Brought To Tears In A Grocery Store

Sitting in my chair, checking customers out, while carrying on with the usual monotonous small talk such as:

“Did you find everything alright?”

“Hi, how are you?”

“Cash or card today?”

“Okay, you can go ahead and swipe it.”

“Any cash back today?”

“Have a good one.”

Me trying to act like i know where something is:

“That would be on isle 3.”

You know, I’m a person who absolutely hates small talk. Instead, let’s talk about your purpose in this life, your opinion on life after death, insecurities, how meditation has helped you live a clearer life, how you overcame suicide, etc…

But I guess that’s not ideal for an interaction with a customer.

See the problem here?

And the God awful phrase that I hear from 95% of customers:

“I only came in for (insert product here), but I ended up with all of this (insert fake laugh).”

What’s your point? Are you trying to impress me?

It seriously pains me every time I hear someone say this to me. If I had a dollar for every time…

Well, you know where I’m getting at.

I never understood impulse buying really, at least when it came to groceries. It blows my mind to think that the majority of people who come into the grocery store intend to buy just a couple of things, but leave with over $100 worth of groceries.

ANYWAYS.

One day, a lady with all of her young children came through my line.

I will be forever grateful that they chose my line, and for the interaction I had with that family.

I noticed the children were helping their mother unload groceries onto the belt. She was giving each of them commands, but in such a gentle, respectful manner. There were a total of 5 kids; one of those being a newborn that the mother was holding. Throughout the whole transaction she had a smile on her face. She actually asked how my day was going, AND was genuine about it. Her voice was sweet and gentle, making it pleasant to listen to. As they were leaving, the mother was telling me to have a great day as her children all said bye to me! Those were some of the most well behaved kids I have ever witnessed. Their parents without a doubt have done a great job raising their children. I told this lady that I wish all customers were like her, and I thanked her.

The extreme generosity of this lady literally brought me to tears.

You know what sucks? Not being able to let myself go and cry, fully welcoming my emotions. I had to keep my composure since we were super busy and I still had a line of customers. As I was checking out the lady next in line, something inside my core told me to go out there and thank that lady again.

So that’s what I did.

Even though we were pretty busy.

I told the next customer in line that I would be right back.

I ran outside to meet the family one last time before they left.

I thanked her for her extreme generosity and went on to tell her how I’ve been working in the grocery business for 3 years, and it is extremely rare for a person like her to come through my line.

You just don’t see many people like her.

She ended up introducing me to her kids as well as herself.

I ended up giving her a hug. I told her it was nice meeting her family.

And when she comes back through and I’m working that day to please come through my line again.

Never have I had an encounter with someone that literally brought me to tears, stop working and make several customers wait on me, to run out and thank them for being extremely kind.

I haven’t had an encounter like that even outside of work.

Thank you lady whose name I can’t remember for making an impact in my life. It shows how little acts of kindness can go such a far way.