Wednesday, 1 March 2017

Lockdown Situation?

Here's another sign which requires some careful consideration. If I go to Wimborne Market early on a Friday, I often call in at the nearby Waitrose for a few small bits and pieces - plus my free Waitrose weekend magazine and cup of coffee. The car park is one of the council ones - but money is refunded if you buy £10 worth of goods in store.Flour and golden syrup were on offer, so I stocked up for Tuesday's Pancake Party.Here is the sign

The part which caught my attention was the line below the scale of charges. It is a somewhat ambiguous sentence.

What does it mean?
Is it 
[a]the basement car park is locked 30 minutes before the store closes and before the store opens
[b]the basement car park is locked 30 minutes before the store closes and 30 minutes before the store opens
[if a or b is true, then when is the car park ever unlocked??]
[c] the basement car park is LOCKED 30 minutes after the store closes and unlocked 30 minutes before the store opens
[d]the basement car park is locked 30 minutes after the store closes and unlocked before the store opens
Personally, I only ever park on the top floor, to avoid any risk of lockdown
at

4 comments:

  1. VickiEY1 March 2017 at 13:19

    Obviously they wanted to fit the sentence all on one line and clarity was a secondary consideration! Must be the effect of council cuts. Made me smile though! Vicki

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  2. Fat Dormouse1 March 2017 at 16:11

    Gah! How confusing. I assume it means "It is locked 30 minutes after the store closes until 30 minutes before itr opens again" (that is, over night) but it's not very clear, is it?

    ReplyDelete
  3. Kezzie2 March 2017 at 18:27

    Ha ha yes! We had a staff meeting on reading inference the other and we discussed the phrase: Professional thieves operate at this statikn, and discussed how a child might misinterpret this in their mind and I happened to comment that is one inserted a colon after 'thieves', then it could conceivably be interpreted as an invitation!

    ReplyDelete
  4. PixieMum2 March 2017 at 19:29

    When we visit Darling Daughter we often go to that Waitrose, very small parking spaces and scary to me drive down to the lower levels.
    I find it interesting how different branches of that store vary in their stock, they seem to try to match it to their perceived view of the clientele. There is much variation in our two local branches which are barely two miles apart.

    ReplyDelete

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