Faith in humanity

At lunchtime today I popped into M&S at Kingston, Milton Keynes to grab some lunch, as I frequently do. I chastised myself as I walked from the car for walking with my head down, but decided that since I was feeling a bit miserable, I might as well. I got in there, sighing as I had to dodge a carelessly abandoned toddler, grabbed a salad and a box of fruit, noticed the 5 items or less checkouts were closed, and joined the nearest queue.

There were 2 people in front of me, both with medium sized loads of shopping. When the women immediately in front of me finished loading hers onto the belt, she turned around to put her basket in the rack, and saw me, clutching my two items. She then insisted I go in front of her, shoving her shopping back a bit to make space, and putting in an extra 'next customer please' divider for me. I was touched, and thanked her profusely. About 30 seconds later, I realised I was standing in line smiling to myself still. Then, the woman working at the checkout greeted me with great ethusiasm (I go in there fairly regularly, but still, it was appreciated) and as I left wished me a good day with such sincerety I could have wept. I continued smiling all the way back to my car, ignoring how embarassing smiling at nothing while walking through a car park made me.

The lesson is thus... even when you lose faith in humanity, there's always M&S. Comforting to know.