The cashier and I finished our transaction. I stood aside. The manager came. I told her that I'd noticed that the alarm had been going off like that for at least two weeks.

After telling me that it was driving her crazy, as well, she wondered why this was important to me. I told her I felt it was a labo(u)r issue, and that "as a customer I'm free to speak and you can't fire me or stop me from coming here." She agreed with that.

She told me that they'd scheduled a tech visit for Monday (two days hence.)

I asked her if they couldn't just turn the thing off. (An alarm that sounds constantly is no alarm, anyhow — so it's useless, first of all. It's torturous, too, and abusive by neglect. [The cashier who'd served me was at register #1, closest to the front door, working cheerfully in that miserable condition.]) The manager said that it would be impossible to simply shut off the noise.

On that Tuesday, I happened to go in when there was a technician fixing the gate/alarm device. He said that they could have turned it off at any time.

I didn't want to hang the technician (at least not while he was on-site [even though he'd spoken freely,]) so I waited until the next visit before I told the manager what he'd said. She was not impressed.

She invited me to call the corporate customer service number. I didn't.

I just wanted to say something — to make a formal complaint on behalf of those who cannot or will not — or just wouldn't think of it.