Archived Biggest spill disaster of your retail career?

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2 years ago, a coworker was setting a wine endcap where we usually put the cereals so it was pretty wide. She thought she secured the 3rd shelf but it fell down when she filled that shelf with wine. All 3 shelves full of wine was destroyed. This was during xmas holiday and about 2 hours before the store opens.

I can't remember this very well. A vendor was setting up their display of a pallet worth of wines. I'm not really sure how it happened but 1/2 side of that pallet was destroyed and wine spilled all over in front of pfresh. It think we had the cleaning crew clean it up with their machine. This happened before opening as well.

Last december, a vendor was setting up an entire 4 ft with wine in mini seasonal. I don't know what happened. My area was nearby so I heard the entire top 4 shelves worth of wine crashing down. Our wine specialist helped the dude clean it up.

Last month, a mom let her little kid about a year or 2 years old play with a nail polish. It was dropped in my area. That was hard to clean up.
 
Something about wine....
Our nearby sister store had a vendor that overloaded an endcap, tipping the whole thing forward & shattering every bottle.
A TL sent a shot showing a huge red lake in their market area.
On a smaller scale, I was carrying a bucket of freshly-made mocha sauce to the walk-in when a passing FATM accidentally hit my arm with a box he was carrying & caused me to lose my grip.
Aside from the huge puddle, my pants, apron & shoes were casualties.
 
I was using the stacker to line up Coke pallets on the dock, and I forgot that the forks stick out because those pallets are so short...I accidentally punctured a few cases of Coke on the bottom of a full pallet. I couldn't do anything except wait for the broken cans to completely empty onto the floor.

Not a huge mess, but it was painful to not be able to stop it.
 
My absolute worst was my last day at Kmart years ago. I was mixing paint for a customer and forgot to close the lid on a one gallon can after putting in the color mix. Knelt down to put it in the shaker and dumped the entire gallon all over myself. The pockets of my vest were literally full of paint and it was everywhere. Took about two hours to clean up and seemed like an absolutely fitting end to my career there.
 
Broken cases on the (fast unload) line were my responsibility. So it was you-name-it. Seems like the more garlic in a product the more likely it was to break and leak. A lot of stuff was already broken when we popped the trailer. Interesting in the summer. Oil of any kind was a headache, detergents, fabric softener, bleach. Or combinations. Toss in some rancid cat food for variety.
 
Hardlinesmaster said:
Salsa sauce are one the worse spills ever. Please use gloves or you will have the sauce smell on you for 2 days.
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I came in one night and someone literally broke MP salsa sauce in the aisle, threw Xsorb on it and a caution sign and left it there. :mad::mad::mad::mad::mad:

Anyways, I bumped a uboat into those towers of Stella Artois and one pack fell, broke and flooded the floor. Wouldn't hear the end of it, everyone kept jokingly asking me to get them a glass or a straw. :oops:
 
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Eggs.

Had a tub filled with about 25 dozen eggs, turned a corner too fast and they all came crashing down. It was a chicken bloodbath.

Luckily I didn’t have to clean it, I just got the overnight cleaning guys to take care of it lol
 
In the backroom, another pop pallet casualty. Unfortunately, there were z racks parked nearby. We had a big clean up and defected so much clothing.
 
Too bad this is the retail spills thread. I have all sorts of ugly messes take place at my day job (package testing). Only some of them are the result of our testing LOL
 
SFSFun said:
I was using the stacker to line up Coke pallets on the dock, and I forgot that the forks stick out because those pallets are so short...I accidentally punctured a few cases of Coke on the bottom of a full pallet. I couldn't do anything except wait for the broken cans to completely empty onto the floor.

Not a huge mess, but it was painful to not be able to stop it.
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Been there, same exact thing.
 
Had to move milk pallets in the cooler, pulled them out and without thinking I sped over the bump back in and all 50 some crates of milk came crashing down into the cooler. No use crying over spilled milk they say.....
 
Right around labor day weekend. One of our vendors had a really nice display in adult bev right on the endcap. I'm in the middle meeting with the other ETLs and STL when we get a call over the walkie. TM needs LOD out on the floor for what sounds like a simple spill. We're all looking at each other wishing we could tell him to f*ck off. Called CA over to deal with it. 5 seconds later he calls a code green. We go barreling out onto the floor to find TPS, APS, and a few TMs around a woman in a motorized cart. She's obviously homeless, not at all sober, and had managed to take out the entire 4 foot vodka display. Oh my god, the smell, the glass, jesus never have I wanted to throw up more. Smelled like a f*cking sig chi frat party.
 
I didn't have to clean it, and my involvement largely includes standing nearby to watch the spill while brand attendant was called...

...but the biggest spill I've ever seen was an entire endcap shelf of wine. A vendor was resetting the shelf or something and one of the sides didn't latch in properly, so the shelf tipped aaaaaand... like 20-30 bottles of wine crashed onto the floor. HUGE spill. The entire aisle smelled like alcohol/wine for like an entire day.
 
Someone was pushing a cart to the salesfloor and it leaked some root beer or ginger ale everywhere she went. She came from the backroom going through baby hardlines, passing in front of electronics, into toys and then to seasonal. It was on a shopping cart so of course nobody noticed the bottom of the basket and just put their stuff on top. Whole back pathway of the store was blocked off until cart attendant was able to clean it up.
 
I had just filled the milk on the salesfloor and was bringing the backstock back and had a very tall pallet. As I was pushing it back in to the cooler in the back there was a slight hump I had to get over and couldn't put the pallet in there unless I used some force. I pushed it over the hump but it was too much for the pallet and the whole pallet of milk toppled over and busted all over the floor. About 15 gallons of milk spilled on the floor and I just stood there and watched it fall because there was nothing I could do. Took me about 2 hours to clean up.
 
Biggest I heard of- the milk guy took a corner too tight, clipped a shelf and dumped about half a pallet of product.

Biggest I saw- the Pepsi dc thought it would be a good idea to build their delivery on a pallet missing two boards on the end. When my vendor cut the wrap about 10 12 packs of pop fell and exploded all over the floor.

Biggest I caused- I was moving a pallet and set it down a little too fast. Three four packs of the gallon Arizona Teas where set partially hanging off, so they tipped off and exploded everywhere. That one sucked to clean up.
 
Old pic off reddit

p8d4j3kyww201.jpg
 
Laundry detergent spilled all over me, the ladder I was standing on and the floor below when the entire contents of the case fell through the bottom when I slid it off the shelf, it had been leaking and the bottom of the box just detached when I pulled it off the shelf. We think one of the four was not broken then broke after falling to the floor from the top shelf and exploded on to the other shelves. Oh what fun it is when you have to climb down a ladder covered in laundry detergent.
 
Bosch said:
Laundry detergent spilled all over me, the ladder I was standing on and the floor below when the entire contents of the case fell through the bottom when I slid it off the shelf, it had been leaking and the bottom of the box just detached when I pulled it off the shelf. We think one of the four was not broken then broke after falling to the floor from the top shelf and exploded on to the other shelves. Oh what fun it is when you have to climb down a ladder covered in laundry detergent.
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This thread is making remember all the horrible stories from my past lol

I once grabbed a thing of Tide off a top shelf. I didn't notice the cap was loose and it spilled all over my right arm
 
Aside from single cases falling and busting inside the trailer I thankfully haven't had to deal with anything huge at Target. The worst was when a casepack of apple cider vinegar was leaking and spilled on my pants...such a powerful stench from not very much liquid

After browsing this thread I'm kinda glad my store doesn't carry wine....jesus
 
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