I visit the Trader Joe’s grocery store in my neighborhood several times a week. Whenever I go, I make it a point to positively interact with as many of its employees as I can. As a result, I have become friends with quite a few of them. Several weeks ago, I went there to buy some cherry chocolate chip soy ice cream for Noah, my four-year-old grandson who is lactose intolerant. When I went to the ice cream section, I found that they were out, and Trader Joe’s was no longer carrying it. I told the woman who was unpacking boxes of ice cream, who is also a friend, about my grandson and how much he liked it. She felt badly, but there was nothing she could do but recommend the vanilla flavor of the same product. Several weeks later, a shipment of cherry chocolate chip soy ice cream showed up out of the blue. When my friend discovered this, she immediately texted me that a shipment had come in even though it was discontinued, and she sent a photo of it in the display case. I immediately went there and bought four containers of it. The lesson here is that if I had not been friends with this person, I would never have known it was there and Noah would have missed out on his favorite treat.

One Sentence Wisdom

• “It is always good to make new friends.” — Jose Feliciano
• “I love making new friends and I respect people for a lot of different reasons.” — Taylor Swift

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