Have you ever been to a mall where not only where you disappointed with the mall but also with the people who work there? Has that experience left a bitter taste in your mouth and you promise your self that you will never ever go back to that mall again?
You Must be wondering why I am asking these questions right? Well, that’s because I have been through such an experience. I shall tell you what happened.
3rd April 2010, I and my family decided to go to the Total Mall on the Old Airport Road. Agreed it was our mistake to go on a Saturday. We had to face the usual Saturday crowd.
We entered the mall, after looking at the ground floor stores, we wanted to the first floor. This is where our bad experience starts. We saw some escalators that go to the floors above. Now my sister has a fear of these escalators. You must be wondering why she is scared of some mere escalators. Well to answer those questions, I’m sure all of us have some or the other fears, like for example, heights, lifts/ elevators, etc.
Anyway coming back to the point, luckily one of the two escalators was switched of to be used as a staircase, now I have a question why do they need to switch of the operation to make the escalator as a staircase, when generally malls have separate staircases for those customers who want to go on the staircase. I have the answer to this question. The mall DID NOT have any Staircase for customers to go. Now you must be wondering how do I know, because we had asked one of the mall employees about the staircase. His answer to us was and I Quote, “We only have the escalators” with a big fake smile.
Since one of the escalators was made into a “staircase” my sister climb up to the first floor.
We had to the second floor. After reaching the second floor, we see that the entrance to that floor was blocked and there was no way we could go there. So we had to go the third floor, since that was the ONLY WAY to reach the second floor. We had to go through the entire third floor in search of the exit door of that floor to reach the second floor. The floor is so big, add the crowd to it, it took us almost 15 min to find the exit door.
When we finally reached the exit, and behold what do we see..? Another escalator, only this time it’s a flat one, where there are no steps, so that the trolleys can be taken smoothly. They looked liked those convener belts in the airports. ( I gave this description, so that you could understand what I am trying to say.)
Like it was going to be of any help to my sister, she started to panic. Before it could get worse, dad said that he is taking her away from here and try to find an alternative way. Me and mom went on that escalator. In less than, I think 10 minutes I get a call from dad, saying that we meet them at the exit of the mall.
After we came out and met them, dad said that he tried to find an alternative way to get to the second floor, but when he asked another employee there about it, he just said, cant you see that escalator is the only way. and turned his face and started walking the other way. That was it. That was the last thing to get on my dad’s nerve.
Dad caught hold of him, and shouted at him in Kannada. Since dad is fluent in Kannada, he gave the employee such a shouting, that he probably never heard in his life.
Some of you out there might differ to what I am saying. But let me tell you, this is our personal experience that we had in that particular mall. I have seen my sister getting panic attacks at just the mere sight of the escalators.
On a personal front, I for one will not want to go back in that mall. But if there are people out there who like that mall and want to go back there, well, like I always say
“To Each his Own.”
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