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 wasn't expecting sympathy i was pointing out that fire drills are useful for revealing lack of suitable evacuation routes to avoid deaths like this.

suppose it depends on how big the shop is.

This

To be fair OP, I think on that occasion if it was known for a fact by all present that the thunder triggered it, I can understand them not wanting to argue with the storm which clearly wasn’t playing if it impacted the fire alarm 👀
Generally though, I do get simultaneously perplexed and annoyed by how relaxed some people are when the alarm goes off and it isn’t clear at all what the level of danger is. I’ve seen people texting on their way downstairs, even starting to go back upstairs (and blocking those coming down) when it goes off because apparently that means everything is ok, and it really annoys me! So I do understand.

This is unreal. Firefighters will have to put their own lives at risk for selfish twats like this. I'd tell them they can stay and burn.

As a thought-experiment, I tried putting other protected characteristics in the OP. Leaving aside the weird sentence construction, how would any of these have gone down?

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

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

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

"Guessing that from those who moaned at the staff and security were the Christian/Jewish/Muslim/Satanist side."

"Guessing that from those who moaned at the staff and security were the blind/deaf/amputee side."

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

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

None looks good, on the whole.

Yes - we had to make some changes to the holiday let to comply with fire regulations which meant changing the door locks to keyless exit.

I then of course got a poor review from a guest who didn't feel safe because they couldn't use the (now disabled) key operated deadlock!

We had to evacuate when one of the ovens in the bakery caught on fire and customers just would not leave. It’s very annoying because we have to get them out and put ourselves at risk because they won’t leave their trolley. They had no idea if it was a real fire or a drill but were prepared to take that chance despite there being no one there to serve them on checkouts 🤦‍♀️

I was once in a restaurant when there was a massive leak coming from one of the pipes in the ceiling. Water started pouring into the restaurant and the poor manager didn't know what to do. He was a bit flustered and looked very young. Someone pointed out that the ceiling was peeling away on its own directly above our table, so my dining partner and I got up and moved away.

The number of people who sat doggedly at their tables as they didn't want to leave their meals. They were all just pretending it wasn't happening which was completely stupid.

Anyway, we left and went somewhere else for our meal, but it really struck me how determined people can be to just pretend there is no emergency when there actually is.

People often split up while shopping, I often see couples who shop together have one go off to get an item, or someone goes to the cigarette counter while and other is checking out the groceries, or a kid is left to choose a magazine while a parent is grabbing laundry conditioner, I imagine in a genuine crisis, the assembly points are useful for people to head to to find their loved ones so that you don’t have a load of frantic families trying to find each other in a car park.

I got soaked to the skin in a sudden thunderstorm in under a minute yesterday. I was struggling to see as all my spf washed down into my eyes. Just stuck out in the rain / hail for ten minutes. Then a half hour drive with the blowers on. I felt ill / utterly exhausted for the rest of the day and I’m in my 40s. I can imagine if you are frail it’d be best avoided if possible.

Perhaps stores should have a box of emergency ponchos and if they hsve to evacuate in the pissing rain they could be given to customers who needed one.

Some of the responses here are very concerning, and show such a lack of consideration for the safety of others. Speaking with several decades of experience:

• Fire drills are a legal requirement (1 a year minimum)
• They are to test a number of things, including, but not limited to - that the alarm system is functioning properly, that management are able to follow business processes quickly and efficiently and that they are fit for purpose (might sound silly but it's not easy evacuating a shopping centre or large department store), and that the staff are also able to help customers leave quickly whilst getting themselves out
• Most customer facing businesses will time any drills, and also debrief afterwards to acknowledge and learn what they need to do better
• I've never worked for a business that held planned drills at any time other than when we'd just opened, to keep customer disruption to a minimum
• If there was a planned drill and the weather turned really nasty, we have always postponed it - from a staff well-being POV, it would not be okay for them to have to evac into pouring rain in their uniform, and then have to come back to work and open up 15 minutes later
• If an alarm sounds, staff are responsible for the safety of themselves and the public. This means getting you out. If you refuse to leave, a member of staff must stay in the building with you. I really hope that no one thinks that that is acceptable, no matter how nice their cup of coffee may be.
• In an evacuation, the majority of customers will just leave - businesses don't really like losing custom, so maybe consider that this isn't happening for shots and giggles
• Regarding a member of the public passing away in a customer facing building, it's totally usual for the business to close whilst the situation is in hand. Privacy, respect and dignity. Not to mention, most staff working likely haven't witnessed someone die before so may be distressed.

