Paying So You Can Move Forward

Yesterday, I had a rare interaction at a grocery store.

I had gone to get several things and went through the register with very little wait. I got out to my car and realized I had forgotten a couple of small things. I went back inside and went to the aisle where they were located, but didn’t see exactly what I was looking for. 

I spent about five minutes deciding on what to get instead and headed to the registers. There were several open, and none of them seemed to have more than one customer, but every customer had a lot of items. I hate self-checkout, so I finally picked one where the customer seemed to have the fewest items.

I got in line and noticed they were a young family: Dad, Mom, toddler, and baby in a sling across Dad’s chest. They were still unloading their cart when Dad looked at me and saw that I didn’t seem to have much.

Dad: “Do you have many items?”

I showed him what I had, and he said:

Dad: “You know you can use the self-checkout rather than waiting.”

I kind of resented that he seemed to think I didn’t know that.

Me: “I hate self-checkout.”

He then looked at the Mom, then back at me, and picked up my two items and handed them to the cashier, who rang them up and put them in a bag.

Dad: “So you don’t have to wait for us, today your things are on me.”

I tried to thank him, but he was too busy with his family to pay attention, so I left. My total was less than $6, I think, but I was very grateful to this young family. I will look for an opportunity to pass it on in the near future. Maybe I will even do it more than once.