21 November 2010

Random Acts of Senseless Kindness

I'm the kind of person that if I see someone struggling to carry things or someone who can't find an item in a store, I will stop and help if I can. I often share helpful tidbits with random strangers. I point lost children back to their mommies and pick up items that people may not realize they have even dropped. I fix turned up collars and sleeves. I will tell you if you have something on your face or in your teeth. I give directions to people on a regular basis. I didn't think this was such a weird thing, but evidently not everyone does this. I thought I'd share of few of my especially helpful moments recently.
  • I was in Kroger in the cracker/cookie aisle when I heard an older couple next to me talking about how they couldn't find the goldfish crackers that were individually packaged. If you shop at Kroger you know that these are located at the other end of the aisle with the other individually packaged crackers. So I kindly spoke up and said I couldn't help but overhear what they were looking for and pointed them in the right direction. I mean the woman had a coupon and I wanted her to be able to use it. I'm pretty sure they would not have located the goldfish without my help.
  • I encountered a woman in Target who was struggling to reach the Wesson oil that was on super sale from the top shelf. I offered to help mentioning that I didn't know if I was much taller, but I would give it a go. She looked at me and said "I don't think you are any taller, but you are much lighter and can climb on the shelf." This was exactly what I was thinking, but I didn't want to say it. So I proceeded to climb on the bottom shelf and reach her all of the remaining bottles of oil, including the one in the very back. She was very impressed with my reaching skills. Fortunately, I have lots of shelf climbing experience. I do it often :-)
  • One time I politely told a woman that she had left the size tag sticker on the side of her jeans. She was quite appreciative that I didn't let her continue to walk around the store like this. 
  • And my favorite one, last night after my shift in the ER, I stopped at Kroger to get my turkeys for Thanksgiving. I am at the self check out (because I always check myself out) and the man behind me asked if I had a Kroger Card and if he could borrow it. I of course do and was glad to lend it to him so he could save a few bucks....on his beer. Hey, I earned fuel points thanks to his beer! 

1 comment:

C.G. Koens said...

Yeah, I do that quite often as well. I mean, if I couldn't find something or if I had toilet paper stuck to my shoe - I would really want someone to help me! :-) It's just the nice thing to do. And...I'm an experienced shelf climber, but I also have no qualms grabbing tall men and women to help me. Usually they're pretty nice about it. :-)