Why are we as a nation so fucking selfish, lacking in care and consideration for others, and just actually nasty these days?

Ageism is appalling, and I've certainly seen no difference in behaviour across generations. Comments such as those from the OP are vile.

And no, shops should not spend their profits buying packs of plastic ponchos to hand out if an emergency occurs during a thunderstorm - they wouldn't be able to go and get them anyway as you have to leave immediately, People should try looking at the weather forecast before they leave the house and make sure that they are appropriately attired.

Regarding a person passing away, I used to work in a bingo hall and three times people passed away mid game and it carried on. Someone would check pulse etc. and an ambulance would be called but you do not mess around with finishing times as folk had a bus to catch.

That's wild! Talk about committment!

Excuse me I was not making this an ageist post. I was just commenting on people refusing to leave a supermarket fire alarm going off and those who were most reluctant to leave as it was tipping were on average older than the rest of the shoppers.

As there was no need for customers to stand outside to be allowed back in and be counted for like the staff. They could easily go home, visit another shop etc

From what other posters have mentioned in this thread, there are some ignorant idiots who feel they fully entitled have to finish that coffee that they bought or able to buy stuff when the fire alarms are going off or asked to leave the place as with the dead man in the small book shop.

Today I had the day off work. This afternoon, the office I work (hybrid) at, had interviews. The fire alarm went off as a leak in the top floor knocked out something and triggered the fire alarms. The two candidates had their interviews carried on in a cafe opposite work.

People don't understand that anything that overheats can trigger the fire alarms when there is no fire. Plus the fire doesn't have to be in the public areas

Exactly this.
Some people really are very vulnerable if they get caught in torrential rain.

Ideally having a few places to shelter could make it a lot easier to evacuate people

Or an acceptance in your planning that some people will be harder to evacuate and figure out how you deal with that.

The point of the drill is to find the snags and figure out workarounds.

Anyone with a serious health condition is going to feel pretty vulnerable being asked to walk out into torrential rain

You really do use some very strange and vague phrases OP. You did make it ageist.

‘those who were most reluctant to leave as it was tipping were on average older than the rest of the shoppers.’

Would that be two customers out of 100 aged 80+ or 50 out of 60 customers aged 40+ ? Did you check the ages and measure the average using mean, median, or mode ? Or just spout your prejudices based on noticing a couple of apparently loud ‘older’ people ?

If you genuinely wanted to highlight the issues of supermarket customers, or any other groups, being reluctant to leave a building when the alarms were sounding I think you've missed the mark by using sloppy pejorative language.

I have no idea why posters think this was a drill. The fire alarm got triggered by thunder. Anyone who thinks of planning a drill in torrential rain. Well....

Supermarkets seem to turn people into arseholes for some reason. I don't know why.

Some drills or tests will be driven by predetermined regularity. Who hasn’t seen the notice in hotel rooms saying the alarms with be tested on, say, Mondays at 10.00am ?

Low level regular drills can be moved to accommodate weather conditions but some drills must be performed regardless of the weather conditions or number of customers/guests/staff present.

Loppp
Excuse me I was not making this an ageist post. I was just commenting on people refusing to leave a supermarket fire alarm going off and those who were most reluctant to leave as it was tipping were on average older than the rest of the shoppers.

You had a valid point which you screwed up by being ageist. Repeatedly.

There was absolutely no need to emphasise any characteristic of the people involved in what you rightly saw as stupid and selfish behaviour in refusing to leave when there was a fire alarm – though you did not in fact say they had refused, only that they moaned about it – whether it was sex, age, colour, creed, sexuality, hair colour, nose shape or any damn thing whatever. Doubling down on your error really doesn't help your position.

Oh this thread has some gems from the OP. We've had someone defined as a bitch and a reference to chav kids as well.

Its company policy in most bingo places, in theory it keeps things calm and prevents panic but ime there were some patrons muttering that it was shocking to carry on but vast majority were very pragmatic, She’d of wanted us to carry on type stuff. It was a good 25 years ago and the demographic was largely chain smoking ( you could smoke at bingo halls back then) ladies over pension age.

So why 'guess' that the troublesome customers were on the old side?

It’s actually unsafe to stand outside when there is lightning. I’ve had lightning hit a tree 10 feet away from me and it’s not the experience I wish to repeat. I’m lucky and now I’m staying inside when there is a thunderstorm. So I would be pissed off too.