This Charity Itch Is Well And Truly Scratched
A customer comes up to me with a lottery scratch card.
Customer: “Hi. My grandma bought me some scratchcards for my birthday from here, and this one says I won $10,000. Is she pulling a prank?”
Me: *Scanning the card* “No, she isn’t! This is a winning card. Congratulations!”
Customer: “Wow… so, what happens now?”
Me: “We’re not authorized to deal with that much money, so you’d need to contact the lottery guys. Their number is on the back of the card.”
He thanks me, and normally that would be noteworthy enough. A few days later, he’s back.
Customer: “Hi. Do you remember me?”
Me: “I do, and congratulations!”
Customer: “Thanks! So, I used about $3,000 to pay my grandma’s credit card bill, but I have $7,000 left. Could I use it to pay for customers using food stamps?”
Me: “I… I’m not following.”
Customer: “My grandma and I were on EBT, uh… food stamps for a while, and it was rough. We’re a bit better off now, especially now that the credit card is paid off! I want to help others on food stamps. I was kinda hoping I could, like, camp out today and offer to pay for the groceries of your customers on food stamps.”
I was NOT expecting that, and so I have to call my manager. My manager’s response:
Manager: “Well, we can’t stop you.”
And so Mr. Scratchcard does just that! He hangs out at the small café near the checkout lanes with a coffee and a book, and whenever a customer comes by with an EBT card, he offers to pay for their groceries himself. There is confusion, smiles, tears, and hugs.
He is there all day, and at the end of the day, my manager approaches him.
Manager: “You’re going to go down in memory at this place for a very long time.”
Customer: “I still have over a thousand dollars left, though! Oh, well…”
Mr. Scratchcard was back a week later to finish up the rest.
That was almost twenty years ago now, and it remains the single kindest act I have ever seen.