One of the two elderly ladies at a table had left her small rucksack on the floor in the aisle. I asked her if she could move it out of harm’s way, explaining that I’d tripped over someone’s rucksack strap a while back, incurring a fortnight of lost earnings as a result of the injury.
This is what I’ve taken to doing — requesting and explaining to the customers — not only to avoid another accident but also to make them more aware of the consequences of their leaving their bags lying around with us moving in between the tables delivering heavy plates of hot food and collecting empty glasses.
The owner of the rucksack picked it up, thumped it down heavily under her table, and said in a gruff voice, “NOW you WON’T trip over it!!”
I told colleague Jennifer about this. She said, “What I do is to deliberately walk into their bags, then go innocently, ‘Oh, I didn’t see that!’.” When I first started at the Baker Street branch, I did use to purposely accidentally trip over outstretched legs and feet, just to raise their awareness, but I’m now six years older and don’t have the physical dexterity nor the confidence to do a fake trip.
(London, 2019)
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