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It’s a big task to take care of maintenance in a grocery store.

A lot of square footage, all kinds of mechanical issues, the list goes on and on.

And if workers don’t take care of the place, there are gonna be some issues.

But I’d venture to guess that most folks would probably never see something like this coming!

A grocery store employee shared a story about how things went sideways in their store…

And let’s just say that it wasn’t pretty!

Let’s take a look at what happened.

Crickets?

“This happened a number of years ago but it is a story I still tell and probably one of those work stories I will never forget.

I worked for a supermarket, on this particular weekend we were having a heatwave.

As I worked in one of the non-food sections this particular store never switched on the AC.

The next day was a big day.

The next day we had a major visit scheduled, some extremely high profile higher-ups were coming for a store walk around. Remember this.

Naturally everything had to be perfect for the next day so we were super busy with a massive job list and an attempt to keep the shop floor as tidy as possible.

A customer asked me for help, a normal question, I had to get something from the warehouse for them.

On the way I remember seeing a cricket toy on the floor. At the time, our toy section sold some life sized very realistic cricket toys. I took note so I could go pick it up after I was done with the customer I was helping.

Yuck…nobody likes bugs!

On the way back, I bent down to pick up the toy and it moved.

It was no toy at all, it was a real cricket.

I suddenly hear one of my co-workers from the next aisle along, she was the sweetest little old lady who just worked a few hours in the week to buy stuff for her grandson.

I ran around the corner to help her as she is running towards me with her hands in her hair ruffling her hair around. I look down the aisle and we have 5 more crickets down the aisle. Real life crickets, and one of them just landed in my co-workers hair.

Oh boy, this was about to get interesting…and gross!

Remember how I said they never switched the AC on in my section? Well they were testing it for the big visit the next day. They had not switched the AC on for so long that a bunch of crickets had made a nest in the air vent and rained crickets down onto the shop floor.

Me and this co-worker stared down this aisle, baffled at what to do. It was definitely one of those ‘I do not get paid enough for this’ moment. Also I do not do well with bugs at all.

That’s when a few customers came over to ask what was going on, to which I only pointed and said the word ‘crickets’.

The customers also stared down the aisle dumbfounded as we were.

Nobody knew what to do.

My section leader then comes over thinking there was trouble with the customers.

When we explained, she too did not like bugs and stared with the rest of us.

The security team seeing a big group of us then decides to come over, once again they did not know what to do.

So there we were, 2 colleagues, 1 section leader, 2 members of security, 5 customers baffled why we had crickets raining down upon us.

A coworker saved the day.

It is that moment a women who worked in the bakery section comes over with a huge box scoops up all those crickets like a pro.

She walks past us all nods like a champion and says ‘My lizard will feed well tonight’ and walks off.

And thus ends the tale of when my place of employment tried to recreate one of the plagues of Egypt upon us on a casual Sunday with crickets rather than locusts.

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I no longer work there, but the store does now use the AC in that section regularly. Whenever I hear it go off as I am shopping I do look up nervously to check, you can never be sure, LOL.”

This is how folks reacted on Reddit.

This person weighed in.

Another reader shared their thoughts.

This individual had a story to tell.

And this Reddit user chimed in.

Well, that was pretty interesting!

Like I said, you gotta keep a store clean and well-maintained…or else things could potentially get ugly in a hurry.

Take that to heart, friends!

That was a pretty disgusting work experience!

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a bus driver who is sick and tired of covering everyone else’s weekend shifts.

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Author

Matthew Gilligan