Pet Store

I am a "stickler" for always trying to do what is right. I'm not always good at it, but I really do try.

Wednesday after work I stopped at the local pet food store to get some cat food and some "Mugsy" treats (the Beagle next door is "my" dog... I spoil him rotten with dog treats and ear scratches and my friend gets to do all the rest - LOL). I have a "green" bag which means I don't have to get a plastic bag for the food. I usually take everything out of the bag with the exception of the 24 cans of Fancy Feast. I only take one of those out and tell the girl I have 24 cans.

It was a total zoo in there. Birds were screeching, there were a lot of people in there and I think everyone was talking at once. When it was my turn at the register I did my usual thing. The girl rang me up, and I left. When I went to check the bill and write down how much it was I noticed that she had charged me for all the items I put on the counter but only charged me for 4 cans of Fancy Feast. I figured she must have only heard the "four" part of the twenty-four.

Well, after work on Thursday I went back. I asked for the manager and explained what had happened and that I would like to pay for the 20 cans of food that I wasn't charged for. I thought that woman was going to cry. She could not believe that I would come back in there and admit I got more than I paid for. I was overwhelmed when she said to me that being in the retail business had really lessened her faith in people and that I had restored her faith that there really are honest people out there. I already felt better when I paid for the food, but that really made me feel good -- that I could restore someone's faith in humankind. I guess there must have been a reason that I didn't get charged for all of the food.

In this day and age, there are so many businesses going by the wayside. There aren't enough customers, or there are too many dishonest customers. Maybe that $10 wasn't a big deal to some people, but it was a big deal to me. When I think of all the people that slip things into their pockets and walk out of a store with them for whatever reason, it makes me very sad. They are doing a great injustice to the store owner who is working very hard to make a living, and the cost of that kind of thing is eventually passed on to the customer in the way of higher prices because they are literally losing money out the door. Not only that, but maybe the manager might not be able to give anyone a raise, or they to have let a worker go because they are losing money, or it comes to closing the store.

Now that I think about it, there are all kinds of ways people steal from stores. A lot of people don't think that what they are doing is stealing, I'm sure. There's the person who puts a bunch of bananas in their basket and then lets the child eat one. That's stealing. It might not seem like it, but it is.

Well, I had better get off my soap box. I could probably stand here all day! LOL! Thanks for listening.