by Nancy Linenkugel
Contributor
Editor’s note: Global Sisters Report welcomes a new weekly blogger to the site, Sr. Nancy Linenkugel.
Negotiating my half-size shopping cart down the aisle, I stop at the section of shelves holding the powdered lemonade products. Let’s see, what am I looking for . . . ? Hmmm, I see an empty space on one shelf with only the empty tag as a placeholder. My luck – what I want is on sale, but quicker customers ahead of me bought it out.
Since I don’t want to make a second trip, I decide to check on store inventory. By good fortune, there’s a fellow stocking shelves nearby. I say, “Excuse me, sir, but are you in charge of these shelves?” “No, ma’am, I work for the cracker company and I’m just stocking their products. But let me find someone to help you.”
He leaves his cracker-filled pallet and soon returns with a store employee who is immediately helpful. She uses her computerized inventory “gun” to scan the shelf tag, sees that there is more product available, and tells me she’ll be right back.
In the meantime, I chat with the cracker stocker. “How many stores do you service?” I ask. “I’m in this store every day. For years this had been the number one busiest store in the entire U.S.A., but now it’s number two. This store really isn’t all that large but the volume of sales – wow.”
So we talk about that a little more.
Finally the inventory gun girl returns and says that “Michael” will be out soon as he’s finding the product in the stock room. Several more minutes pass, I have more conversation with Cracker Man, and then Michael appears along with the inventory gun girl. Michael says, “I can’t find this product in our stock even though the inventory control shows that we have nine more in the store and there are several cases en route in delivery. We should receive this later today. I’m really sorry.”
I thank all three of these helpful folks and say that I’ll pick up this product the next time I’m back for more shopping. They all return to their duties and I continue trolling the aisles. Customer service is certainly alive and well in this store.
As I approached the checkout about 10 minutes later, I hear a fellow calling, “Ma’am! Ma’am!” I turn around and guess what – Michael and Cracker Man are speeding toward me holding out the very item I needed. Michael said, “I found more in a display elsewhere in the store, which explains why the inventory showed it was available and I couldn’t find it.”
I was really delighted, thanked them profusely, and said, “God bless you both. You’re the best.” Michael said, “Thank you, lady, and God bless you, too.” Cracker Man said, “You’ve got the can-do duo.” Indeed I had. What a great lesson for me about going beyond what’s expected. Who knew I’d discover that today at a grocery store?
[Nancy Linenkugel is a Sylvania Franciscan sister and chair of the department of Health Services Administration at Xavier University, Cincinnati, Ohio.]