Focus on Gratitude

It was 7:45 pm on Tuesday night.  I had taken William to Rubio’s for Taco Tuesday and needed to pick up a few items at Walmart after.  Even though he does very well with later hours (I suspect he’ll be a night owl like his parents as he gets older), I tend to get stressed about keeping him on a schedule and the later it gets, the more stressed I get.

I know any trip to Walmart takes a minimum of 30 minutes.  With him along, it takes longer because OF COURSE he has to go to the bakery and see if they have a cookie, look through the “flip book” (the giant posters),  “play the music” (the music samples buttons), tour the toy aisles, the Halloween aisles and the Christmas aisles.

By the time we got to the registers, it was 8:20 pm.  There were 2 open on one end and 3 open on the far end, plus the self checkouts and all of them had long lines.  I decided to walk to the far end and evaluate which “poison” I was going to pick, knowing full well that which ever line I chose would indubitably end up being the one where the person in front of me would choose to pay with coins from their piggy bank, likely all pennies.  Because that’s just the way it goes.  Meanwhile, William was sitting in the cart getting sillier and sillier as the moments passed, because that’s how he rolls.

As I passed the middle check out stands, there was one register that had two people in line.  The person that was “up” was paying, the guy in line behind her had 2 items and he already had his credit card out.  I moved toward that register and realized that her light wasn’t on, so I started to pass it by, but then realized that she didn’t have the “lane is closed” sign out.  I hesitated.  I moved past, then back tracked and figured what would be the harm in asking?

Apparently, the guy in line had moved in without asking and my query triggered the cashier to point this out to him, in a good-natured sort of way, and she told me that I would be her last.  I thanked her, graciously, and teased that she was only taking me because I have a child who was up past his bedtime.  She smiled and admitted that was actually one of her reasons for taking me.  That meant so much to me.

I asked her if I could put her “line closed” sign up for her.  She looked surprised and handed it to me.  She engaged  William in conversation, he told her we had found Scooby Doo yogurt and he was going to try it out to make sure it was good, because he wanted it for his Scooby Doo birthday party.  She told him that was a fun idea. Then he told her he didn’t know if they normally stocked it, because there wasn’t a place for it on the shelves.  She told him that she would have to talk to her boss about that, since it was so important to him.

It was then that I realized that her name tag proclaimed her to be the assistant manager of the store.  And I’m betting that she will actually make sure that there is Scooby Doo yogurt in the store for William’s birthday party in a couple months.  And now I’m thinking I’ll write a letter to that Walmart and tell them how wonderful she was to me.

Someone once told me that if someone means something to you to be sure and tell them.  It’s funny the things that stick in a person’s mind, but that is one of those things that just bored its way into my memory… there is so much negative in this world, especially in retail.  If I can be the one positive thing in someone’s day, I’d like to try. She took the time to make sure some of my stress was alleviated, I think I can take the time to tell her how grateful I am for that.