A moral test for Thanksgiving......
November 24, 2020
Dear Folks,
So, there I was in COSTCO #1 shopping very comfortably getting my Thanksgiving stuff when I noticed several shoppers coming out of the back corner of the store with big smiles on their faces and large bags of "30 County Bathroom Tissue" in their shopping carts. Oh, what's going on?
Oh, yeah, news reports of hoarding. Toilet paper again. And paper towels. And maybe some other stuff.
So, I went back to the toilet paper area and saw.... NOTHING! All gone! Zilch! Too late!
Oh boy, now what? I was thinking that we in Troidl-ville might be ok for now but memories of scarcity earlier in the season had me thinking: "What if I figure out a way to buy a big bag or two of 30 roles?" Hmmm, I thought, as I talked to the person checking receipts on the way out of the store: "When is a good time to get TP since you are currently out?"
"Early in the morning" she replied, "We re-stock every day before we open".
So, I made a plan to head to a different COSTCO #2 early in the morning the next day. And the next day I went, cruising right in to the store, intent on getting mine, and blessing the gods that I am a "senior" now and got in one hour early. But then, on my way to the back of the store, I started thinking, "John, what are you going to do? Are you going to grab two bags or are you going to limit to yourself to a single bag of 30?". Yeah, I was wondering "Are you going to be part of the hoarding problem buying more than you need right now or are you going to behave in a moral fashion and let others have an opportunity to buy a bag?".
So, I was reaching back to ethics classes I took in college and even further back to catechism classes I took as a child. And what came to me was "Love thy neighbor as thyself" and a little more prosaically "Don't be a jerk, John!".... but honestly I was not quite decided when I arrived at the display area for the toilet paper and there right over the bags was a sign that said, "Limit One Per Customer"..... and generally being a pretty good rule follower, I picked up one bag and put it in my cart and turned back to the rest of the store, decision made for me.
And along the way I was thinking, "You probably would have taken only one anyway, John...... to avoid contributing to the mass manic behavior of hoarding and making it harder for others to get theirs".
Friends, I would really, really like to think so!
Cheers,
John
Hi John, I too went to Costco and got one pkg of the only tp they had: Charmin. People saw me with the tp and hustled back to get some themselves!
Posted by: Donna Provenza | November 24, 2020 at 05:41 PM