By Mason Rose

Be nice to the guy at the grocery store. Mean people have taught me this. I am a full time student. I also typically work 25 to 30 hours a week at Walmart. I have been employed there for over two years. I have seen more than my fair share of “bad eggs” in society. I have learned that people can be impatient and unreasonable. Winter months at Walmart are the busiest, especially around Christmas.

In December, a woman was shopping for eggnog. Eggnog flies off the shelves around Christmas. Walmart is always running out of it. This woman asked me if we had any more eggnog in the backroom because there was no more on the shelf. After explaining that eggnog was out of stock, she refused to believe me. She started to be rude and argue that I just didn’t know how to look for it in the backroom. She then demanded that someone else help her. Another associate explained to her that we were not able to keep it stocked because of the high demand. At this point, the woman looked at me and I was hoping she would smile and apologize. Instead she rolled her eyes and glared intimidatingly at me. For it being the most family oriented and festive time of the year, this was a pretty dark look at one side of humanity.

There is a brighter side! Being nice to others at the grocery store is easy and it should be a natural inclination. If the store is out of eggnog or cream cheese or pie crust – I can personally guarantee you that it is not the fault of the high school student who is doing shift work to restock the shelves. The good news is that my experience with people being rude and unreasonable has only made me more kind. When I shop for my weekly necessities I am kind to grocery workers. It is not hard to do. I smile at the door greeter and make small talk with the cashier. Small kindnesses like this are exactly what people need to create their own version of a great day.

I have also noticed that for every negative interaction, there are double the positive interactions. My favorite interactions are the ones with older people. These experiences have taught me that many older people who live alone are longing for social interaction. I can count many times when the older people who are shopping by themselves walk up to me and begin to talk. Sometimes it’s just a quick few words, but sometimes it’s an intriguing story or a nostalgic remembrance about earlier days.

One night I had an older lady walk up and talk to me for quite some time while I was stocking shelves. She told me all about her life. For a moment she was able to visit a time before her husband died and while her children were younger. She smiled as she spoke and summed up her entire life into twenty minutes. I found her story so interesting and felt amazed by her willingness to share. She thanked me for talking and walked away. Later I realized that I might have been the first person she shared her feelings with in quite some time and that framed some things for me.

There is power in being kind at the grocery store. My job is much bigger than stocking shelves. Every interaction I have is the chance to create a better day for each person. I am moving the needle one interaction at a time. Remember, you have the same opportunity to do this on your next trip to the grocery store.

Mason Rose is the son of Jeff and Dianne Rose who reside in Sidney. He has participated in The Sidney High School Marching Band, National Honor Society, and The Boy Scouts of America. This summer he is looking forward to his camping and hiking during his trip to Colorado.