...make lemonade, and you might get $20 for your trouble, as well.
Last week we were doing some last minute Christmas shopping at Wal-Mart (for things we couldn't find on Amazon). It was two days before Christmas and the store was extra crowded and busy because people were finally able to venture out after being snowed in for the weekend. The lines to check out were incredibly long, but there was really no way around it. You just had to stand in line if you wanted to buy your stuff. So we got in line and waited about twenty minutes before we got to the register. While we were waiting, we were treated to a tirade of complaints from the girl in line behind us. She tried a couple times to find a manager to complain to, as well. I don't know what she was expecting from a manager. It's not like they were going to whisk her to the front of the line or anything. EVERYONE there was tired and frustrated and just wanted to go home, but EVERYONE had to wait in long lines to check out.
So the family ahead of us was getting ready to pay for their stuff. The mom took out her card to swipe it through the machine, and somehow she missed and the card bounced off the platform and flew through the air and incredibly fell down the crack between the register counter and the counter with the bag carousel on it. After staring at the spot where the card disapeared for a second in disbelief, the lady and the cashier start trying to get it out. The lady's two teenage kids were laughing while they were trying to help, and the lady was a little embarrassed about the whole situation and apologized for the delay. Adam and I were just amazed at the one-in-a-million chance the card had of falling into the tiny space between the counters. I felt bad for the lady and was trying to show her that we weren't mad or annoyed at this unusual situation that extended our already long wait in line. The girl behind us, though, was VERY annoyed and was letting everyone know.
After about five minutes of trying, they finally got the card out, the lady (carefully) paid for her stuff, and she and her kids gathered their bags to leave. Right before she walked away, though, she put a $20 bill on top of the bag carousel and told the cashier to put it towards our purchase. We thanked her, and tried to tell her that it wasn't necessary, but she had already hurried away before we could give it back. We stood there, kind of shocked. Nothing like that had ever happened to us before. We were sure, though, that it wouldn't have happened if we had been complaining like the girl behind us.
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2 comments:
It's worth mentioning that I am a serial whiner when it comes to standing in lines at the supermarket most of the time. However, on the occasion Lisa described in this post, I was surprisingly calm and resigned to the situation. I mean, I could easily see that every single line in the store was just as bad as ours.
So, instead of getting annoyed at the lines, I got annoyed by the stupid girl behind us who wouldn't stop complaining (often via expletives) about the lines. For a millisecond, I considered sharing the $20 that the credit-card-dropping lady gave us with the people behind us in line, but I was still way too annoyed with that girl to do so. So we got the full benefit of our patience and relative good humor with the situation. Who'd have thunk?
You know, that's a great example of "well, there's nothing we can do- so we really shouldn't complain too much." I think sometimes it is SOOOO easy to get frustrated, and I am definitely trying to just let things go- most things aren't worth getting upset over...Good job to both of you!
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