I witnessed a christmas act of kindness

LEJC

Just wanted to share this...as really we probably dont see as many acts of kindness at this time of year as we should...

On Saturday morning there was I stood with my shopping at the till waiting to pay...infront of ne a very old couple doing their weekly shop and loading their shopping as best they could into their trolley....and it comes to the time to pay and Mr hands over his cash total bill £46 or thereabouts.

At this point the cashier picks up a card from a pile by the side of her and swipes it ....clealy its a staff discount card and deducts a further 10% off the shopping and she gives the man his change and as she hands him the receipt she says "and I've taken a little bit extra off as a merry christmas from the staff"...

The mans face is so appreciative even though its less than a fiver off him and his wife left the store as happy as if they had won the lottery!

It was really clear that a number of staff had purposely put their staff discount cards on the side of this till for the cashier to distribute a litlle discount to the elderly....and I thought what a lovely christmas gesture...I'm guessing that its not a normal practice that would have been authorised by head office...but what the heck...it bought a smile to my face and brightened the faces of the old couple infront of me....

tenke

What a lovely anecdote, thanks for sharing !!!:j:T

I am really thinking what I can do as a kindness act this Christmas and the idea of going with some warm food and find a homeless person in the street, does cross my mind many, many times

Hope there are more acts of kindness this Christmas !!!:T:j

OrkneyStar

A kind thing to do.
Presuming though that management/head office knew about this, as if we'd done that off our own backs in the Coop we'd have got into trouble!

Rockporkchop

That's lovely. It does worry me a bit though as I have read so many stories on the employment board about people being sacked or disciplined for misuse of their discount cards (sone of them for the pettiest little things). Just hope the kindness doesn't come back to bite the cashier on the backside.

LEJC

It was indeed a large supermarket....but I wont name it as I think its fair to say that at best it was an act of kindness authorised at store level and certainly not head office.....but it did make me wonder that if more places who were in a position to do this type of thing for others particularly at christmas it would be such a nice thing to do in the community.

Person_one

That couple might have been loaded, while a less 'cute' looking customer might have been spending their last pennies.

I'm not sure I like the idea of supermarket staff deciding who deserves a bit of kindness.

bluenoseam

It's something that if it was a staff discount card would be very bad for the employee if it was a "store level" thing - it would be instant dismissal for a kick off under fraud! Chances are it's been a store level discount potentially based on performance - i.e. they've had a blinder of a year or they've reduced shrinkage sort of thing as opposed to staff discount.

Treevo

Could you please tell us which Supermarket this was so I can avoid them. As PersonOne has said, I don't like the idea that discounts should be given based on how cute somebody looks.

LEJC

I'm not here to judge the reasons behind it,or indeed who they allocate it to....I just saw it as a random act of kindness....of course I only witnessed it because I was stood behind it.....and im not to know that they were not giving it to lots of other people too who were equally deserving.....

Dunroamin

Perhaps they were relatives - it sounds rather dodgy to me.

Gillyx

Instant dismissal when I worked for one of the big 4 sadly. We had 2 cards so one could be given to a family member, but I do know the supermarket beginning with A don't even allow anyone but the card holder to use it, even a spouse. My OH works in the retail sector and even if we're shopping together and he uses discount, he has to be the one to physically hand over the cash.

A lovely gesture and I'd hope that the cashier doesn't get caught. Sadly technology these days catches a lot of people out. Something as simple as a few of the cards being swiped 2 or 3 times in quick succession could flag that up at a higher level than the store.