Billy Coffey
Billy Coffey

Grocery store Goodness

March 8, 2010  

image courtesy of photobucket.com

image courtesy of photobucket.com

I’m standing in a checkout line at the local grocery store with a loaf of bread and a magazine, watching with equal measures of interest and confusion the scene unfolding before me. To either side cashiers smile and chat as they pass cans and boxes over the scanners in front of them. Even the beeps of lasers meeting barcodes sound chipper. Customers walking through the electric doors are greeted with a chorus of welcomes and hellos. A “Have a great day now” is offered with every receipt.

I feel like I’m drowning is syrupy goodness.

Strangest of all is the bell positioned on a small table near the exit, above which is a sign that reads Ring Bell If You’ve Received Excellent Customer Service.
From the sound of things, most of my fellow patrons have received just that. They carry their bags or roll their shopping carts toward the big double doors, pause, and

DING!

At which point any and all employees within earshot will clap and hooray themselves for a job… well, done.

We live in strange times, you and I.

I’ve noticed many businesses doing this sort of thing. The economy’s a wreck, people are being selective in where they shop and for how much, and the name of the game now is making customers happy. Being good brings in the public.

Another DING! More claps and hoorays. I feel like I’m at the county fair.

“Have a great day now,” the cashier says to the person in front of me.

I place my bread and magazine on the conveyor belt and follow them up. The cashier smiles and helloes. Karen, her nametag says. Bright red letters above her name spell out WELCOME!

“How are ya today?” she asks.

Before I can answer an older lady walks through the doors. Karen and everyone else must pause to turn and welcome her to Grocery Nirvana. The woman is literally shaken by the welcome, rocking back on her heels and then forward to catch her balance. She offers a smile that is half amused and half embarrassed and then runs for the produce section.

“So you have to stand here all day and say hello to everyone who walks in here?” I ask.

“Yep,” Karen says, which is followed by another DING! and more cheering.

“That’s gotta get old,” I say.

“Not really. I like it. Makes everyone feel good. Of course, people are mostly scared when we all holler hello to them when they come in here the first time. One guy almost swallowed his tongue yesterday. But they get used to it.”

I nodded and pulled out my cash.

“Do you have a Super Saver card?”

“Nope,” I said.

“You can use mine.”

Karen swiped her own card—saving me nearly a quarter in the process—bagged my purchase, handed me my change and receipt, and said, “Thanks for stopping by. Have a great day now and see ya soon.”

As I grab my bag and shove the change and receipt into my pocket, I’m thinking. My experience here really has been pleasant. I’ve been helloed and thank-you’d and smiled at repeatedly. I’d even saved a quarter, which will make my wife proud.

“Thank you, Karen,” I say. “I’m gonna go ring the bell for you.”

Then Karen does something that can only be described as peculiar. She reaches across the scanner and grabs my arm.

“Please don’t do that,” she says.

I stare down at her hand. Karen jerks it away and apologizes.

“Don’t do what?” I ask her.

“Ring the bell.”

“You don’t want me to ring the bell?”

“No.”

“Why?”

And then she tells me. Tells me the truth. About the bell and the hellos and the goodness. About how it’s a new program designed by corporate with the intent not to actually be good to people, but to keep the money rolling in.

And about how goodness shouldn’t be rewarded because it was its own reward, and that bringing attention to it didn’t make it better, it only made it less.

“People should be nice not to get something for themselves, but to give themselves to something. Do you understand?” she asks.

Oh, yes. I do.

I only wish more did.

(This post is part of the Goodness blog carnival hosted by Bridget Chumbley. To read more posts, please visit her.)

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Comments

  • http://melissabrotherton.com Melissa Brotherton

    You have such a way of taking ordinary life experiences and instilling wisdom into them. You basically wrote a story about checking out your groceries, yet I was interested and anxious to find out what happened. I wish I could write like this. Thanks for the reminder that goodness should be its own reward. Sometimes as a mom I feel entitled to praise, acknowledgement or thanks for the things I’m sacrificing and doing for my kids. But really, being good to them should be enough.

  • http://faithfictionfriends.blogspot.com Glynn

    She might have been the only one who deserved to have a bell rung for. Good story, Billy.

