Back from my holiday in Portugal and Spain, I find myself very relaxed and enjoying being home. I feel very appreciative of what being home means. My own bed feels great. It is nice to be able to do laundry when I want and to know how to operate the machines. My normal routines feel refreshed.
I went to the grocery store to re-stock my refrigerator and I again lost the check-out game – the ongoing challenge of trying to figure out which line will move the fastest. When banking, I almost always wind up being behind three people. One of those people wants to cash a cheque even thought they don’t have an account with that bank or government identification. The second person usually has a unique problem that requires the bank clerk (who is invariably a trainee) to consult with her manager several times. The third person is more often than not wondering why the transfer from a distant European country is not showing up in their account. Typically, at least one of the three also struggles to communicate with the teller. At the grocery store, my luck is often the same.
On this re-stocking visit to the grocery store, I picked a cashier who was nearly finished ringing-through a large purchase. It looked like a rare win. But, I was mistaken. The lady in front of me only had $170.00 and the bill total came to $183.75. So, the painfully slow process of deciding which items could be removed from the purchase began. The customer had trouble deciding what she did not want and the cashier had to scroll through a large number of entries on the cash register to determine what to delete. It took three tries to select the item to be deleted and to adjust the bill. The customer was very deliberate in counting out her bills in payment and the cashier was very careful in counting out the change for the customer. The cashier then helped the customer re-pack her bags in the grocery cart. This whole process probably only took a few minutes but as I stood there watching (along with the customers who had now queued behind me) it seemed to take much longer.
Fortunately, my appreciative mood had carried over to the grocery store and I did not react to the situation as I might normally. Standing waiting, I was enjoying being in familiar surroundings and being able to understand all that was transpiring. Still in a quasi-holiday mood, I was not feeling in a rush and I was able to really watch what was happening. The customer was one who, for whatever reason, required a more than normal amount of attention. The cashier was not bothered by the situation in the least and, in fact, seemed to be taking real pleasure and satisfaction from being able to serve this customer’s extra needs. The customer left with a sincere “thank you” and a big smile on her face. Turning her attention to me, the cashier was happy and brought that feeling into her transaction with me. I left the store glad that I had not allowed myself to feel frustrated by what, at other times, I would have viewed as a check-out game loss. I was able to enjoy witnessing and appreciating (and hopefully learning from) the contribution and effect that this cashier’s attitudes had on herself and her customers.