Foul weather friends: Walmart staff, bosses stranded overnight by Dec. 23, 2022, snowstorm reunite

A quick stop at the Chatham Walmart store to pick up cat food just two days before Christmas last year, turned into an overnight adventure for Randy and Bobbie Morton.

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The Chatham couple was among the nearly 100 customers and store associates who spent the night at the store due to a severe winter storm shutting down the roads on Dec. 23, 2022.

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Randy Morton said they had left the store and were returning home when police told them to head back to Walmart because St. Clair Street was impassable.

The couple was among customers and staff attending a snow sleepover meeting at the store Thursday.

While Randy would rather have made it home, Bobbie said. “I was excited about it. I think it’s an experience.”

Despite the situation, they had a good time.

“We sat in the naughty corner in the back,” joked Bobbie. “We stayed up all night, we told stories, and we played games.”

Many sang Karaoke and a birthday was celebrated.

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Keeping the situation under control and making people feel safe and calm was the No. 1 priority for store manager Judy Lagasse.

“There’s no guide on this,” she said of having nearly 100 people spend the night in the store.

“At the end of the day, you have to make sure your associates and your customers are safe and warm,” she said.

Lagasse recalled when the OPP called to tell her the roads were being closed.

“By 3:45 p.m. we knew whoever was in the building. . . were going to be here the entire night,” she said.

Lagasse and a team of associates got out some inflatable air mattresses and blankets to start setting up sleeping areas. Then they turned their attention to getting people fed.

Lagasse called on food assistant manager Harmeet Singh and food lead Ritik Sood to start cooking.

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It was a little crazy at first learning they had to stay then night, Singh said. “Then everyone started working together. . . it felt like a family.”

“It was a great night cooking for everyone, spending time with customers and associates,” he added.

“It was a new experience having everyone stay in the workplace,” Sood said.

There was nobody at home worrying about Sood that night, because he lives and works with his friends, who also stayed the night. “We just enjoyed it,” he said.

Mayor Darrin Canniff stopped by the meeting to congratulate the store on a job well done.

“I really see this as how Chatham-Kent comes together as a community,” said Canniff, noting he’d heard amazing things from people who stayed that night.

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Some storm-stranded people were dropped off at Walmart by emergency services, because there was nowhere else to go, he recalled.

“You opened the door and said, ‘Come on in,’ and fed them,” the mayor said, calling Walmart a “great corporate citizen.”

The Mortons enjoy coming back to Walmart.

“We know everybody now,” Bobbie said.

Lagasse said that night also let her get to know customers like the Mortons.

“It’s fantastic and we’ve got a relationship that’s flourished off of this,” she said.

Stranded customers were fantastic, Lagasse said, and there’s no better group of people she could have gone through the experience with.

“We just came together as one,” she added. “I couldn’t be more proud.”

Randy Morton said Lagasse “managed the situation like a pro.”

Calling it a Christmas miracle, Lagasse and Bobbie Morton said if they had to, they do it all over again.

But Randy is another story. He has a plan if another giant snowstorm hits en route to Walmart: “Turn around and go home.”

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