Customers You Remember

You meet quite a few interesting people when you work with the public.  Interestingly enough, last week I met two nonagenarians in the same day that really stuck with me.

The first gentleman came in looking for his travelling companion who was inside the store and, according to him, was taking too long with her shopping.  One of the other employees and I made some small talk with him then he pulled out his driver’s license and showed us the date. He was born in 1914. He then told us he is 98 years old and proceeded to show us how he can still jump and lift his leg onto my counter. 

He was quite the character; then he pulled a picture out of his wallet. He showed it to us and it was him in a large tree. He showed us the date on the back of 1994 and said that it was from when he was 80 years old. I asked why he was in the tree and he replied, "To show everyone that I could do it."

The second customer arrived about an hour later and told me that he had just turned 90 and just bought a new car. I told him about one of our managers that had also purchased a new car similar to his. My manager and the gentleman started talking about cars and the customer expressed concern that he wasn’t able to close his sunroof and his head was sunburned from it.  He had a good sense of humor about the situation and my boss offered to go help the gentleman figure out the controls for his sunroof.

I kept working then needed my manager about a half hour later and could not find him.  I looked outside and he was just coming back into the store. He told me about how he had helped the gentleman program his radio, figure out the sunroof controls, and adjust various other settings in his new car to his liking. 

Days like this are what keep us coming back to work every day.  It’s those customers that stand out in your mind for positive reasons that make working in a grocery store fun. I hope both of these customers reach 100 then come back to tell us about it.