On New Year’s Eve, after returning home from an out-of-town trip, I made a quick run to the grocery store. I needed to pick up something for dinner and enough snacks to get us through a night of many boardgames and and attempt to stay up til midnight to greet the new year.
In case you have never been to the grocery store at 4:00 on New Year’s Eve, allow me to give you some advice: don’t. Because everyone and their uncle will be there. You will park far, far away from the door. And you will sigh deeply as you find aisle after aisle difficult to maneuver. And you will wait in long — very, very long — lines when you finally get to the checkout area.
Or maybe that was just me.
Anyway, let’s just say that things were rather crazy at the grocery store.
And they were so crazy that somewhere between paying for my groceries and getting out the door, I dropped or misplaced or otherwise lost a gift card for the aforementioned grocery store.
(Small bit of background, not that you asked for it: We purchase grocery store gift cards through C.’s private school and do most of our shopping with those cards. It serves as a bit of a fundraiser for the school, and gives us a percentage off tution. Win-win.)
The gift card I lost was partially drained, but there was definitely still some money on it. And by the time I realized it was missing, two days later, I didn’t even know where I might have lost it and figured it was gone for good.
First, because there was no identifying information on it.
And second, because I was pretty sure that anyone who found a gift card lying around would rejoice in their discovery and tuck it away in their wallet.
While I was bummed about the loss, I just hoped that it was found by someone who really needed it.
Imagine my shock, when, 2 days after that (4 days from the original loss), I got a call from the grocery store, asking if, perchance, I had dropped something in their store within the last four days.
Incredulous, I asked if it was a gift card. And it was.
Someone had found it lying in the store, and rather than tucking it in their wallet, had turned it in to the store’s office.
And then the manager went out of her way to track down where and when the card had last been used, and whose store discount card had been used with it… and then located my information and called me.
I was surprised, thankful, and amazed to be reunited with the gift card. And to be honest, I was a bit humbled as well. Humbled that the extra kindness — out-of-the-way, above-and-beyond kindness — of two nice people had saved me from my own flusteredness or disorganization or whatever it was that led to losing the card in the first place.
I truly appreciate their kindness, and I am officially on the lookout to pass that same kindness on to someone else.
wow what a great act of kindness by both! Love reading these kinds of moments!!
PHEW! There are good people in the world!! I have a bad track record with wallets. The one I lost while filling up the rental car just outside of Yosemite National Park got returned to me, with the driver’s license, without the cash, just hours before I needed the ID to get on my plane back home. The one that I dropped in our local grocery store’s parking lot was there waiting for me, completely intact, the next day, when I realized that I had misplaced it. I just wish my guardian angel would help me keep from losing them in the first place…you’d think that’d be an easier task? If I encounter an obviously important lost item, I always do my very best to try to find the rightful owner…I need the “pay it forward” credit!
That really is incredible! Always amazed by the kindness of strangers.
That is awesome and amazing.
I too tried to go to the grocery store on New Year’s Eve around that same time. After circling the parking lot and not finding anything, instead of going over way out to the side of the grocery store, I decided that I could wait on what I thought I needed.
well that is a great “feel good” story – what a treat!
Stories like this make me think there is hope for humankind! Thank you for sharing!
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That is truly amazing, both that someone turned it in and that the staff took time to try to track down who it belonged to.
Wow, isn’t that wonderful that the kindness of two strangers was a blessing to you. We bought scrip cards through our parochial elementary school and now through our church. I like that it helps the charity out and it’s less $$ on my credit card at the end of the month (even though I always pay it off). And that percentage really adds up for the charity.
THAT is definitely a unique story! What a blessing!!
AMEN!
What a heart-warming story
Wow!! That is some seriously wonderful customer service right there. Not many stores would go through the extra trouble to figure out whom it belonged to.
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