So, I work at a store in an area that gets a lot of pop up storms at this time of year (think southeastern seaboard - aka Hurricane Lane). Sometimes these storms are gentle sun showers that last 10 minutes or less.

Other times, like today, they’re strong, pelting rains accompanied by lightning, thunder and wind. The clouds are so dark and heavy that it looked like it was 8 PM when it was really 4. This is my favorite time of weather.

I’m a customer host, and am closing GM side tonight. Per usual, both cart bays flooded. Luckily, GM side’s bay is 1/4 the side of grocery side. Unluckily, all I had was a mop to clean it up with.

I realize I’ll have to pull carts in from outside the bay soon and I can’t walk on wet floors; I don’t trust my work shoes to not slip, and my knee is barely 7 months out of surgery, still with a weak patella. I wasn’t risking it. So, I used the mop to push as much water to the drain as I could. I then spread the rest out so it would dry faster. I did this all while stepping in the few dry patches.

I now have 4 inches of nasty rain water in a mop bucket from ringing it dry. Front end coach comes out just as I’m finishing, looks at the bay, and said, “That’s the cleanest I’ve ever seen that bay floor and I’ve been here 5 years. I know you’re not maintenance but, when you close, can you clean the bay of whatever side you close? Just do each once a week?” Ffs.

Tl;dr: rained really hard, cart bay flooded. I tried squeeging the floor with a mop, ended up mopping bay floor instead. Now front end coach wants me to do both GM and grocery bays weekly.