Unmask business killer

INTERACTION: IGNORING CALLS, BAD LIGHTING BOUND TO COST STORE

- Tiaan Herbst

Late one evening about six months ago, my wife and I were heading back to our home. It was dark, and when we reached a service station I remembered from previous visits, it looked shut. The place was so poorly lit that we assumed it was closed, which was frustrating since we needed milk and some groceries and were running out of time.

This seemed odd because I'd shopped there before - even on Christmas Day - so it struck me as unlikely they'd shut down so early in the evening.

Ignoring the darkness, I took the exit and drove through the truck parking area, hoping to find what we needed.

Sure enough, hidden beyond the dimly lit lorry park, there was a 24-hour Woolies fully stocked with everything we wanted.

Predictably, given the lack of exterior lighting, we were the only customers in the store.

It seemed like they hadn't sold a drop of fuel since sundown.

Curious, I asked the young cashier what was going on and half-jokingly wondered if there'd been some criminal tampering with the lights. "Why are all the lights off outside?" I asked. He casually replied, "Oh, I think the last guy forgot to switch them on at the end of his shift."

That was it - no rush to fix the issue, no one hurrying over to a switch. When we left, the place was still in darkness.