Thinking about your Thanksgiving toasts? Making a list of all the things you\u2019re grateful for?\u00a0 I\u2019m adding new entries this year, a cadre of stalwarts who deserve way more credit than they likely ever get.<\/p>\n
Friends, I give you the Grocery Workers on Thanksgiving Week.\u00a0 Will you join me in raising a glass?<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s to the lovely woman in the friendly green branded shirt motoring past me on a mission.\u00a0 Even at that speed, she noticed me frozen in place in front of the canned fish, searching with furrowed brow for smoked oysters. \u00a0Brakes applied, she offered assistance, unasked:\u00a0 \u201cHelp you find something, ma\u2019am?\u201d\u00a0 Of course, the oysters were right in front of me, a fact she kindly neglected to point out.<\/p>\n
And raise your glass high to her colleague, similar shirt with hair net, who appeared magically out of nowhere, a retail EMT dashing to the scene of the emergency.\u00a0 Ignoring the grocery-aisle speed limit in my typical infernal hurry, I tilted the cart just slightly, like a race car on two wheels rounding the final turn. \u00a0A six-pack of beer (bottles, naturally) on the lowest cart shelf chose this moment to leap toward freedom, crashing loudly on the floor, each occupant rolling in the direction of its own choosing.\u00a0 \u201cAre you OK, ma\u2019am?\u201d she inquired kindly, stooping to chase the rollers I hadn\u2019t yet caught.\u00a0 Oh, yes! I mumbled, mortified.\u00a0 Just wondering if any of these are going to blast a top and spray me any second now.\u00a0 She patiently checked each cap as she returned them to captivity in the carton, securely placed in the deep part of the basket.\u00a0 \u201cThey look OK, but get them to check them one more time when you check out,\u201d she advised.\u00a0 If her look indicated concern about anyone who would shove a cart at that speed, she was too nice to mention it.<\/p>\n
Hail and thank-you to the butcher, who volunteered, unsolicited, to check the stock room for the particular bone broth I sought.\u00a0 If our gravy tomorrow is any good, it\u2019s all down to him.\u00a0 \u201cHow many would you like?\u201d he asked, breaking open the carton of containers.\u00a0 Are you kidding, I wonder silently, I have no idea, counting on my uber-chef sister-in-law to coach me on gravy.\u00a0 Like all the greatest cooks, she rarely mentions specific quantities.\u00a0 \u201cThree!\u201d I chirped, a wild guess, and reached for them.\u00a0 Yet he wasn\u2019t finished assisting.\u00a0 \u201cCan I get you a basket for these?\u201d\u00a0 Who ARE these people, I\u2019m thinking at this point—escapees from a remote monastery populated by saints?<\/p>\n
Finally, lift those glasses high for the smiling young man bagging the purchases at checkout.\u00a0 Efficiently wedging the last bag into the cart, he looked me in the eye and inquired, \u201cIs there anything else I can do for you today, ma\u2019am?\u201d<\/p>\n
I stared at him for a splint second and wondered—where does all this COME from? A great retail operation that actually hires and trains for customer service—a business that manages, all news reports to the contrary, to have plenty of staff on the busiest day of the year?\u00a0 The friendliness endemic in our lovely small town?\u00a0 The heritage that embraces all celebrations (and the preparations they require) in our beloved American South?\u00a0 Some combination of all of these things?<\/p>\n
Nope, I got it! I assured him, adding, Happy Thanksgiving! with the biggest smile my exhausted self could muster. \u00a0And thinking all the while:\u00a0 You and your friends have already done so much more than you know, restoring my faith, today of all days, that customer service is not really dead, that kindness still exists among strangers, that there\u2019s a chance I\u2019ll actually having decent gravy for my family.<\/p>\n
And you don\u2019t know it, I said silently to his back as he turned to push a cart for another customer and I waited for the glass exit door to slide open, but I\u2019ll be toasting all of you tomorrow.<\/p>\n
Note:\u00a0 G-ma receives no benefits from any commercial enterprises associated with her stories.\u00a0 She is delighted to acknowledge that the story shared here occurred at Publix in Hendersonville, Tennessee.\u00a0 Cheers to that team!<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Thinking about your Thanksgiving toasts? Making a list of all the things you\u2019re grateful for?\u00a0 I\u2019m adding new entries this year, a cadre of stalwarts who deserve way more credit than they likely ever get. Friends, I give you the Grocery Workers on Thanksgiving Week.\u00a0 Will you join me in raising a glass? Here\u2019s to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":2458,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,7,12],"tags":[232,231,233],"class_list":["post-2457","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-holidays","category-humor","category-mid-life-adventures","tag-giving-thanks","tag-thanksgiving","tag-toasting-workers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gmachronicles.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2457","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gmachronicles.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gmachronicles.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gmachronicles.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gmachronicles.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2457"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/gmachronicles.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2457\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gmachronicles.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2458"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gmachronicles.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2457"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gmachronicles.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2457"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gmachronicles.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2457"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}