Supermarket surprise: Why I bought a stranger’s groceries

Recently this happened:

I was at the grocery store, second in line at the cashier. The guy ahead of me had all four of his bags of groceries bagged and loaded in his cart. He put his piece of plastic in the reader for payment of his groceries and it was declined. He was puzzled and asked if he could try swiping rather than chipping. The cashier obliged and still, the card was declined. The man was befuddled.

The look on his face told me that he could go home without these groceries, and he didn’t know what to do. At that moment, I was compelled to offer to pay for his groceries.

I did because I could.

I tell you all this because with all the panhandling that goes on in our town, to which I am conflicted and never really participate in, I had an opportunity to help somebody in need and had absolutely no conflict about doing so.

The man quietly thanked me. I told him that when he is ever able to do the same for someone else, he should.

I believe that’s what people do for people and I’m grateful that this situation presented itself to me. I need to step outside my day-to-day, self-centered world and reach out, even if it has to reach out to me.

This story was originally published November 22, 2017 at 2:14 PM with the headline "Supermarket surprise: Why I bought a stranger’s groceries."