The Aldi that opened down the street from us a couple of years ago has the fastest checkouts I've ever seen.  I don't know if they train the people differently than other grocery stores or if they get paid based on the number of orders they ring up, I just know that every single one of them can scan food like the wind.

Yet they're always nice.

Maybe it's easy to be nice when you work there because the customers are always so happy to be saving such huge buckets of money, I don't know.

I've had folks with overflowing carts wave me ahead of them when I've only got one or two items more often at Aldi than any other store in town.  I've had a woman offer to let me share her cart because she thought I was having trouble hanging on to the three things I was buying. (You need to deposit a quarter in the cart rack to use one, which you get back when you return the cart; I don't get a cart if I'm only picking up a few things.  At least once, someone gave me their cart for no quarter, telling me to just pass it on.)

But yesterday was a new high,

One of the checkouts, is a very friendly chap.  He's fast as lightening yet seems to have developed a relationship with lots of the regulars.  He's always delighted to see me.  He thinks it's funny that I like to pay in exact change.

What?  I hate getting change back; it makes my purse heavy and I don't spend my ones so change works for me.

This fellow, a few months back, had been telling those of us in line that he used to work for a bank and it was driving him crazy so he quit.  He said "I make less than half what I used to now but I'm ten times happier."

He may have spent time in a psych ward for all I know, but who am I to judge? 

Anyway, yesterday there was no one in line behind me.

"I don't want to alarm you, but I'm going on vacation next week so you won't see me." He said.

"Oh, no!" I cried in mock dismay.

"I can't wait.  I'm going to sit in my apartment the whole time and read.  I love to read.  I don't even own a tv.  And I can't afford to go anywhere."

"That sounds awesome." I thought of the five days we spent at Camp Riverso doing nothing.  It was awesome.  "What are you reading?"

"Right now, I'm actually reading the Bible." He kinda looked at me to see if I thought that was weird.  I do NOT think that's weird.

"That's cool." I said.

"Do you like to read?" He asked me.

"I love to read."  I told him.  He glanced down the aisle.  There was one person just starting to unload her cart.  "Wait a second," he said, got up and ran to the break room.  He ran back with a book.

"I just finished this," he handed me The Immortal by Angela Hunt.  "I really liked it.  You can have it."

"I can HAVE it?"

"Yeah, just give it to someone else when you're finished." he began ringing up the next order.  I thanked him and ran out to the car, where Josie had already emptied our cart into the back end.  I tossed the book in and we went home.

I can't wait to read it.

 

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