I was very impressed today

Today Jarod and I were walking home from our neighbourhood grocery store. My brother's been staying over the last couple days, so we needed to replenish our meat stores.

Mmmm.. meat.

On our way back, we realized we forgot two very important things: Q-tips, and a nail brush. And as anyone who relies on those things knows... they're necessary. Yes, we routinely break the "DO NOT PUT IN EARS!!!!" warning on the Q-Tips box. I know, my role-model-dom is slipping away.

And with Jarod and Ken both doing landscaping, the nail brush was essential. All to keep in good form.


So we stopped in at the neighbourhood pharmacy on the way back.

Our neighbourhood pharmacy has been there for decades, and it looks it. The signs are all handwritten, the "specials" aren't in any flyer, and the store is named for the pharmacist. But they're always neat and clean, and I often see their Smart Car delivering prescriptions to the seniors' building across the street. They've got a sign for the neighbourhood association in the window, and their displays change regularly.

But we'd never actually been inside. Mostly because of habit. Shoppers Drug Mart knows their automated, dial-in prescription refills will get ya. And we generally only get Slurpees from the 7-11 across the street if we have to go to Shoppers for a prescription, and a Slurpee's usually pretty good motivation, at least for me.

But today we figured it was on our way - we'd stop in here. And going in, we were greeted by an unfamiliar store layout - and a cheerful cashier in her late teens/early twenties. When we asked where things were, she not only pointed to the aisles, she actually walked down the aisles with Jarod and helped find everything and then went back to doing her job. And when we were done, she came and rang it up for us.

It sounds so typical, but try to get any service besides "Um, I think it's in aisle 4 or 5" at Shoppers Drug Mart, much less actually helping out with some courtesy.

And nobody was watching her or "making sure" she did a good job. The pharmacist was helping someone else, the other cashier was engaged in conversation, and she still did her job and did it well. And the fact its in our neighbourhood makes it all the better.

Next time I need a prescription, I'll gladly pay an extra couple bucks on my prescription (if the price even is any different) for that kind of service. Even without the Slurpee.