I saw a pair of shorts in a shop window for dirt cheap, but it was Sunday, so the shop was closed. When I went back the next day, I found the owners, an old couple, standing right by the door, which I thought was perfect because I didn’t have to go in and could just point at the item. I stood near the door and called out, and the male owner came up to me.

Me: “Hi, this pair of shorts you have here?” *Pointing* “What size are they?”

Male Owner: “It’s [price]. It’s for a double bed.”

Realising he thinks I mean the bed sheet that is currently placed in front of the window, obscuring the view of the pair of shorts, I try again.

Me: “No, no, the shorts!”

I gesture with my hands near my knees where the shorts would normally end.

Female Owner: “Shorts, [Male Owner]! He wants shorts!”

Me: “Yeah, shorts — these ones behind here. What size are they?”

Male Owner: “No.”

Thinking he’s maybe hard of hearing and having trouble understanding me because of the mask I’m wearing, I go a little slower and a little clearer.

Me: “What size are they? Are they a small, medium, large?”

Male Owner: “No!”

Me: *Now baffled* “No?”

Male Owner: “No.”

Me: “Okay.” *Walks off*

I wonder how much they normally sell at that shop.

My state is in its fourth lockdown. I have been out of work since the start of the health crisis. I get a call about a job that I applied for a couple of months ago that I didn’t get but was next in line for. Great — they want me to start tomorrow. One problem: I don’t have all the clothes and shoes I need as I am very short on money and have been applying in several fields. So, I place a click and collect order for a superstore. The website says if placed by 12:00 pm, the order will be ready by 4:00 pm on the same day. I place my order at 11:30 and wait for a message to say it’s ready, but by 5:00 pm I’m still waiting. I ring the customer care, who puts me through to the store.

Call #1:

Worker: “I’m sorry, sometimes we have problems finding the items. Let me find out what’s going on and call you back.”

Call #2, half an hour later:

Worker: “I’m sorry for the delay, but we’re having problems finding all of your items on the shop floor. I have three team members looking out the back at the deliveries. I’m going to go and help look, as well. I just wanted to let you know what’s going on, and I haven’t forgotten you.”

Me: “Thank you. I really need these to start a new job tomorrow. Even if I need to substitute things, I don’t mind paying the difference.”

Worker: “No problem. We’ll work it out. I’ll call you back as soon as I can.”

Call #3, nearly an hour later:

Worker: “I’m sorry, but we were unable to find [pants #1] and [shoes]. We do have [pants #2]; they are the same colour and style. The only difference is [pants #2] are made of organic material and are slightly more expensive. Are those okay?”

Me: “That’s fine. How do I pay the difference?”

Worker: “Oh, no. Don’t worry about that. It’s our fault; we’ll cover it. Now with the shoes, we were unable to get them in women’s shoes. I do have several similar styles in men’s.”

Me: “Great. I don’t mind taking the men’s if they fit.”

Worker: “All right, it looks like you ordered size seven in women’s. What I’ll do is pull out a couple of pairs in men’s in sizes I think will work. When you come to collect your order, I’ll have a seat ready so you can try them on and see what works.”

Me: “Thank you so much. You have been amazing.”

Worker: “My pleasure. I’m sorry it’s taken so long to get it sorted out.”

Me: “No problem. You’ve really gone above and beyond to make sure I got what I need.”

Worker: “You’re welcome. See you soon.”

When I arrive, true to her word, everything is ready, including a sanitized stool for me to sit down a safe distance from everyone to try the shoes on. I find a great pair that is more expensive than the ones I ordered, but when I go to pay:

Worker: “Oh, no. It’s our mistake. Don’t worry about it. Good luck with the new job.”

Me: “Thank you so much. You really went out of your way to help. If it wasn’t for you, I wouldn’t be able to start tomorrow, and I’ve been unemployed since the start of the health crisis. This really means a lot.”

Worker: “I’m glad we could help. My manager said to do whatever I need to make you, the customer, happy and I’m so glad we could. Good luck with the new job.”

I thanked her again and asked for her manager’s name so I could contact corporate to let them know how amazing they were. Not only did she go out of her way to make sure I had my items, but they also covered over $50 in the difference and went above and beyond. I started the new job, and many months and two additional lockdowns later, I am still working and have just been offered full-time permanent employment.

