Is This Clerk The Mindreader Customers Have Been Seeking?!

My husband and I always bring chips, veggie dip, crudité, and his homemade hummus to Thanksgiving Dinner. Two days before the holiday, I stopped at the grocery store on my way home from work to buy what we needed. There was exactly one crudité platter left that had fresh-looking vegetables and — bonus! — it had a big, sparkly, red bow on top. When I got to the checkout, I put it last on the conveyor belt so it wouldn’t get crushed.

When the checkout clerk reached the platter, she exclaimed:

Clerk: “Oh, look at that! It’s so pretty!”

Me: “Isn’t it nice? And it was the last one left!”

Clerk: “I can’t find a price or a barcode on it.”

“So, that means it’s free, right?” ran through my head, but as a longtime reader of NAR, I squashed it and instead prepared to wait a couple of minutes while the clerk called someone for a price check.

Instead, she handed me my receipt.

Me: *Quietly* “Did you just give that to me for free?”

Clerk: *Smiling* “Don’t tell anyone!”

Me: “I won’t! And happy Thanksgiving!”