Today during lunch I went to the grocery store. I wanted a salad but needed to get a few things first including olive oil. A few days earlier I went to the same store and tried to buy olive oil on a buy-one-get-one sale but they were all out.
Thankfully, this time the shelves were stocked with oil. So I proceeded to unstock the shelves and loaded my cart with ten bottles of the good stuff.
I got to the checkout and handed the cashier a raincheck from the previous trip. Now, rather than BOGO, the oil was on sale for $2 off. The cashier rang all of the bottles up on the sale price and then gave me half off for the BOGO raincheck!
I was ecstatic about the great deal I was getting. I was also wishing I had grabbed the last two bottles of oil off the shelf and asked if they had another case in the back (I like olive oil).
But then my little shopping trip got even better. An older lady behind me in line walked up and handed me her coupon for $5 off my purchase. She said she wasn’t going to reach the $30 threshold for the deal so she wanted me to use it.
I wanted to thank her more than just saying thank you. The discount was great but it was the woman’s generosity and willingness to break the wall of separation and silence between strangers in public that impressed me.
The woman probably felt pretty good about the whole situation too. Giving has a way of lifting the spirit. Even though I was the one who received the savings, that woman who gave the coupon likely received much more.