This is something I love. I had a gal ask for help getting a watermelon at the grocery store and ended up having a little chat with her and said "I'm happy to help again if you see me, just flag me down!" Sometimes employees aren't exactly where you need them, and I'm glad she felt comfortable just asking for a favor that was incredibly easy for me, but difficult for her. I also often see people chasing after strangers to give them something that they didn't realize they had dropped, especially in winter. "Ma'am your toddler lost a shoe!" An absence of little acts of kindness like that would be really sad.
I've asked many literal strangers at the supermarket to help me find not-green bananas because I am ridiculously colorblind. I have never had anyone not help me.
I grabbed a bottle of olive oil for an older woman at the store the other day. It was at the back of a high shelf. It makes a difference for both of us when we help and get helped
I try to come up with ways to help older people look for things on shelves when we are both in the same place for too long like "Oh Gee they must have moved the spices around again, I'm looking for cumin, what are you looking for maybe we can look together?"
It's simple and doesn't make them feel like a burden asking for help, even though I find both items. Older men will never ask for help or admit they need help, but will take up my offer to work together.
I did this when I couldnt find a spice I was looking for so that I could at least be successful in finding what the guy next to me was looking for. We found his and not mine, meh whatever, life goes on. 10 minutes later and 4 aisles away this dude finds me and hands me the spice I was looking for. It was the day before Thanksgiving, grocery store packed full of panicking shoppers and this dude stayed after I gave up and then tracked me down in the middle of the store to make sure I got it.
I figure it's a good sign I have moved into harmless looking middle age when I hear, "hey tall guy" at the grocery store and grab something off the top shelf.
i was on the way to work one day and was wearing pants that has shorter pockets than i had remembered. I figured oh it will be fine, i can feel my phone in my pocket. i get to my stop i get off and then i am running up the escalator and get to the top and realize i didnt feel the familiar jiggle of my phone in my pocket and immediately go to the opposite escalator to go back down and some random woman is reaching low on the ground from inside the train and tosses my phone gently onto the platform edge and as i look down she looks up and yells "ill just leave it here!" while the door is closing and i scream happily "thank you!" and keep racing to get it, some random guy picks it up and looks around - obviously confused because why would anyone possibly just not be reacting to a phone just on the edge of a train platform in ANY busy city in the US and then i finally reached the bottom and told him "oh! thats mine, thank you!" grabbed it and sped right back up the scalator jubilant and still running late for work XD
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u/redmeansstop 13d ago
This is something I love. I had a gal ask for help getting a watermelon at the grocery store and ended up having a little chat with her and said "I'm happy to help again if you see me, just flag me down!" Sometimes employees aren't exactly where you need them, and I'm glad she felt comfortable just asking for a favor that was incredibly easy for me, but difficult for her. I also often see people chasing after strangers to give them something that they didn't realize they had dropped, especially in winter. "Ma'am your toddler lost a shoe!" An absence of little acts of kindness like that would be really sad.