  • http://hisdelightfulinheritance.blogspot.com Kim

    Good story!
    On a side note, completely aside from your point (sorry!) I find it interesting that businesses are realizing that people really do need a better customer experience…working somewhere that really emphasizes community, interaction and relationships, not just business, I really notice lack of service elsewhere. I’ve also noticed as I seek to interact what a foreign concept this has become.

  • http://www.BridgetChumbley.com Bridget

    The goodness shown shouldn’t have to be recognized by ringing a bell and cheering. She really understood the real reward!
    Great story, Billy.

  • http://building-his-body.blogspot.com/ Anne Lang Bundy

    I think I read somewhere that our good deeds should not be done for the accolades of men, but for the pleasure of our Father in heaven.

    Me, I just figure we’re all either making the world a little better or a little bitter. I genuinely like being kind to people. I’m okay with just doing it because it feels good.

  • http://joyce-fromthissideofthepond.blogspot.com Joyce

    Goodness is tricky. The goodness I see in people that I most admire is not a lot of bells and whistles (apologies for the pun)…its a quiet spirit that sees goodness as its own reward. Thanks for another great story.

  • http://www.redletterbelievers.com david

    It does seem like many business are “ringing their bells” and “tooting their horns.”

    Are there any honest companies, just trying to do the right thing without having to call attention to it?

    David
    http://www.redletterbelievers.com

  • http://hikingtowardhome.blogspot.com Just a lass hiking with Jesus

    What comes to mind is the thing about being a Second-mile Christian. The first mile is an obligation to fulfill, the second is done out of love for the other party, even if they are your enemy, like a mean old Roman soldier.
    There is a Pizza Hut in Davao City, southern Philippines, that has a huge gong for the same reason. Your story was a very familiar memory for me.
    Thanks for the reminder to be kind because we all need this reminder these days.
    Yes, Melissa, (above) as I mom I feel the same way sometimes!

  • http://www.steeletheday.com Candy

    This rings so true (pun intended) in the corporate world, where we are told, no, basically FORCED to be nice to people in the name of customer service. And ironically, we’re a faith-based organization! I work with a bunch of women who actually feel insulted they must take classes on being nice to people, and I feel the same way. For the employees who aren’t inherently kind to others, no corporate effort is going to change them. I actually had a nurse tell me “I would love to work in your department, but I don’t think I’m nice enough.” Ouch. Somewhere within our Judeo-Christian walls, we neglected to be the hands and feet of Jesus.

    And you only went for bread and a magazine? Wow. Next time don’t forget the beef jerky.

  • http://thereluctanthomefront.blogspot.com Rebecca

    Wow. Haven’t had the “pleasure” of being a customer at that business, but sounds like at least one of their employees has a good head on her shoulders. I bet she’d be the one to smile, greet, and be cheerful even without corporate breathing down her neck. I’m glad you had the opportunity to be in her line, Billy.

  • http://writingwithoutpaper.blogspot.com Maureen

    Great story, Billy. Grocery shopping is one of my least favorite things to do, and this post captures the reason perfectly.

  • http://www.lynnrush.com Lynn Rush

    Nice post. Makes ya think, doesn’t it?

  • http://rmabry.com Richard Mabry

    Billy,
    Thanks for sharing. There’s an Arby’s in the town in which I formerly lived that had such a bell. I rang it a couple of times, naive enough to think I was applauding good service. Now I wonder if there was a tiny counter somewhere, keeping track of the number of dings and letting the home office know the sum.
    Fortunately, in the town where we now live, there are no bells at the door, and the smiles and greetings seem friendly without being forced. Then again…

  • http://www.joyinthisjourney.com Joy

    I have such mixed feelings about this. I definitely agree that some people just get it, and some people just don’t. But the people who just don’t still work and interact and have the power to make or break your experience. They can learn basic manners and courtesy, they have the option to choose to be nice. But should we encourage the right choice through incentives and/or recognition of progress? I don’t know.

  • http://www.CherylLewis.com Cheryl Lewis

    Just curious – after she told you the truth, did you feel better or worse?

  • http://girlcloud.wordpress.com/ Dacia Bryan

    I’ve run the bell at Arby’s a few times, more out of personal amusement than anything else. It’s even more amusing when the employees act shocked that you have done so. And my grocery store has started the mass welcome which I find more startling than welcoming – mayhap I am just too preoccupied with my own thoughts when I am entering a store…

    But it is a little sad that being kind has to be enforced rather than coming natural to us anymore.

