Many stores have a no tipping policy because they want their workers to help everyone equally without having to worry about the tips.

Sometimes, however, a customer will go out of their way to make sure they are able to give a little extra to a worker who was helpful.

The old lady in this story had some chairs delivered and wouldn’t take no for an answer when it came to tipping.

Let’s read the whole story.

I peaked early. I had my best customer when I was 16.

So, sophomore year of high school (2002), I worked for a small mom and pop hardware store in a nice town in New England.

The place was famous for being about twice the size of a 7-11, but still having almost everything you could find at a big box store.

I bet this was a popular store for people doing home improvement projects.

The retail workers there knew where everything was, and there was always at least one employee standing in the front by the entrance to immediately say “Hi! How can I help you today?” and then take the person to the location of whatever they asked for (I always found it funny that the older folks saw this as “Good Customer Service” while the younger folks (correctly) saw that it was a loss prevention measure).

We would also carry things out to folk’s cars, be it charcoal, propane tanks, bird seed, et cetera.

The owners VERY explicitly told us that we are NOT to accept tips from customers for helping carry a customer’s purchase.

I’m sure this customer was lovely.

So a little old lady comes in.

I’d guess she was in her mid 80s, almost five entire feet tall, might weigh 90 pounds if she was soaking wet and had rocks in her pockets.

Perfectly done hair that never moved independent of the rest of her head, and dressed in very colorful, ornate blouses with a giant brooch on her lapel.

Just a well put together, dignified woman.

She lived at the old Private School that had been converted to senior apartments a few blocks away, and wanted some lawn chairs so she could host guests in her garden.

Now this is good customer service.

She was a super sweet and pleasant woman, and it only took us about 5 minutes to find a chair that she liked the looks of that was also light enough for her to move and fold/unfold it herself.

She bought three of them.

This store is really going above and beyond for this customer.

When she went to the cashiers, she asked for a hand getting the chairs back to her apartment.

Due to her age, seeming frailty, and the fact that she was just such a pleasant customer, my bosses got her address and told her they’d have them delivered that afternoon.

So, an hour or two later, the store’s pretty dead, and my boss says “Hey Fergee, why don’t you go deliver those chairs to that lady?”

I immediately said yes, grabbed the chairs, and made the quarter mile walk to her building.

What a sweet old lady.

She lets me in, shows me where to put the chairs, and before I can say “Thank you for shopping at Local Hardware Store,” she’s already grabbed my right hand and put a handful of Werther’s and Bazooka Joe gum in it.

I’m super surprised and can barely say thank you, but when I manage to stammer that out, she goes and puts a $20 bill in my hand too.

That is a lot of money at the time.

I tell her through habit that I can’t accept tips (even though this was 2002 and that was almost four hours of work that she just tipped me), but thank you so much for the thought.

The lady looks right in my eyes, closes my fingers around the candy and the money, and says, with absolutely delightful sincerity “Honey, if you don’t think your bosses want you to have this money, just don’t tell them about it!”

We both had a pretty good laugh about that, and I gave her a hug, thanked her again, and went on my way.

I took her advice and didn’t tell my bosses, instead saying she tipped me in candy (which they were still a little put off by).

Now this is a great use of the money!

I took the $20 and invested it in an Ozzy Osbourne Greatest Hits CD (a friend had just introduced me to Crazy Train a few weeks prior and I was obsessed), which was the start of a lifelong love of all things heavy metal.

Marie, I assume you’re dead by now, but I hope the rest of your life was great and you died peacefully in your sleep after a long, fun day with family and friends.

It is always nice to hear about customers who break the mold and are actually good people.

Let’s see what the people in the comments on Reddit have to say about it.

I love Werther’s!

Absolutely. Ozzy was a legend.

It doesn’t make much sense.

Hey, she may have loved Ozzy!

These happy stories can be so rare.

What a sweet old lady.

If you liked that post, check out this story about a customer who insists that their credit card works, and finds out that isn’t the case.