Seed kills, Dell.
My laziness saved my life.
It was back last 1997, or '98. I was a backroom-boy at Target by then. One section of the backroom had these rows of shelves. About 12 aisles, (maybe more. It's been over 10 years since I've been back there.) The shelves were usually about 12 sections long, 12 sections high, with stuff stacked concrete-floor to the ceiling. As you can guess, the ceiling of the backroom of a major department store is pretty high.
So, we had these laser guns with keypads called LRT's. Each shelf had a UPCish code sticker on it, and we would scan the sticker with the gun. If it made a double beep sound it meant what needed to be pulled out for stocking was in that section and we had to scan everything on the shelf until we got a double beep. The screen on the gun would tell us how much of that thing we were supposed to pull out and put in a cart or tub.
I typed the code into the gun for what department I wanted to pull. I don't remember what department it was. Maybe it was housewares. I always went for the easy stuff first. Nobody liked pulling pets stuff. It was a tedious, and possibly a Hanta-virus catching task. (Mice thrived in the backroom pet food section. And in the warm clothes, too. WASH EVERYTHING YOU BUY FROM TARGET!!!)
So, I start at the bottom shelf at the front of the aisle. Let's say A101. I go over there, lean over and start scanning the sticker to see if there's anything on this shelf I need to get. As you can guess, things get scuffed up in a backroom, and it took some moving the laser around for the sticker to be read. Well, it wasn't quite getting it. I could've typed the sticker in, but I thought, “pft, I don't wanna lean over. I'll just skip it.” They frowned on skipping locations, by the way, but we all did it anyway. If we could get it from a less annoying location, then we wouldn't have to go back to that spot we didn't want to go through In the first place.
So, I stand up and start pushing the skip button. Too high...too low...too low...too high...too low...a little higher but still requires bending. I finally got to a location that didn't require bending, crouching, or ladder climbing. Nice, comfortable height - C112 (or something.) It's at the end of the aisle, so I go there and start scanning waiting for the double beep. Scan...beep. Scan...beep. Scan...beep. Suddenly I hear WHUMP!!!. I turn my head and see a 50 pound bag of bird seed had fallen from the very top shelf and landed right in the spot I would've been leaning over. Mike, the next aisle over, had knocked it down into my aisle. No vengeance, just stupidity. He was an irritant and careless menace to everyone in the back room.
At the time I just shook my head and thought, “...idiot...” and went back to my task. It wasn't until I got home a few hours later when I thought, “If I hadn't have moved, my head would've been squished like a cantaloupe on the floor, or my neck broken and be paralyzed for life.”
Moral: Laziness saves lives!
So does not working at Target.
It was back last 1997, or '98. I was a backroom-boy at Target by then. One section of the backroom had these rows of shelves. About 12 aisles, (maybe more. It's been over 10 years since I've been back there.) The shelves were usually about 12 sections long, 12 sections high, with stuff stacked concrete-floor to the ceiling. As you can guess, the ceiling of the backroom of a major department store is pretty high.
So, we had these laser guns with keypads called LRT's. Each shelf had a UPCish code sticker on it, and we would scan the sticker with the gun. If it made a double beep sound it meant what needed to be pulled out for stocking was in that section and we had to scan everything on the shelf until we got a double beep. The screen on the gun would tell us how much of that thing we were supposed to pull out and put in a cart or tub.
I typed the code into the gun for what department I wanted to pull. I don't remember what department it was. Maybe it was housewares. I always went for the easy stuff first. Nobody liked pulling pets stuff. It was a tedious, and possibly a Hanta-virus catching task. (Mice thrived in the backroom pet food section. And in the warm clothes, too. WASH EVERYTHING YOU BUY FROM TARGET!!!)
So, I start at the bottom shelf at the front of the aisle. Let's say A101. I go over there, lean over and start scanning the sticker to see if there's anything on this shelf I need to get. As you can guess, things get scuffed up in a backroom, and it took some moving the laser around for the sticker to be read. Well, it wasn't quite getting it. I could've typed the sticker in, but I thought, “pft, I don't wanna lean over. I'll just skip it.” They frowned on skipping locations, by the way, but we all did it anyway. If we could get it from a less annoying location, then we wouldn't have to go back to that spot we didn't want to go through In the first place.
So, I stand up and start pushing the skip button. Too high...too low...too low...too high...too low...a little higher but still requires bending. I finally got to a location that didn't require bending, crouching, or ladder climbing. Nice, comfortable height - C112 (or something.) It's at the end of the aisle, so I go there and start scanning waiting for the double beep. Scan...beep. Scan...beep. Scan...beep. Suddenly I hear WHUMP!!!. I turn my head and see a 50 pound bag of bird seed had fallen from the very top shelf and landed right in the spot I would've been leaning over. Mike, the next aisle over, had knocked it down into my aisle. No vengeance, just stupidity. He was an irritant and careless menace to everyone in the back room.
At the time I just shook my head and thought, “...idiot...” and went back to my task. It wasn't until I got home a few hours later when I thought, “If I hadn't have moved, my head would've been squished like a cantaloupe on the floor, or my neck broken and be paralyzed for life.”
Moral: Laziness saves lives!
So does not working at Target.