For the Store Clerk That Left Me Absolutely Speechless – Kudos to You
This occurred on a weekend morning, and I felt sufficiently irritable, filling up the family car. The location was a typical gas station that also functions as a supermarket, which often leads of joining a queue customers carrying goods of pricey provisions. It's an awful situation to unfold when your only desire is to complete a simple refueling. Terrible.
I was fourth in the queue. There was only employee working, a young woman. There was something unusual about her. When the faffer at the first position had at last settled for his purchases, his pastry, and some breakfast items, It seemed to me overhearing the cashier tell him to have a great day. Strange. Could be I misunderstood, or maybe she did say it and used a mocking tone. I pondered if she might actually be a comrade in my fight against faff, echoing my disdain for people who hold up people just getting gas like me.
I moved up, now third in line. The new leader of our group finished pumping gas with impressive quickness. And there it was again: “I hope you have a fantastic day.” In fact, it was “have a wonderful day”. Someone from the US? At this location? Her tone suggested it, and no British person says to others a wonderful day, or merely a pleasant day. Highly unusual. You don’t get people from America knocking around Stourbridge, least of all employed at gas stations or elsewhere.
Now I stood second. After an elderly lady dealing with a right old battle with her basket, her groceries, her handbag and her membership pass. It went on for ever. Once completed, she as well received the wish a wonderful day. Definitely from the US. Confirming it was possible by cracking a joke in her direction, to observe that reaction their typical stare, stoically, and reply with genuine earnest: “You are very amusing.” However, nothing occurred of a jest to utter.
I just had to settle for the absolute sincerity – or a performance of it, that equates to no different – as she gazed straight at me, to my very core, and bid me to have a great day. I felt better for it. Beneficial indeed.
