Great Customer Service at Wild Oats

Tonight instead of going for a ride I went to dinner with NZ Wendy, Kristin, and Wendy's sister, bro in law and nephew who are still visiting from New Zealand. It was her family's last day before leaving Chicago. We went to the Heartland Cafe and ate outside. This was a good thing, cuz two year old Jasper was able to use the yard, sidewalk and the dirt as his personal playground. I don't think he sat down for more than 5 or 10 minutes. Little Matchbox trucks were constantly rolling off the table and squirrels got chased and so on. Did you know they don't have squirrels in New Zealand? It was great to see them one more time before they go. I can't believe three weeks has gone by so quickly.

They really enjoyed their visit to Chicago, they liked so many things about our city. Everyone was so friendly, and they often got special treatment, they found. They thought some of it had to do with having a cute 2 year old along. At the Field Museum, even though the museum staff was turning away people because it was closing soon, they let them in when they said, in their NZ accents, that they wanted to see the Maori exhibit before they leave town! They said that things are alot cheaper, in general, here than they are in New Zealand, and that we have a higher standard of living. On the other hand New Zealand has wonderful open space and some natural resources that aren't available to many people here. They don't have alot of malls or chain stores yet, although that has been changing in recent years. Marie said there are more cool boutique-y places there, but alot more available in basics at Gap and Old Navy type places for great prices here.

After dinner instead of going to the gym I decided I had better try to get to the grocery store before it closed, thinking tomorrow is going to be crazy trying to get everything done and I had better try to get some stuff now. After 9 this store starts putting stuff away and cleaning up at the deli, salad bar and meat counter. It was 9:30 and the woman at the meat counter was still willing to take my order instead of telling me that she was closed. Good thing number one! As I walked past the deli area I saw that all the food had been taken out and put away for the night. That was what I expected. The staff was standing around in the back and I smiled at the familiar faces as I walked by. When I was in the checkout line later, just before they were closing, one of the deli guys finds me in line and hands me a container flilled with my absolute favorite quinoa with black bean salad that I buy whenever they have it. He said, "I thought you'd like to have this." He must have gone in the back after I walked by and pulled out the put-away salad and filled up the container for me. I was so surprised, and happy to have the salad for after the race at LaCrosse! Now that is great customer service! That would be Good thing number two about my shopping experience at Wild Oats tonight. Thank you Wild Oats employees for being so cool!