I work at a supermarket as a baker. Currently, due to the disease outbreak that’s gripping pretty much everywhere, we’re in lockdown and time has lost meaning. I get to work and there’s a massive queue of customers waiting to get in. It’s 6:00 am.

Customer: *To me* “Why isn’t the store open? Shouldn’t it open at 6:00 am?”

Me: “It’s Good Friday. We open at eight.”

There was a cry of various swear words, laughing, and then a mass of people leaving cause they weren’t gonna hang around for two hours.

Like many professors during the current health crisis, I am teaching my class online from home. I have online office hours every day, and I tend to lock myself in my home office so I can have peace and quiet when I’m talking with my students.

This morning I am holding office hours with three of my students, answering questions about a lecture topic. After ten minutes of back and forth, there seems to be general agreement among the students, but I want to make sure.

Me: “How does everyone feel about that? Any more questions?”

There was a moment of silence followed by a very loud “MEOW.”

My students heard it and started laughing from three different time zones. They got it, but apparently, the cat had gotten stuck in the office and she definitely had a question.

It’s lockdown time. My wife and I run out to our local market for some needed hunker-down supplies. This store sells pre-made deli sandwiches, and I decide to grab one for lunch as a morale-boosting treat, figuring the store’s normal sanitary procedures are good.

As I approach, I see two elderly women bent over the cooler where the sandwiches are sold. Stopping six feet away, I wait for them to move so that I can make my selection. Then I realize that they are squeezing every sandwich, discussing with each other which one is the freshest! They finally decided that one “will do” and move away.

Luckily, I have a sanitizing wipe with me. I eyeball the sandwich I want and wipe it down before taking it.

This isn’t a big thing, but it made my family and me smile.

With all of the health crisis stuff going around and the quarantine, people have been hoarding anything and everything. So, thanks to that, a lot of items have been limited.

When my mom and I went to get groceries earlier today, we were told that you could only get one bag of a “bread item” such as bagels. We usually get two as I like plain bagels and my sibling likes raisin ones.

So, not wanting to cause a fuss or make it so there won’t be enough bagels for someone else, we give it to the cashier to put back.

But the guy behind us, a cheery-looking man — as well as I can see with his mask on — with some gray hair says, “I’ll buy it for you, then.”

My mother immediately declines, thanking him profusely but saying there is no need. She had asked me if we really needed bagels when handing them to the cashier. I said we didn’t as we still had about three left. 

The guy persists and my mother explains that one of us likes the raisins and one of us likes the plain ones. 

After a bit more thanking and declining, we buy the rest of our groceries and get to our car to put them away in the back.

Then, randomly, the same guy pulls up in his car with the bagels! I am so surprised! For a while now, I have been reading about people doing these incredibly nice things for others but have not experienced it myself.

I have been feeling quite down during this trip to the grocery store because of the current situation our people are in.

When my mother asks the man why he bought the bagels for us, he says, “I couldn’t let this little girl—” I’m no longer a child but I’m only five feet tall. “—not have her bagels.”

After we thank him a couple more times, he drives off. 

It really gives me hope in these terrible times, and I hope that sharing this story here will inspire more acts like this in the future.

This story was included in our May 2020 Inspirational Roundup.

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I am a manager at a combined grocery and restaurant location; it is very well known and popular in my part of the country.

This is well into a “shelter in place” and “essential business only” situation.

This lady pulls up through the drive-thru, driving past other customers, and pulls up to the window. A secondary manager and an employee greet her at the window. She speaks demandingly.

Customer: “Go get my items from the grocery section.”

Coworker: “I am sorry, ma’am, but it is company policy that the drive-thru is for restaurant food only.”

She throws a few F-bombs and calls them a few names out of the book.

Coworker: “Again, ma’am, drive-thru is for restaurant food only, and handicapped people only have the option of calling in an order.”

She drives around to the front of the store, parks in a handicapped spot, and starts to motion the cashier out to her. The cashier walks out, points out that she does not have a handicap placard or sticker, and walks back in. At this point, she has dropped multiple more F-bombs and called the employees multiple names.

I have been doing inventory and have not seen or heard any of this until after this is all over. I come walking onto the line as this lady comes into the store, screaming and dropping still more F-bombs.

She motions to a lady with three kids at the front register, and then to another lady with three kids ordering ice cream, finally spinning around, almost hitting them as she flails her arms around.

Customer: “This is f****** why I didn’t f****** want to f****** come in here!”

I walk over as she storms into the grocery section.

Me: “Ma’am, I need you to stop yelling and cursing; there are children around—”

She screams and curses some more, moaning about how she is a caregiver and shouldn’t have to step foot in our store. I give her a second warning about cursing and walk away. The next thing I know, she is screaming at me over the shelves from the next aisle over.

Customer: “I’m not causing a scene; it’s your f****** problem!”

She’s trying to stand in line at the cashier at this point, about four customers back from the register. I walk around the shelves to her and take the half-gallon of milk she has in her hand.

Me: “You need to leave.”

She grabs her ID badge on her lanyard and literally hits me in the face with it, screaming.

Customer: “Do you see this? That means I’m essential!”

I look down at the apron I am wearing. I grab it up and fluff it in her face.

Me: “You see this apron?! This means I’m essential, too! Otherwise, I wouldn’t be here!”

The guy standing in front of her laughs, and the customer at the checkout hollers out:

Other Customer: “Thank you; she needed to hear that!”

She dropped her shopping and left.