You meet the nicest people in the strangest places.
This time, I was at an office supply store to buy card stock for a church project. As I searched the shelves unsuccessfully for what I needed, I overheard a couple next to me talking about card stock. They had been looking for a while and hadn’t found what they wanted either.
After five or six more minutes in a deserted aisle, I dialed the store’s number and reached customer service. Suddenly, the store intercom blasted that a customer call was waiting. Apparently that isn’t allowed to happen. I watched a clerk rush to the phone and happily say:
“How can I help you?”
“We’re in the paper aisle and need some help,” I said. “Could you please send someone over?”
I heard the clerk laughingly and loudly tell someone “She’s calling from the store!”
Another clerk walked quickly over to greet us.
“Hi, I’m looking for white card stock, and I only need 40 sheets. Do you have anything close to that?” I pointed to the shelf filled with packs of 250 and 500 sheets.
Nope, he told me. I had to buy a 250-sheet pack.
Suddenly, the guy standing nearby said: “Well, that’s what we’re looking for, and we only need 80 sheets! Why don’t we split a pack?”
He was half of a really nice couple, the kind of people you’re glad to run into, the kind of people who say hello as you pass by.
A few minutes later, we paid for OUR paper at the register, and then split it in half: about 125 sheets each. Then we went our separate ways.
I don’t know why that moment made me feel so good, except this: Three strangers joined together and shared a little victory against a retail machine that doesn’t always work the way we want.
Yay us.
ROCHELLE RILEY is a writer and blogger whose posts here are about her personal adventures. You can read her columns at www.freep.com/rochelleriley and follow her on Twitter @rochelleriley.