To the worker, if you’re reading this, thank you so much. If it wasn’t for you going above and beyond and making sure I had what I needed, I would still be struggling to survive. You will never understand what a difference what you did made to me and my family.

This story is part of our end-of-year Feel Good roundup for 2021!

Read the next Feel Good 2021 story!

Read the Feel Good 2021 roundup!

I was lucky enough to graduate college right around when the health crisis hit. Finding a job in my preferred field became a lot harder, so in the meantime, I’ve been applying to just about every opening I come across. However, most of these jobs are retail or customer service, which I don’t have a lot of experience in. I tend to get passed over in favor of applicants who do, which is only to be expected.

But my not-at-all-tech-savvy father recently decided that the real reason I’m not getting hired is that I simply need to “show more initiative” by walking in and applying in person. He’s constantly trying to bring me to places that are hiring —- 99% of the time, I’ve already applied there online, of course — and will tell me to go in and ask the manager for a job, despite me explaining to him that pretty much no one does things that way anymore. Avoiding him is more or less impossible since I still live at home.

I’ve asked managers, in front of him, if they accept anything other than online applications, and I’ve taken pictures of signs telling job seekers to apply online. This generally works for only a few days before my father hears through the grapevine that someone somewhere got hired by just walking in, and it starts all over again. My heart goes out to every manager who’s had to put up with this kind of stubbornness before.

In the US, there is a serious retail labor shortage, and where I work is no different. I have had versions of this conversation multiple times.

Customer: “You really need to hire more people!”

Me: “I know, ma’am. Would you like to fill out an application?”

Customer: “Why the h*** would I do that?”

And yet people wonder why there is a labor shortage.

It was 7:30, and I’d dropped into my local pharmacy in order to grab a prescription on the way home. I went back to the pharmacy counter and saw a woman hovering around the counter, wearing a mask, so I did as I always do and stayed a safe distance back to wait. She turned to me, immediately, and I realized I was in for something interesting, as she immediately asked me if I was there for a vaccine. I simply replied that I was there to pick up a prescription, and I could tell from the way she turned from me that she was trying to find someone to complain to. Her attitude radiated impatience and a little entitlement, so I was ready for fireworks.

After a moment, a man came around the corner and started talking to the woman; it turned out that he was her husband. He had been looking for something on the shelves and couldn’t find it but was going to check again since they were still waiting; she requested he stay at the counter because he was “better at talking” than she was. He told her to just call for him when the pharmacists got to them and headed back off to go find whatever it was he needed.

She then proceeded to start making “ugh” huffing noises, like she was scoffing at the wait already, but she did it so often there was hardly a second between her scoffing noises. It was like a mini-tantrum to herself. I don’t know how long they’d waited before I arrived, but I had only been there for maybe two minutes, and I’ve been to the pharmacy enough to know their wait times at the counter didn’t tend to be long if there wasn’t a line, so there was almost no way she’d been waiting more than a few minutes before I arrived, as the counter and back half were empty except for a car or two outside.

After another second, the head pharmacist/doctor in charge approached the counter to ask what they needed, and she called for her husband in a clipped tone before starting off anyway without waiting for him to get back to her. 

Woman: “We’re here for our boosters.” 

Doctor: *Not unkindly* “We don’t take walk-ins after 1:00 pm, and we don’t have appointments after 7:00.” 

He could tell they didn’t have an appointment without having to ask, considering the hour, and his tone was mostly confused and a little concerned, like maybe they’d managed to book an appointment anyway and he was about to have to deal with a massive system issue. He was clearly anticipating fallout, either way. The woman opened her mouth, and I could hear the complaint starting in her throat through the half-second of tone she got out.

Then, her husband cut her off, emphatically and in a volume and tone that were almost teacher-voice-like. 

Husband: “No. He is telling us what he can and cannot do.” 

He then turned to the pharmacist and, in a pleasant tone, asked again about walk-in times so he knew when best to come back. The pharmacist walked him through using the app to make an appointment and clarified what vaccine they needed the booster for. The husband seemed almost pointedly pleasant when he talked, like he was making a point to his wife about how you talk to people when you can’t get your way. She didn’t say anything else except to ask what vaccine they had because, apparently, another of the same pharmacy carried the other kind, and when they left, they left quietly and with no further tantrums.