Service with a Smile

We've all been victims of bad customer service, whether it's a lousy waiter, an indifferent cashier (my "Have a nice day!" is often greeted with a grunt, if anything at all) or an incompetent mechanic. So when I actually get good customer service, it stands out in my mind that much more.

Today, I needed to dash out to Walgreens on my lunch break for a couple of items: a box facial tissue and a roll of toilet paper. I needed the box of tissues because the supply in my place of employment seems to have evaporated. Even if it hadn't, though, the brand my company purchases is so cheap and rough that I'd do just as well wiping my nose with plywood, so the least expensive brand at Walgreens ("WOW! ONLY $1!" the box proudly proclaims) was a step up. And while my company had not run out of toilet paper (and never will, since the building management provides it, not our specific company), La Casa del Terror just about has--the roll in the bathroom is down to just enough to make me look at it and say aloud, "I'd better pick some up tomorrow," but not enough to make me actually remember to do so until that horrible moment when the last sheet is used up...and it's not enough to finish the job literally at hand.

Today, though, something clicked into place--the sight of a co-worker walking in with a Walgreens bag, maybe?--and I made the aforementioned dash.

I found the tissues easily enough, and this particular Walgreens, located in what used to be a Woolworth store (damn, I miss those), had four-packs of inexpensive but good-quality toilet paper (my neighborhood Walgreens stores often run out of these). I grabbed what I needed and beelined for the first avaible cashier who, much to my surprise and momentary annoyance, looked exasperated as I set down the four-pack of toilet paper. "The individual rolls are on sale for 39 cents each," she explained, grabbing my four-pack and moving as quickly as she could down the Paper Goods aisle, returning a few moments later with four individual rolls in her arms, her chin keeping them from toppling to the floor. She scanned one, multiplied that times four, and swiped the coupon in this week's ad (which I hadn't even bothered to look at). I thanked her more than once for her kindness and went on my way back out into the sunshine of the first day of spring (which is deceiving, considering that Chicago is under a Winter Storm Watch and is expecting 6-8 inches of snow by tomorrow evening).

This probably doesn't sound like a very big deal, but consider: Most cashiers would have let me buy the four-pack for twice the price of the sale item, rather than telling me that the individual rolls would cost me half as much. But this lady got my back, and that brightened my day. I'll take--and appreciate--whatever help I can get.