What is it about convenience stores that attracts the freakiest of individuals? If you are a little off does that mean you feel the need to frequent our one-stop-shopping utopia? And why do just plain freaky things happen to us as unsuspecting employees? I'm not sure, but here are a few of the freakier things and people I've had the pleasure to come across...
I was working a graveyard shift, which I did for about a year, and had some dude shoeless and disheveled at the counter one night. I had been on the other side of the store cleaning something when he came in and I got to the counter and noticed something odd. This guy had his hand pressed to his chest as he asked for a pack of cigarettes. As I looked a little closer a noticed that he was bleeding and was holding his chest where I assumed he had been stabbed. I didn't stare or say anything (smart when you work alone by yourself at night) and just handed over the cigarettes. He mumbled something handed me a wad of bills and walked out. I looked out the door after him to make sure he had at least someone driving him to the hospital, I hoped! He got in the back of someones car who sped out of the parking lot in the general direction of the hospital and I grabbed the Lysol to spray on the wad of bills he handed me that had errant blood spatters on them. I guess one last smoke was really important! That was crazy!
Being a convenience store we are open 24hrs and all holidays and to make it fair my boss has everyone work at least 3-4 hrs on Christmas. I always take the evening shift because my kids are always pretty Christmased out by then and we eat Christmas dinner on Christmas eve. A couple of Christmases ago I was standing at the register trying not to fall asleep, we are usually pretty busy being the only thing open, but it had started to snow and the store had become quite still. I was watching the flakes fall and glanced over at a couple of guys standing under the canopy over the gas pumps. It was cold enough to be snowing so I really didn't notice the (what I thought at first was) breath wafting above their heads. That was until I looked again...one of the guys was standing next to the gas pump while filling his truck and smoking! What the...? I thought as I ran around the clerk's counter and to the door. Flinging the door open I yelled across the parking lot, "Quit smoking next to the gas pumps! I don't care if you have a death wish, but I don't!" The guy quickly stomped out his cigarette and apologized as I walked back into the store shaking my head. Why? Why? Why? Oh wait I know...kaboom!! Sheesh!=0)
Going back to working graveyards, now I know what you are thinking..and no, I sleep just fine during the day, I'm not scared to work by myself and really all the people that come in overnight come in during the day too. Hey, I enjoyed the freedom to get my work done at my leisure and I always had time to read for a least and hour before my shift was over so, it was all good.=0) There are some freaky things that happen at night though. The ice machine is possessed. It is I swear! You walk by it and it just randomly spits ice out at you! It does it during the day too, you just don't pay any attention to it when its noisy in the store. It always catches you off guard when you are cleaning something and and all of the sudden ice spits out!=0) The cooler doors open by themselves. On our walk-in cooler we have a big steal door that closes tightly with a large rubber gasket and I guess if it is shut tight pressure could build up and cause the doors to "pop" open. I guess, but half the time the door is just shut around and not tight. You hear the doors shut and you look up and around expecting a customer and no one is there...kinda freaky I say. There is also the strange phenomenon of the crate of soda jumping off the stack and spilling itself all over the cooler floor. Lashele, the assistant manager was really annoyed one morning when she came in to an entire flat of soda bottles all over the cooler floor. She brought up the camera footage in the cooler to take a look and found something strange. You can clearly see the flat off soda lift up and fall all over the floor and a soda bottle spins on the floor for 45 seconds afterwords. It just lifted up on one side on its own. Didn't fall or was disturbed, just all of the sudden it was on the floor as if it was pushed! Not sure what strange spirit is lurking in the cooler, but it likes to knock over soda bottles!=0)
Freaky people and things seem to happen in the world of convenience...stay tuned and I'm sure there will be more! =0)
No comments:
Post a Comment