Editorial: Act brings smiles in the aisles

Rebecca McLean.

I watched a disabled man trundle a trolley with more than 12 items up to the 12 & under aisle in a local supermarket this week.

I watched and wondered who would tap him on the shoulder, and say "excuse me mate!".

No one did. Supermarket queues are a great place for people watching, I find.

I once observed an angry woman swear loudly at the news her favourite cigarettes were out of stock. After multiple F bombs, she spat a "what the f**** are you looking at" towards a young checkout operator, who had glanced at our special princess after the fourth or fifth eff-word.

The good outweighs the bad though, when it comes to supermarket aisle entertainment.

This week I witnessed my second act of random kindness.

Rebecca McLean, who paid for an elderly customer's items at Pak'n Save in September 2014, was responsible for the first.

Rebecca was working as a checkout operator when she paid for a customer's groceries.

This week, I saw a customer helping another customer who was a wee bit short.

The samaritan lent over with a quiet "can I help with that?" and handed over some cash.

"It's fine, someone paid it forward for me recently," she said to the grateful man.

She considered it a small gesture as part of the "pay it forward" cycle, which works on the theory that the recipient of an act of generosity "repays" the generosity by helping another person.

Thanked again, the samaritan shook her head and said "it's nothing, really" and left. She was wrong, her kindness wasn't "nothing", it was very much "something", something special.