Once upon a time, I ran the electronics department for my local One Stop Shopping Store. During the holiday season we would hire a barrage of temporary employees to help with the surplus of customers longing for the products we had that they so desperately needed. 


It happened that one day there was an elderly man who came in to seek help with his broken television. He had purchased a television a year or two prior to this visit and along with it he had one of our special maintenance programs. The young man who had initially helped him was one of the temporary hires who really shouldn't have been working there. His only focus was to sell merchandise and make as much money as he possibly on the next paycheck, regardless of how many returns he received on the next one. (It was a commission based pay) 

I observed, from a distance, the disdain that was beginning to form from the elderly gentleman towards my co-worker. I went over to listen to what was transpiring. The young man was not sure of how to help this man and instead of asking questions to figure out how to solve the problem, he pretty much b.s.'d his way through everything. Both of them were frustrated. It finally came to a point where the young man couldn't do any more on his own and he was forced to ask for help. As I came in the older man softened and instantly warmed to me.  His problem was solved and he felt understood and taken care of. He had expressed to me that he was incredibly unhappy with the young man who initially helped him and was grateful I stepped in to help when I did. He was so grateful that he decided he'd do me a favor. He first asked if I liked buffalo meet. I was slightly shocked, but answered yes. He informed me that in a few weeks he'd bring me some, as he was a hunter and would be leaving a few days later to go on a buffalo hunt. 

I didn't hear from or see him for several weeks. One day he came in with a grocery bag full of frozen buffalo meet, just as he promised. He explained that he had hunted it himself and has a butcher friend who takes care of the meet to be distributed. He also told me that I reminded him of his grand daughter. 

Now, you're not supposed to accept things like this, but I was sure that he was genuine and all would be well. And it was. Nevertheless, that has to be the strangest experience I had ever had in my years working in retail.