Today I went to my local Sainsbury's to do my weekly shopping. Run of the mill stuff...grey...rainy...the usual London way. Should have been non eventful but something happened on the way out. I couldn't leave. Nor could anyone else.
On my way out, I noticed a bit of a crowd at one exit to the market. They were all standing around with a perplexed look on their face. No one was terribly excited, they were all just milling about. Almost as if there were some big celebrity in their midst and they were waiting to get a glimpse. I'm not the stars truck type so I just kept walking to my exit. As I made my way, a couple of Metro Police made their way in. Still nothing unusual at this point so I kept on walking. As I made it to the entry way to drop off my cart, I started to realize something was going on. The automatic double door was closed and there were about 15 people standing outside trying to get in. Okay, now this is not right. People standing around inside and people standing around outside? What's going on???
So I put my cart in the queue and make my way down the exit. It's locked. Strange.
At this point, I start to feel guilty. Obviously, not that I had done anything wrong but because I was trying to think how to get out.
Next to the cart drop off point, there is a Starbucks. Your run of the mill, American channel that is part of the grocery store. It has a separate door that at this point wasn't locked. So as I make my way to the door to get out, a security guard stops me and says I can't leave. Nor can anyone else.
I ask why and he just says that no one can leave.
Again, I ask why and he says that no one can leave.
No one can leave? What is this? How can you tell me that I can't leave?
It's a grocery store? What the hell is going on?
For a minute he walks away, with the door still unlocked and I plan my getaway. I gather up my bags and make for the door. Unfortunately, there were so many people in front of me that by the time I got a chance to get out, he was back.
I'm sorry you can't leave. No one can leave.
No explanation other than the fact that we're stuck. At this point a couple of other Rackers asked me what's going on. They were just as curious as what's going on. I had no explanation of course. So we stood around for a couple of minutes. Then the doors opened. People could leave and come in. We then went about our day.
But really? How can this happen. How can you forbid people from leaving? As it turns out
the police were evidently looking for someone but were so clueless as how to find them that they closed the store. No one could enter or exit. Fortunately they must have found them and then opened the doors. So this leaves me wondering does that ever happen in the States? What kind of place am I living in? In my previous 36 and a half years I have never experienced such a thing. 6 months in London and I am given the privilege. In the grand scheme of things it was only a couple of minutes. But for those couple of minutes I really started to wonder about how great this city is.
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