MISSION: Groceries and Goodies

I live near one of the nicest grocery stores in Pittsburgh: the Giant Eagle Market District. It's clean, stocked to the brim, and even has a live cooking area where shoppers can sit and watch expert chefs make delicious dishes while using microphones attached to their smocks. It's very fancy. Even on the days when the store is crowded, the lines are slow, and I'm thwarted by other shopping carts at every turn, I am so thankful that I have the ability to buy the food I need when I know there are so many people who go without.

The grocery store can be stressful, as I indicate above. Those long lines, those crowded aisles, those high prices...it all can take its toll on the shopper and his or her experience. Affiliated Agent N of Northbridge, Massachusetts, has probably experienced just that! So to help remedy the same situation that someone else might encounter, she decided to do her mission of kindness at her local grocery store.

Date: Thursday, 12 August 2010

Location: Shaw's Supermarket; Providence Road; Northbridge, Massachusetts

Time: 12:07 p.m.

Affiliated Agent N shares her excitement with us:

For my mission, I decided that greeting cards would be best for making someone's day better. I bought two cards, both filed under the "Thinking of You" section. I wrote a short, encouraging message in each one and filled the empty spaces with inspirational quotes. In each envelope I also included a longer message (with instructions for it to be read later) where each sentence starts with "I hope you know..." with things like "you're beautiful," "the world is lucky to have a person like you," and "your imperfections make you beautiful."

I decided that the best places to put my cards would be in the entrance of the local supermarket. Because of how small my town is, Shaw's is where a lot of people go to grocery shop. I thought that because it was around lunch time, there wouldn't be many people shopping there. I was wrong. I had to stand outside the entrance, pretending to talk on the phone or look for something in my bag.

When people weren't around I walked in to the area where shopping carts are kept and put a card on top of one. Further inside the store there's a stack of shopping baskets so I put the other card inside one and casually walked back out.

I had so much fun with this! I felt like a spy and all I could think of were the looks on the faces of the people who found my cards. I can't wait to do this again!

Well done, Affiliated Agent N! I would have loved to stumble upon your kind gift!