Another warm day in the Valley of the Sun.
Here's a nice little story from last night. I stopped at a Safeway after the program yesterday to pick up some snacks and a bottle of wine. It was a modern store and had all the departments. There was a good selection of wines and I selected a Liberty School and one other for my stay. It took me a little longer to find a few other things in the store.
I had forgotten about Safeway's "club"membership program to get the best prices. We had encountered it at Tahoe when we were stocking food at the retro condo. The store's standard prices without the membership card make you cringe. But in this case, I was/am only making that single visit, so I wasn't inclined to fill out the paperwork to get the discounts.
While in the checkout line, a mother with two little girls came in behind me. One of the girls reached for a separating bar laying on the other side of the moving surface, but she couldn't quite reach it. So I moved it just enough so that she could grab it and position it to separate their purchases from mine in the order of things. And the mom nudged her with the gentle reminder, "And what do you say?" And the little girl dutifully responds, "Thank you."
So the cashier starts ringing me up and, having already decided that I wasn't in the market for a Safeway card, I idly asked about the whys and wherefores of club membership just to make conversation. It only took him a few seconds to pass my purchases through the scanner, and he was responding to my question as he hit "total". As he was offering to make me a card member, the mom reached over, punched in a number in the key board and said, "Please, use mine."
On a $45 bill the card saved $8.50. 20%. That's significant.
Two observations: 1) Safeway has to make millions per year on non-card purchases. I think that that is technically called a rip-off. 2) And much more importantly, a very small gesture on my part was immediately, spontaneously and graciously returned. I'll remember that little exchange much longer from this trip to PHX than anything I have heard at this conference.
Hope everyone has a good weekend.
BCOT
Philosophy, History and Commentary from Lt. PC
2 comments:
LOL kevin!!! i have a friend who detests walmart so much that if she and her husband go, she waits in the car!! i think we'd also see a correlation between people with mullets and people who shop at walmart......or people who wear nascar t-shirts/hats......
I once went with dad to Farm & Fleet to buy new tires and not only were we waiting at the door when the store opened, dad was wearing a LEATHER NASCAR jacket. I was so embarrased.
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