

Yes. I did made a passing comment to one bitch