I borrowed that title from a Facebook friend.
I was in Whole Foods yesterday, having abandoned all domestic duties for several weeks, and feeling the need to produce something for dinner other than a bag of almonds. Not that anyone really should complain about a bag of almonds - they DO make you smarter.
I had my heart set on making my spectacularly fantastic chicken enchiladas suiza, which requires Mexican crema.
There are only a few things I make that are made from my soul and not a recipe - my Irish beef stew, salsa and guacamole. Everything else is precisely controlled by my Virgo personality, and there are no deviations allowed.
So when I say the recipe requires crema - I mean do NOT try to foist sour cream off on me, or I swear I will cut you.
Well I get to my retail church - Whole Foods, and head for the dairy section, where two girls were stocking and strategizing. I looked around for a while and didn't find the crema, so I asked one of them if they sold it. One girl tells me she doesn't think so, because sales are sort of hit and miss on it, but that she will check. She calls someone and walks with me to the sour cream section to see if it's there. Strikeout on both counts, and she says she's sorry. No biggie - I'll stop by HEB on the way home.
So I finish up the expedition, with all sorts of crazy things jumping into my cart, like my new favorite dessert in the whole world - Hail Merry coconut macaroons - and I make my way to the checkout.
I'm all done, paid and about to walk out the door when a guy runs up to me and says "Wait - were you looking for crema?" Surprised, I tell him I was, and he hands me a jar of locally made table cream and starts telling me all about the farmer that produced it and how he thinks I'll like it. He asks me what I'm making and I tell him, and he tells me this will be perfect. He gives it to me for no charge and asks me to come back and let them know how I like it.
I was completely astonished.
Whole Foods has great service - but this was just amazing. I had been gone from the dairy section for 15 minutes, and clearly the girl that helped me had been talking to someone about me not finding what I wanted, and in that amount of time, this fella goes and gets something, finds me and gives it to me for free.
That, my friends, is both passionate AND gracious. A tough combo to pull off.
We should all work on that.
Speaking of passionate, I had a little fun this week catching up on Hope You Can Cling To Challenges with Libby's "kissing" challenge. I kissed my Christmas Deer (inked in Pool Party) with the border stamp from Pendant Park inked in Poppy Parade, and then continued that motif behind him. I love these two colors together, and I think his stripe makes him look like he's wearing a fun, preppy deer Christmas sweater :).
You have till 11:59 tonight to upload your challenge cards and be eligible for our prizes so I hope you do get to play in at least one!
In the meantime, especially since we've just had an election and people are exhausted from it, no matter what side you're on - remember to be as gracious as you are passionate.
Loveyameanitbye.
rarely does something someone posts in cyberland elicit a vocalization while i'm reading it, but i said, "wow!" aloud when i read what happened with the table cream. that is legendary service with a capital L. i think the manager there needs to know about that outstanding employee by means of a card, don't you?
ReplyDeleteand i know what you mean about things jumping into your cart at that store.
i agree about the preppy sweater on your dear deer. cute!
i loved your story so much i read it aloud to my husband :) i like the card, too, and the deer's preppy sweater, but he's less likely to share my enthusiasm about that ;) i'm going to admit, but possibly only to you, that one of my favorite things about your story is that i now feel like i'm off the hook as far as graciousness goes, since i tend towards being non-passionate...
ReplyDelete(your facebook friend is very wise, and seems like a good person with whom to be friends, indeed)
So did the table cream work?
ReplyDeleteGreat Story..... Now... Did the Table Cream work out???
ReplyDeleteFaith
I may have to revise my opinion about Whole Foods. This may be just a fluke in your store. Here, the staff can't be bothered which totally annoys me.
ReplyDeletePreppy deer sweater indeed!! :)
jennik
I too love Whole Foods, just not the people who shop there... LOL... It is not in my neighborhood and I find their customer to be very snooty. I go anyway, the heck with them I just manage to be gracious and I certainly am passionate about the food I buy there. So did your welcome gift work???
ReplyDeleteDear BonQueQue,
ReplyDeleteI do love Whole Foods. And I love that card! Whoa.