Sam's Club + Fargo = ?....

Oh my goodness....  I have to rant for a bit.  But it has a happy ending, I promise :) 

On Friday I went to my local Sam's Club to get 5 items.

Here was my list

I know where all of these items are, since I shop there frequently.  And these few items are the "staples" I always purchase from Sam's Club.  (I've done the math and it's a better deal than my local grocery store)

I don't know what it was about Friday afternoon, but man, the strange-bus must have pulled up right before I got there.  Here is a first hand account of the weirdness that ensued...

1. When I walked in there is usually a Sam's Club employee to greet you and asks to see your membership card.  After about 10 steps into the store an employee ran up to me to ask for my card.  He seemed quite frazzled

2.  Then I headed off to the Frozen/Refrigerated section.  As I made my way to find my cheese slices for Doyle, there was a woman who's shopping cart was blocking the entry to the case I needed.  So I decided to go over to the Frozen section and pick up my Shrimp.  No problem there, just got it and ran back to the other isle.  The woman's cart was STILL blocking my cheese (she was the only person in the massive isle).  As I stood there patiently waiting for her to get the hint to move her cart, her husband comes up and they proceeded to have a full out argument about cheese!  They are now BOTH standing in my way, and so is their cart.  After about 3 mins of me creeping on their riveting conversation about cheese, I finally say. "Um, can I just grab something out of this case?"  They both look at me like I was inconveniencing their lives to move the cart 4 inches.  Yikes! 

3.  After the CHEESE debacle I thought, that was the end of it - but noooooo.  I head over and grab the Tuna Fish, no problem there.  Then I stopped over to grab the A1.  There was a man in the isle that was standing near the sauce I was picking up.  After I put it in my cart, he starts asking me all these questions about A1 sauce...  Like "what foods do you put that with?", "do you use it on sandwiches?", "is it a spread or a sauce?".  Buy the way this man was probably in his 50's...  I answered all his questions, but thought is was hella strange. 

4.  Okay, I'm finally in the homestretch!  Only have to pick up my Turkey Jerky.  I get to the isle and automatically I'm disappointed to find two people in it.  I have not been having good luck with people today...  Once I find the jerky, the two men standing in my way.  I'm thinking to myself "please don't have a long conversation about jerky" - but that's exactly what they are doing!  OMG, I couldn't believe it.  This couldn't get any stranger.

5.  Last but not least, my check out. This is the happy ending I was taking about.  There was a man checking out when I pulled up to my line.  He was purchasing 2 bags of candy.  The cashier was having troubles using his gift card, so that took a while, but I was in no big rush.  I figured it couldn't be any stranger than all the crazy encounters I had just had. 
So the man was paying with the gift card and cash.  He was short $2.00 and some change and was visibly upset.  He didn't have any other method of payment with him, so I offered to pay for his overage.  I mean, it was only 2 bucks and he seemed pretty upset.  I gave him a $5.00 bill and told him he could keep the rest.  He was shocked, then gave me a big smile and said "Thank You". 
After that exchange the cashier looked and me an asked me why I gave him money.  I told her that sometimes you don't know what's going on in people lives and if I can help in some small way, that's fine by me.  And it was only $5 I parted with.  By making his life a little easier, just for a moment, well that was worth $5 to me!
She was still shocked and kind of amazed that I stepped in.  She and I talked throughout my entire transaction about it.  I told her that I don't have oodles and oodles of money, but if you see someone in need and you can do something about it - DO IT!  Why not?? 

So have any of you ever paid for a total stranger at the checkout line?  I'd love to know in the comments below, if you care to share. 

Thanks for reading!