It’s a chilly evening in the city of Delafield. As you exhale, you can see the heat of your breath, leaving your mouth. There are little to no customers in Sierra Trading Post, but there’s one in particular who’s still shopping, Irene Wheeler. Irene isn’t a normal customer who shops for themselves and leaves after 30 minutes. Irene stays for hours finding the perfect clothes. Why? She shops for elderly people who live in a nursing home and they don’t have anyone who visits, but her. 

When she comes up to the register to check out, she has a preference on how to do it. She divides items by category (socks, shirts, pants) and each “category” is its own transaction. 

Each item is bagged separately, to give the clothes to the person. It makes it easier to tell whos is whos, to then give to the resident.

When she comes up, she recognizes me and says, “Hello Ian, how are you today?”

“I am doing well, how about you?”

You talk about how each other's days are going and how life is going. When you first met Irene and you didn’t know her style, the transaction would take 30-40 minutes, but now with the knowledge and skill, her transactions now take less than 20.

Irene normally has at least 15 bags. Instead of giving her the bags and leaving, you put them into one or two carts, depending on how many you need and you will take them to her car for her and load it. It’s a lengthy process, but in the end, it’s all worth it.