  • http://martyduane.com/ Marty Duane

    Oh yes, “syrupy goodness” abounding all over the place.

    I will not jangle any of those bells by the doors at Arby’s. I will not “Ding” the bell at the grocery store. Call me a party pooper, but I don’t see the point.

    Instead, I like to talk to the people who help me, smile at them and with sincerity, thank them for helping me.

    Great story, Billy.

  • jessica

    I’m getting ready for work right now. I work at a grocery store (Food Lion) and I can tell you that kindness is almost always forced. We get threatened by our managers with termination if we don’t say exactly what they want us to say and how they want us to say it. It’s crazy because all of us were very kind to our customers, but they give us these scripted things to say whenever we encounter a customer, you never get to show them your particular brand of kindness, you have to use theirs. it’s awful.

  • http://weightwhat.blogspot.com Wendy

    Why do I keep picturing Pavlov’s dog? Someone needs to de-ring that bell and save the cashiers.

  • http://www.randommusings-helen.blogspot.com Helen

    Goodness is and should be it’s own reward. Perhaps we should compliment people more often on a job well done, and be good to them. You know. Show we appreciate their kindness. But ringing a bell? Making them listen to all that dinging and cheering all day hardly seems like a good thing to do for them.

  • bernadette pabon

    What an excellent story, great writer, and you found the goodness in your story, it reminds me of Pollyanna, she always found the good in people.

  • http://godsheart-heart2heart.blogspot.com Kat

    Billy,

    I think a lot more business should seriously begin to take a look at how they are treating their customers these days and remember that it is us, that signs their paychecks. Time to bring Customer Service back into companies again.

    Please stop by my blog today to enter in the final chances for this weeks giveaway if you have time!

    Love and Hugs ~ Kat

  • Jim H

    DING! and I mean that sincerely, I can’t wait till I get to start selling your book !

  • http://sandraking-beholding-god.blogspot.com/ Sandra Heska King

    Goodness! I got intimidated reading this. I think I’d run for the hills. No going in that store without makeup or greasy hair or in sweatpants and trying to go unnoticed!

  • http://www.maryaalgaard.blogspot.com Mary Aalgaard

    Weird. Weird that she defended the process, but in the end, had to ‘fess up. It was probably that darn bell. Who wants to listen to THAT all day? Plus, it’s false happiness, cheerfulness, and welcoming spirit. And, what if you’re crabby? That could push you over the edge. Aren’t the best cashier exchanges the ones that speak truth? Great story.

  • http://www.recoveryourjoy.blogspot.com Louise

    Now that was an amazing story. Thank goodness you shared it!

  • http://lexiconluvr.blogspot.com L.T. Elliot

    The year I was married, someone gave me a piece of Dove chocolate. Inside of the foil was a small quote that said, “The reward for a good deed is to have done it.” I saved it, taped it to some cardboard, and use it as a bookmark to this day. And I find that the wrapper is right.

    I got a whole lot more than a piece of molded cocoa.

  • http://grace-period.blogspot.com/ Jaime

    Nice story. I find the syrupy “goodness” of today’s economics nauseating and you have helped me to pinpoint why.

  • http://katshappyathome.blogspot.com Kathy

    Having worked in customer service (restaurants) for 25 years I can tell you that people who truly appreciate you and your efforts come few and far between. It’s a thankless job for the most part but I always smiled and was nice no matter how I felt.

  • http://kevinmartineau.blogspot.com Kevin M.

    People should be nice not to get something for themselves, but to give themselves to something. ” Very good point!

  • Caroline

    Excellent post. Powerful lesson. Couldn’t agree more!

  • http://katdish.net/2010/07/pardon-me-while-i-rant-incessantly-ring-bell-for-good-service/ Pardon me while I rant incessantly…Ring bell for good service | Katdish.net

    [...] in March of this year, Billy Coffey wrote a post called Grocery store goodness where he describes the latest phenomenon encouraging excellent customer service: the “Ring [...]

  • http://katdish.net/2010/12/pardon-me-while-i-rant-incessantly-ring-bell-for-good-service-repost/ Pardon me while I rant incessantly: Ring bell for good service (repost) | Katdish.net

    [...] in March of this year, Billy Coffey wrote a post called Grocery store goodness where he describes the latest phenomenon encouraging excellent customer service: the “Ring [...]