Locked inside the fitting rooms

Today at around 14:30, I went to my local Woolworths store in the Secunda Mall in search of a few clothing items. After browsing the store for a while, I found some garments that I liked and proceeded to take them to the fitting rooms. At the entrance of the fitting rooms, I showed the garments to the store assistant who said that I could make use of one of the available rooms. I subsequently fitted the garments and selected the items which I wanted to buy.

To my horror, upon trying to leave the fittings rooms area, I found myself locked inside. While I was busy fitting on the garments, the store assistant had closed the main fittings rooms area door, leaving me locked inside. From inside, I could not open the door and needed to get the attention of somebody else to assist. I then proceeded to shout, bang on the door and walls, until another store assistant came to help.

Only about 10 minutes later was the door re-opened, ending my confinement. I spoke to the manager about this incident but she merely brushed it off as a human mistake. While I would be willing to accept this reason if it was purely a once-off occurrence, I cannot as this was the second such occurrence to me over the past year. The first time this happened to me was during April this year, with a very similar sequence of events. Had I not been able to get the attention of the store assistants while locked inside, there would have been a very real possibility of being locked inside the store overnight.

I find it very disturbing that Woolworths staff see little need to prioritise the needs of their customers, and even more so disturbing that their managers feel little sympathy in this regard. Clearly the management system in use by Woolworths at the Secunda Mall is failing. The store CCTV cameras should be able to verify my story above.

I truly hope that Woolworths reviews this incident and takes measures to prevent this in future. Fortunately, I was under little time pressure, but this could have been far more severe for someone else who may have other important commitments later in the day.