[neon5077]

In the early days of the pandemic, the retail chain I worked for had a curbside delivery only policy. No customers in the store period, you had to call us and we'd bring your whatever out to you.

No amount of signage on the door would stop people walking in. I stacked a bunch of boxes physically blocking the door and people still forced their way in.

The only thing that worked was putting a strip of blue painter's tape across the doorway directly at eye level.

I have long since stopped trying to make sense of other people's behavior.

[sandspar]

I've spent a couple of years working in customer service. I was continually mystified by people's behavior. I would spend a large amount of time trying to comprehend why they did something and couldn't gain any purchase on a possible answer. Some people's behavior had an element of randomness in the sense of not adhering to a pattern.

[bagels]

A bunch of stacked boxes are really ambiguous. Did someone stack them there on accident, or as a prank?

[neon5077]

No, that's not it at all. This was after multiple conversations with the same person explaining the situation. There was signs on the door, on the boxes, with giant type, highlighters, bright colors, the works.

This was people explicitly ignoring any and all signals contrary to their desires.

The confusing bit is that a strip of tape with no other context is what stopped them. Probably just that it was something so outside of the ordinary experience that it forced them to actually engage their brain for a moment.