Empty Shopping Baskets

This afternoon, I went to the supermarket for my weekend paper. The store was so busy. There were long lines at every checkout stand. I thought I was smart that I picked the shortest one. There were only three customers ahead of me but our cashier got an item with no bar codes. It took him awhile before he got the right number to punch into the cash register and completed that order. In the meantime, a lady in front of me was unloading her groceries from the shopping basket onto the checkout counter. When she had placed all her groceries on the counter and wanted to return her basket, she could not reach the stack of empty baskets underneath the counter. Sometimes it happened to me too when I wanted to put the empty basket back. Since I was closer to the stack of the empties than her, I reached out for the stack and held it for her, just like many others did for me. After this shopper placing her empty basket onto the stack, she realized I had only one item to buy. Immediately, she offered to let me pay for my newspaper before her order. I did not think what I did for her was a big deal. But this lady did not take my simple gesture lightly.

My encounter in the store this afternoon does not seem to be eventful. But it does illustrate that kind gesture is infectious. - Ayee