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Please let me know if I am blowing this out of proportion or if I am justified in being upset. My girlfriend, my 18 month old, and myself were at the mall today shopping for some dress pants for the baby. We were in JC Penney at closing time when I looked at the time on my phone. I watched my phone roll from 5:59 to 6:00 and at 6:00:02, someone comes over the speaker asking everyone to leave the store through the north entrance, that the store was now closed. It seemed odd, that customers weren't asked to check out first with what ever they already had prepared to purchase instead of immediately asking them to leave, but I didnt really care since I didn't find what I was looking for any how. We were closest to the south entrance to Jc Penney which connects the store to the mall. This is the entrance we needed because our vehicle was on the opposite side of the mall. It has been my experience that department stores at closing time will close all but a small area, to let people get back to where they parked at. 30 seconds after the hour, a full 28 seconds after the original announcement came on the loud speaker,my family along with approximately 30 others arrive to the south entrance to find it completely blocked off. A few of us asked the staff that was just sitting there if they would open the door so we could walk through the mall to get to our vehicles. The lady told me that security locks the doors and there is nothing they can do about it so I asked her to call security so that I can ask them myself. I felt she was lying about who locks the doors, and this was confirmed when she told me that there isn't a way to contact security. This was an obvious lie. When I asked her what the point of having mall security was, if you can't even contact them if there was some sort of emergency, but she couldn't answer that one. Frustrated, we started following the walk way to the north exit. This walk way passes right by the east exit and I couldn't help notice the swarm of people randomly trying different doors to try to get out but they were all trapped. A pregnant woman was even told, "too bad" when she tried to explain how she needed to go through that exit. We left out the north exit, walked around to the east, passed the east exit, and continued a couple more feet to find a mall entrance still open right by the south entrance(mall entrance) of the store. In other words everyone had to walk the exact opposite way to exit, walk around the perimeter of the store to the first mall entrance to get to their cars. I flagged a mall security guy down who informed me that they are not responsible for locking doors, the stores are. On our way back through the mall I couldnt help notice how crowded it still was, with business still open and customers still shopping. For those businesses that were closed, their doors were half closed or gates half pulled down but still accessable for customers who needed to get out. I passed by Sears, Macy's, and Dillards and every last one of these stores had every entrance to the mall wide open.
As I walked through the final store needed to get to my car, I went ahead and asked an associate if there was a way to contact security in case of an emergency. She responded with, "of course!" To me, there is no doubt in my mind that with customer service like this, it is no surprise that jcp is having to struggle to not meet the same fate as montgomery ward. At the very least, isn't locking customers in the store dangerous and maybe against fire codes?
As I walked through the final store needed to get to my car, I went ahead and asked an associate if there was a way to contact security in case of an emergency. She responded with, "of course!" To me, there is no doubt in my mind that with customer service like this, it is no surprise that jcp is having to struggle to not meet the same fate as montgomery ward. At the very least, isn't locking customers in the store dangerous and maybe against fire codes?
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