Shut Your Mouth and Get out of My Store

This is what I repeated over and over to a ranting, raving, loud, manic man tonight.

I was on the first floor when a couple of customers told me a man was out of control on the second floor. I hopped upstairs and found one of my peeps, my Inventory Manager, trying to get Crazy Red Jacket Man to leave.

Over the years I have unfortunately had a good amount of practice in getting the out-of-control and off-their-meds people to vacate the store, but they always create a big scene when they do. Using our walkie-talkies, I told my staff to call security and the police.

One of the tricks I use to get said crazy person to leave is that I start saying 'let's go' while slowly walking down the stairs to the front door. It works every time, because they want to follow me to continue their rant. I've learned that they will not leave if I just stand there and repeat repeat repeat that they must go.

I've also learned that they stop again just short of the front doors and begin their rant again, because they now have a big audience (people waiting in line at the registers, people in the cafe, etc.) This is where I again walk slowly toward the front doors, open them, and wave them out the door. The whole walk n talk sounds simple, but it really does work..most of the time.

Tonight, Mr. Crazy Red Jacket Man wasn't leaving, so I took a chance--I took two steps forward, completely invading his personal space, looked him firmly in the eyes, and repeated, "Shut your mouth, and get out of my store," over and over until he finally started to leave. Of course that was the point at which security showed up.

Following an 'episode' such as this, I always get feedback from my customers and my staff. I apologized to my customers that they had to see that, to which they always respond, "It's ok. I thought you did a good job." And my staff always asks me if I'm ok, which is nice. And then my staff and I spend the rest of the evening laughing about it, because really...haven't you always wanted to say "Shut your mouth, " at work and not get in trouble for it?