Grocery Store Employee’s Kind Deed Goes Viral
One Florida Publix grocery-store employee is getting all kinds of Internet love today.
According to a picture that’s now gone viral, the employee, later identified as Gage, was doing some work in the beverage aisle when he noticed an elderly man having trouble bending to tie his shoe. Without hesitation, Gage took a knee and tied both of the man’s shoes. A simple but very powerful gesture of kindness toward the Ormond Beach customer.
A nearby shopper, Keith Kiel, was so moved that he took a picture and posted it to the Publix Facebook page. Kiel went on to describe the event saying:
I shopped at Publix tonight and saw this random act of kindness. I took it quickly and I found out the employee’s name from his manager. An old man could not reach down to tie his shoe so not only did Gage tie the one but he did the other as well; all with a smile. I thought he should be recognized for his actions. Here is the picture I snapped on my iPhone.”
Image via Facebook/Publix/Keith Kiel
The photo quickly blew up gaining nearly 200,000 likes.
People were extremely pleased and proud of the young man, but apparently this is nothing out of the ordinary for Publix. Many other shoppers commented and shared stories similar to this one. Crystal R., a young mother, shared her experience with the employees at Publix:
I once went to Publix carrying my newborn who screamed every time I put him in his infant carrier in the cart…one of the stock boys saw I was having trouble, so he pushed a cart with me around the store and put everything I needed into it. Then the manager opened up a lane just for me, bagged my groceries himself, walked me to my car, loaded my groceries into it, and then he even asked for my keys, turned my car on, opened my door, and held it open for me. It was amazing, I was stunned at their hospitality. Thumbs up for Publix!”
A few people even took the opportunity to bash Walmart, one saying, “Can you see someone at Walmart doing this???? Um NO….they rarely even know what isle the milk is on. I LOVE PUBLIX!”
All Walmart bashing aside, it’s awesome when stuff like this goes around since it glorifies kind and gentle behavior and lets people know that these simple small acts of kindness can always matter to someone in a huge way.
