The convenience store I work at is located near a river, and as a result we tend to get a lot of people coming down to go fishing—many of them from the city.
On this particular rainy, cold Saturday, I was cleaning up around the front of the store while my boss was in the back restocking one of our freezers that had been emptied out for repairs earlier in the day. Abruptly, a man comes in, looking around and seeming genuinely over-excited. He spots me behind the counter and just about dives at me.
Man: Do y’all have a bucket?
Me: ...A bucket?
Sort of an unusual request, even though we do have a somewhat eclectic stock. Well, the man and I go to find my boss and see if we have a bucket we can give him, and along the way he explains why he’s so excited. He’d been fishing all morning, and was the only person to have caught anything so far. Unfortunately, he’d only brought a plastic bag with him, and was worried that the fish would either die or rip the bag open with his spines, before he could get it home.
Boss of course says we don’t have a bucket, or a Styrofoam cooler, or anything of the sort this time of year (early October). We were standing near the pet products, and the man noticed a large, plastic jug of cat litter. Again, he turns to me.
Man: Do you have a cat?
Me: Well... yeah. I do.
Man: If I buy this cat litter, can I pour it into a bag and give it to you for your kitten, and then use the container?
Now, this was not some cheapy no-name brand of cat litter, and it was not a small container. This man was willing to just hang me five dollars worth of cat litter, so that he could keep his fish alive (he planned to use the small fish to catch a bigger fish, too). I had to politely decline, and then the boss came up with a solution.
Boss: What about a cardboard box, lined with a trash bag?
Man: That’d work!
I go back to the front to get the man one of our trash bags, while the boss goes out back to grab a decently sized cardboard box. While we’re alone up front, the man digs out his wallet.
Me: You really don’t have to pay us for this...
Man: Well, do you have, like, a tip jar or something? I feel like I owe you something.
Me: ...It’s really fine...
He insists, so finally I find one of our “quarters for a cure” stands and say that he can donate a dollar there. So we put in the quarters and then boss comes back with the box and I hand over the trash bag and the man takes off to tend to his fish.
Slightly insane? Probably.
Sort of sweet? Yeah.
Entertaining? Definitely!
Wherever you are, kind sir, I hope the fish are plentiful.
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