In the course of a typical tumultuous day and week, I am confronted by some of the craziest happenings. This past week, I received an email from a well known scion of a famous restaurant family whose son purchased food from our Scarsdale location where he resides. It seems that he inadvertently left his wallet on the counter. When he called the restaurant in a panic (we’ve all been there), the Assistant Manager advised him that one of our employees found his wallet. Relieved, he said he would come to the restaurant to retrieve his wallet; the Assistant Manager said there was no need, he would drop it off on his way home from work. Though both the Assistant Manager and the employee were offered a reward, it was refused. To quote this long time Ben’s patron and scion of the famed restaurant family:
“In these days of tough business and striving for customer loyalty, your staff has shown a great way to keep your customers satisfied beyond the food experience. My son was extremely grateful for their action and will continue to be a supporter of his local Ben’s (Scarsdale) as my wife and I will be a supporter of our local Ben’s (Greenvale).”
And if that wasn’t enough, in the same week a poor young lady lost her retainer valued at $1,000. It was about 8:30 at night when I left my upstairs Long Island office only to find the young lady along with her father rummaging through the piles of bagged garbage in our refrigerated garbage room. They had asked the Assistant Manager for permission to do this and with much concern said, of course! At 9:30 PM when I was finally leaving for the day, I checked on the progress only to find an hourly employee – who already clocked out – sitting on the floor knee deep in the garbage. On his own without prompting and a ten hour work day, he donated over an hour of his time searching for the proverbial needle in a haystack.
The father – also in the restaurant business – felt terrible about this imposition given that it was after hours with employees ready to leave. Bag after bag, they went through the garbage with no success. The father was agitated, the young lady was crying but the Assistant Manager calmed both and said it was okay to take as long as necessary to find the retainer. With gloves on they got to the last bag of garbage. Voila, the young lady with tears streaming down her reddened face found the retainer.
I guess there is such a thing as a Lost and Found at Ben’s! and also many heartwarming signs of humanity!
See ya at the deli,
