By Bill Scott, founder of StoreReport LLC & Scott Systems Inc.
Recently, I came upon a list of heroes with over 100 names. I suppose heroes exist in the eyes of the beholder. There is no greater hero (man or woman) than one who forfeits their lives so that others may live. Maybe that should be the extent of it. We don’t see a hero as one who forfeits his or her life as a partner in a crime. For example, there are no statues to those that gave up their lives for Hitler.
If we are to be truthful, heroism is defined by people on an individual basis, and not by any definition we find in books. Sometimes heroes show up out of the blue—help retrieve something we have dropped, hold the door open for us, let us get on the elevator first, pay us a compliment—the list goes on and on.
This time of year we can find many heroes working in retail stores across America. Whether they be an employer or an employee, I see them every day. Men and women on a fixed budget that work long, hard hours for minimum wage without complaint, when they could be home with their families celebrating the holidays like we who are more fortunate. Each and every one of them garners my respect and my gratitude. Yet, too often we show them our worst side and regret it later.
Recently, I read an article where a young man was having a hard time working a cash register at a Walmart. The patrons that occupied his particular lane were losing patience with him and grumbled out loud about how stupid he must be. “Why don’t they get someone over here who knows what they’re doing,” one shopper remarked. “If I had known how stupid this checker was, I would have chosen a different lane,” another one called out. Finally, the poor fellow broke down and started crying. It turned out that his mother had committed suicide just a few hours before he came to work that day, and he had to work so he could make enough money to pay his rent.
While most of the incidents of simple employee abuse are never reported, they happen all the time and we rarely hear about them. It’s too easy to lose one’s patience these days, because many of us are carrying psychological loads we can barely handle, but that’s no excuse to create grief for the people who serve us. You’ll be home in an hour or so with your family. If they have family to go to, many of these retail employees have giving up their time with their own family to serve us.
If you have problems, and most of us do, the recipe for feeling better is to be nice to someone who may be worse off than yourself. You don’t have to volunteer to feed the homeless Christmas dinner, although that has been proven to give oneself great joy around this festive season; but, you can develop the habit of doing things that cost you nothing, and none of these things require even a second of your valuable time.
The secret is, when it’s finally your turn to be checked out, find something nice to say to the person behind the cash register. You can complement them on their appearance, tell them how much you appreciate them being there to check you out or even ask them about their children or grandchildren.
Our clerks and checkers are not machines. Not treating them like machines and treating them like people will not only make them feel better, it will do a world of good for your own disposition.
Thank you all, and Merry Christmas
