An Example of Kindness from an Unexpected Source

I’ve been Tweeting about how much I wanted a WiiFit and guess what?! I have one!

Even better than that simple fact, though, is the story about how I managed to snag one of these treasured new Nintendo gems.

After a long, exhausting day entertaining 30 people at my home while a couple of sick kids sat in my playroom all day long, I remembered that this day was the day the game would be released for sale at all of our local game stores. Rats! I had been so caught up in my party that I forgot my plan — because I did not pre-order the game, I intended to go to the store when it opened to try to get one of the extra games. I had been advised by one of the game store guys that they usually get a couple extras (beyond the number of pre-orders). But I blew it. Forgot to go. By the time I remembered, I was not at all in the mood to go out and drive to the store (and I didn’t think I had much of a shot at getting one so late in the afternoon anyway).

My daughter knew how much I wanted one, so she encouraged me to at least call some stores just to see if they had any left. I could manage that much. So, we started calling the closest stores. No luck. We expanded our radius but kept hearing the same thing:

“Did you pre-order the game?”

“No.”

“Sorry. All sold out.”

After almost twenty phone calls, I had no desire to continue. My daughter, however, wanted to keep trying.

Me: “Okay, sweetheart. If you want to keep calling, then you have to do the talking.”

DD: “Okay!”

She called a few stores, heard the same spiel until…

DD: “Do you have any WiiFits left?”

Store guy: “Umm…yeah we have two left.”

DD: “Even if you didn’t pre-order?”

SG: “Yep. Even if you didn’t pre-order. But we can’t hold ‘em.”

DD: “Wait. So you have two left, right? [a little disbelief in her voice, to be sure]“

SG: “Yep. Can’t hold ‘em, though. Gotta get here as soon as you can.”

So…we raced out the door. Mind you, the store was about 35 minutes away (remember that expanded radius?). But we were hopeful. Not certain but really hopeful.

We walked into the store, saw the name badge of the guy we spoke to on the phone and and said, “You guys have the WiiFit?”

He very calmly, very casually (with what seemed to me to be a teeny little smirk on his face) said, “Oh no, we’re all sold out of those.”

WTF?!

“We just drove (with $4 per-gallon-gas in our car) 35 minutes to get here and you don’t have any?!” we thought (but didn’t say out loud).

At first, I was a little too shocked to react. I sort of slumped and felt like I’d been punched in the gut. We hung around the store a little while, dazed and disappointed. My kids pointed to a couple of boxes on display and said, “That’s why the guy thought they had two left. Because there are two empty boxes on display.”

I slung my arm around my daughter, held my son’s hand, walked out of the store and grumbled softly, “Wow. After driving all the way out here…”

Before I could continue, we heard a soft voice call to us, “Wait! Hold on!”

Another one of the store’s employees, taking his break out in the front of the store, turned around to face us and continued, “I’ll sell you mine. C’mon.”

In a blissful daze, I paid for our new WiiFit. As I approached the super employee, I said, “How can I thank you? Can I give you a hug?” Struck by the unexpected kindness from a complete stranger, with tears in my eyes, I reached out to hug him and said, most sincerely, “Thank you!”

At the end of the day, it wasn’t just about the game. Sure, I was glad to have it, but I was even more joyful about the kindness shown, the example he set for my kids, the unselfish, considerate choice of a game store guy.

It’s the little things that help us make it through our otherwise exhausting, challenging days.

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And, just in case you haven’t yet heard about the WiiFit , here’s Nintendo’s promotional video:

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