The first thing I did was stroll slowly towards the obverse end of the store. I needed to find out what Larry Jones, the Supervisor on duty wanted or counted upon us to do. I knew Howard was up front because he was the number one cashier for this hour of the day. I could see he was OK as I passed by heading towards the office in the front of the store looking for Larry Jones. On the other hand I had not seen Little Mikie yet. Except, the only thing I could think of is he must be out on the floor somewhere working. What specifically he had been doing when the Earthquake happened I had no idea; nor can I recall exactly what it was Mikie was actively doing at this very moment.
There were four of us working in the outlet right now. Knowing what to do next or to have some kind of direction would be very helpful right about now. From my point of view, we were in a hazardous situation from what I had witnessed happening right in front of me. Trying to take care of customers and trying to clean up the clutter and damaged areas throughout the market at the same time. Who was going to do what and how were we to go about it was the next thing on the agenda? At least as far as I was concerned it should have been. I was looking for some kind of leadership, someone to take control and give the orders by chain of command. Which was Larry Jones' responsibility to do that job. Larry Jones was the person that was supposed to be in charge, the person to make the choices that were to be made for the preservation of all concerned.
I finally caught up with Larry Jones and he revealed to me that Tim Carroll the General Partner and store manager had called to ask if the outlet was all right. I do not recall Larry ever saying anything about Tim asking if any of his employees were unharmed and not afflicted. I do not even recollect being told about Tim asking if any customers had been hurt. Tim's only interest was for the store it seems and that was the only impression I received during the consequence of his actions. Larry apparently told Tim "only about 15 bottles fell and broke. Contrarily he could not see anything else indifferent as far as Larry knew at the duration". Larry said to Tim, "Not much to fret about right now". Larry also felt in addition and said to Tim, "we can handle it".
Nevertheless, Larry had only seen the damage on aisles one through four and Larry presumed aisles five through seven were OK. In the retail business I was always taught never to assume anything for any reason. Larry had not taken the time yet to walk aisles five through seven. If Larry would have Larry might have noticed the damage on aisles five through seven, which was a disaster. In fact, I was on aisle seven and I knew what we were facing but I couldn't appear to get it across to Larry. Larry Jones did not sound like he heard anything I was claiming. Then Larry went and saw it for himself and discovered how right I had been about the loss in that area of the outlet.
Larry then had to call Tim back and transgress the bad news to him. Larry had to indicate and let Tim know there was more damage in the store. There was more breakage than Larry had accounted for to Tim on the first phone conversation. There was more ruin than Larry had originally anticipated or thought that there was and he mentioned to Tim, “It might be best if we close the store." But Tim told Larry to "Delay closing the store until I get there to see it for myself. Then I will make a decision as to rather to close the outlet or not. I want to walk the floor first". Tim told Larry, "I am already in route and in transient" from the cellular phone in his truck. It was total chaos and the situation was out of control in my surmise. Now we were informed we would have to linger until Tim arrived to see the physical state of the market for himself. At that point Tim would make his findings after he saw the havoc on his own. Then the question could be answered as to rather or not to restrict Liquor Barn.
Larry should have been given the authority right there on the spot to close the outlet. Tim should have had enough trust in Larry's judgment to give him the permission to do it right then and there on the spot. In fact, Liquor Barn should have been shut down forthwith after the Earthquake. Instead of having to wait on Tim to make that choice, lives were in danger is all I knew for certain. Something needed to be done before people were cut on broken glass and spilt spirits on the cement floor where they could slip and fall on many aisles, not just one in particular. Aisles five through seven were the worst damaged. On aisle six was where most of the exposure of slipping and falling on the broken glass could occur. Customers were still doing their holiday shopping with no consideration for anyone but their selves. Jumping over spilt liquid on the concrete surface with broken glass. I had to do my best to keep them from hurting themselves. I even offered to get whatever kind of Liquor they needed or wanted. Rather than take the chance of them obtaining substantial injuries in the process. All of the employee's generosity provided Customer Service to the extreme or to the hilt.
I ran back to the warehouse and grabbed as many carts and trash cans as I could find. I brought them out into the store to block as many aisles as I was able to in order to keep people from going down the aisles. I did it to protect them from injuring themselves on the jeopardizing situation that had befallen all of us. Which, it seemed did not phase any of the customers or management at the time. I felt more dissimilar than they did. When the Earthquake happened I was in the area where most of the waste had occurred. My feelings were of a fearful nature on account of what I had experienced during the Earthquake and what I felt and saw as it happened. The very next thing to do was to get the aisles blocked for the safety of all concerned. I then headed back to the front end after I was paged to help check out the customers as fast as we could to get them on their way and out the door.
Finally, after some time Tim shows up to walk the store. Realizing the condition the outlet was in at the time after his appearance. Tim made a decision to close it without much hesitation after viewing the situation. Which should have been done earlier right after the quake struck. However, it was not done and Tim's typical way of handing most things as par for the course. Tim brought his wife along with him to help with the clean up. So he must have already imagined we could use more help with the clean up. Right after that Amanda returned to help too. Amanda had been in the building earlier working long before the Earthquake hit us. Amanda had only gone home a few hours before we were struck. Amanda had the experience of the Earthquake from home.
Tim ordered the store shut and service suspended and we went about getting the customers out of the market as soon as possible. The front gate was pad locked to the dismay to customers just arriving for the first time. It was advertised we would be open today. Apparently they had not noticed the Earthquake earlier or did not really care, have any concern for or think much about it. Then we all pitched in on the clean up work involved. Tim the traffic cop had arrived to make an even bigger mess by giving orders on how to clean it all up. Tim is good at playing traffic cop and not knowing a thing about what he was trying to do in the process. As time went on and we were getting a handle on the situation, Tim was still demoralizing trying to decide if he could still reopen the outlet back up. Yeah, right. I do not think so. It would have been impossible as there was way too much damage with broken bottles and spilt liquid all over the place.
When Tim came to the conclusion there was no way that it could be done. His wife along with Amanda left for home leaving the rest of the employee's on duty to do the rest of the clean up work involved on our own. Now we did the rest of it as if it were a normal closing, which it was not the case at all this time? About the time we had the outlet almost back in order again. With in an hour or so left to finish it, barely, presentable and back in shape, another after shock hit that was in the neighborhood of being a 4.4 magnitude. I yelled out, "Oh my God! Not again." If more bottles had fallen off the shelves this time I would have been out of there and gone. Having a job or not at the time. Little Mikie said, "We should be getting Hazard pay for all of this we are doing". He was right we should have been, as Tim never really appreciated any of our efforts. Not then and not now, not ever in Tim's eyes. Blocking the aisles saved him from a lot of future lawsuits that may have been otherwise to the contrary.
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