Kindness In A Bottle

I usually save up my can and bottle recycling for when I’m pretty broke and need groceries. I took my recycling to a store in Downtown Crossings in Boston and noted that the plastic bottle machine was out of order. I took care of my can recycling and then counted my plastic bottles as another grocery store allows it.

When I went to the customer service desk, I asked about counted bottles and was told yes, they allowed that. I said, “Thank you; that’s basically my grocery money for the rest of the month.” It came to about $15. I was told to go wait in the small eating area they have in the main store with my cart, and I thought they needed to get someone to take the full trash bag.

When the cashier came back to me, she told me that she and a coworker wanted to help, so they got me a $50 gift card to the store. I was in tears and was so grateful for the card. She also gave me an ad so I could find sale items and make the card go further.

When I went to the registers, I told that cashier what happened and that I wanted to talk to a manager because they have awesome employees. The customer service cashier was called over but didn’t want me to give a compliment; all she wanted was for me to pray for her.

Living on Disability and needing a new computer made this last month pretty difficult because I couldn’t get any editing jobs, but thanks to this woman and her coworker, my month became much better. I did call the next morning and tell the store manager and he was delighted to have such wonderful employees. And my four brothers replaced my computer for me, so now I can get some editing jobs and not have to worry about groceries.

This story is part of our Recycling roundup!

Read the first Recycling roundup story!

Read the Recycling roundup!