If Only All Our Customers Reacted So Well

I apparently have some kind of death wish, because I start working in a large store the last week of October. It is a frenzy, and I am put in charge of the Toys and Electronics sections, the two busiest sections for this time of year.

By the time Christmas Eve comes around, I am pretty comfortable in my role and closing the store. I am working with a training manager who is about my age but pretty out of touch with anything not dealing with hunting or sports.

We are getting ready to close the store and I hear wailing — not screaming, but it sounds like someone’s world is ending.

I round the corner and there is a woman losing her mind and my poor training manager just looks helpless. I get the mental “HELP ME” scream.

Me: “Is there something I can assist with today?”

Woman: “I’M THE WORST GRANDMOTHER EVER! I FORGOT WHAT KIND OF TOY I’M SUPPOSED TO GET MY GRANDDAUGHTER AND THEY ARE ON A PLANE, SO I CAN’T CALL AND ASK!”

Me: “Oh, no! Can you try to describe it to me?”

Woman: “It’s the one with the pictures.”

Me: “That doesn’t really narrow it down much. Can you remember anything else?”

Woman: “It says the pictures!”

While I am in my thirties, I don’t have children, but I can vaguely form a picture of what she is talking about. I can’t quite name it yet, but I definitely recall it from my days of being a youth assistant in my youth church growing up.

Training Manager: “I can walk you over to our infant section and we can look there and see.”

Woman: *Cutting him off* “I already looked there; I didn’t see it. They are going to ban me from being Grandma if I don’t get this toy!”

I highly doubt this, but [Training Manager] asks her to humor him, and they walk back over to the infant section. I have a hunch out of nowhere and walk to our tucked-away “Retro Toys” section, and there it is, staring me in the face: the “See-And-Say” in all its glory. I can barely hide my smile as I put the toy behind my back and track them down in the infant department.

Woman: “It isn’t here, it isn’t here.”

She just keeps repeating this over and over.

Me: “Ma’am, is this the toy you were looking for?”

She sees it and instinctively leaps at me giving me a surprisingly powerful hug.

Woman: “That’s it! That’s the toy! Oh, thank you, thank you, both of you! Thank you so much!”

Tears of joy are streaming down her face as she continues to hug both of us. After a few more seconds of gratitude, she puts the toy in her cart and says, in the coolest cool-granny way possible:

Woman: “Granny of the year, thanks to you boys!”

I never knew a ten-dollar toy could bring someone that much joy. Huh, neat.