Next to the people escalator is a cart escalator, which would be a nice touch if it actually worked. In fact, for the first few months of me shopping at this store, neither escalator worked -- they finally got the people escalator going again a few weeks ago, though it sounds terrible; the cart escalator is still non-operational. Seattle has a real thing for non-functional escalators, which is sad to me as someone who loves escalators.
I'm not sure if I've ever actually seen a cart escalator before. As two-story HEBs become more popular here in Houston, I suppose the likelihood of me seeing one is increasing. Then again, I don't like shopping at HEB so maybe I won't see one, lol.
ReplyDeleteAbout 20-25 years ago, I was shopping at the Willowbrook Mall Sears here in Houston when someone had a panic attack or something on the escalator. It was a big ordeal and they had to call out the fire department and everything. The woman just started screaming. I suppose that's one escalator memory that really sticks out in my mind! In more recent years, that same escalator was often out of service at the same Sears. I didn't know if I should have viewed that as a sign that the store was about to close or if it was just a general sign of Sears' problems, but I guess it was ultimately a bit of both.
This is unrelated, but do you know anything about the Half Price Books Outlet in Olympia? Although HPB is from Texas, we only have one Outlet store and it is in Waco. Waco is not one of the bigger, more popular places in Texas. Looking at things in Google Maps, the Olympia HPB Outlet looks quite nice so I don't know if it started out as a regular HPB or what. I also wonder if HPB drives over their reject merchandise from their Seattle area stores to Olympia or what.
Huh, interesting! Admittedly, they're in no way common around here -- I've only seen them in multi-level Targets (and I only know of two of those in the Seattle area, plus one in Portland that I shopped at growing up but which is no longer there) and some Safeways with underground parking (but most just have stairs and an elevator). I think there are some multi-level Fred Meyers with them too, but the vast majority of those (all of the ones I've covered) just have normal escalators and an elevator.
DeleteYou know, I can understand having issues with escalators, though the middle of a moving escalator has to be one of the worst places to have a panic attack! As a kid, I got my shoe stuck in an escalator at least once, but somehow I don't have big issues with working escalators. Broken escalators are a different issue after I hurt myself rather badly falling on one (at the Northgate Target) a few years back -- I can't walk on a broken escalator anymore without being extremely stressed out these days.
As for the escalators being broken, I'm not sure how much I'd read into that! Escalators (at least around here) tend to be massively unreliable. That turned into a bit of a political thing for Sound Transit a few years back!
I'm not particularly familiar with Half Price Books in general (though what you said about Waco would certainly apply to Olympia too, ha!). Unfortunately, bookstores don't capture my attention the way they used to.