I Feel Like I'm Beating A Dead Horse Here, But MY GOD I Don't Think People Realize How Stupid Other People

I feel like I'm beating a dead horse here, but MY GOD I don't think people realize how stupid other people are unless you've worked retail. Or, not even stupid, but they just believe the rules don't apply to them.

I'll give an example.

I work in a coffee kiosk inside of a grocery store which has two main entrances/exits and a third through our liquor department. Management decided that on weekends, the entrance (technically) in the middle would close/lock at 8pm, even though the store doesn't close until 11pm. This is kind of stupid to me, but I also see how empty the store is around 8, so eh, not my problem. The kiosk also happens to close at 8, and also also happens to be situated right next to the now-locked entrance/exit.

Between the kiosk and the registers there is open tile, though not really a lot width-wise. Management, in all their wisdom, locks the door at 8 sharp, and puts a dandy little sign in the middle of this walkway. I'm kidding about the little part - this sign is about two and a half times bigger than your common Wet Floor sign.

Notice earlier how I said the sign is in the middle of the walkway? That means that people have to ACTIVELY walk around it in order to continue on the the doors. Barrier 1, ignored. Now they are at the automatic doors, which are not opening. Because they are locked. This is when they really notice something is wrong. Barrier 2, noticed but ignored. Instead of looking at the paper, eye-height sign on the door that says THESE DOORS ARE LOCKED, they instead push on the automatic doors like that's a normal way to open them. Barrier 3, ignored.

My coworker and I are finishing up closing around this time, and we get to watch the fireworks. We could be kind, and stop these poor souls from getting too far in their fruitless journey, but after so many back-and-forths of

"Sir you can't go out that way, those doors are locked."

"Wh-But that's the way I came in!"

"I know sir, but now they're locked."

"Well that's stupid!"

"I know sir."

a barista gets tired. Eventually, either they get frustrated and walk away from the locked doors, or they turn to us and ask why they aren't opening.

This sometimes leads to my favorite exchange:

"Those doors lock at 8pm."

"Well they should put a sign up about that!"

"They did ma'am. You walked right past it."

Sometimes there will be a modicum of shame, but most of the time they just walk off. But the best part will always be when someone else watches this exchange go down, walks right up to the doors, and expects them to open anyway.

Humans are truly a wonder.