Pleasant assistance

Just the other morning, I was roaming the Lowe's near Corrales, north of my part of town, nothing in the basket that I use partially as a walking assist because as always I had forgotten an important measurement that I would have to return home to get before returning to make my purchase. (Ah, it's a complicated life these days.) A young staff person busy uncrating paint cans on their way to the shelves looked up from where she was working on the floor and asked if I needed any help. It wasn't one of those queries sparked by the store's anti-shoplifting handbooks (Let them know you are watching!) but seemed a genuine attempt to provide assistance. I didn't need any help and told her so along with a thank you for asking. There was none of my normal irritation at the other kind of query.



The exchange, simple, honest, appreciated, and quick, left me feeling good about the sales clerk, her interest in helping me if I needed it, even though she was obviously busy, and Lowe's. Much better, for example, than another somewhat similar exchange a few months earlier. Then I really needed some help to find what I needed. This time I was told by the Home Depot staffer that he didn't know (and the way it felt to me, didn't care) and to find someone else. He was busy. It is that feeling that I still feel all these months later that helps me choose where I go to shop.