I made what I consider a real doozie on the PA tonight. Like at most 24-hour Wal-Marts, parts of the store, like the Service Desk, close overnight. So I made the closing announcement for the Service Desk. Usually, it goes like this:
Ladies and gentlemen, the Service Desk is now closed, and will reopen at 7 AM. If you wish to make a return before that time, you may do so at any open register. (Repeat once)
As always, we thank you for shopping at Wal-Mart, and have a safe and pleasant evening.
This time, the announcement went like this:
Ladies and gentlemen, the Service Desk is now closed, and will reopen at 7 AM. If you wish to make a return before that time, you may do so at any open register. (Repeat once)
As always, we thank you for riding Met… er, (losing composure) shopping at Wal-Mart, have a safe and pleasant evening, GOOD NIGHT!
I’m going to DC on Tuesday, so admittedly I had Metro on the brain while I was making the announcement. But the way I was going on, you’d think we’d just arrived at Vienna and I was putting a train out of service, the way I was thanking people for riding Metro, rather than for shopping at Wal-Mart.
I probably would have kept my composure if not for the fact that a coworker nearby started laughing once I goofed up. Once I see someone laughing after I mess up, I totally lose it. After I finished, another coworker said, “Could you repeat that page?”
You know how it is, though… you make enough pages, you’re bound to screw one up eventually. The question is how bad will it be when that PA system blooper is made.