chessed at the supermarket on Friday afternoon

There is a story going around from Ramat Hasharon. it is on the Hidabroot website but was also discussed on the radio.

The story is that on Friday afternoon there was a power outage in the area. in the Yochananof supermarket the owner decided to let the customers go home with their goods, despite not having paid for them, as the computer system was down. The owner decided he could not leave his customers without food for Shabbos and going to other supermarkets in the area would also not be an option as they too did not have electricity or there just would not be enough time to go somewhere with electricity and fill another shopping cart at that point int he day and get home for Shabbos.

So he let them all go and said to come back on Sunday and pay. The honor system regarding what they took, though everyone wrote down their names and phone numbers.

Kahn News on Twitter took a poll to see if people think most went back and paid or if most did not. 44% of respondents thought more than 80% will go back to pay. As of this morning the owners said that between 50-60% have already paid, and they expect the number to reach 100%.

Personally I think most people, if not everyone, will go pay. Decent people will generally not betray a kindness that was done to them and will want to make it good with the owner.

I do wonder how people will know how much to pay - some items are sold by weight, such as meat and chicken and vegetables. Other items are on sale or have club member discounts, and sometimes you just don't remember the exact price of some of the items in your cart.

I do have faith in people that almost everyone. if not everyone, will pay, and will probably pay more just to be sure, because of the uncertainty with items sold by weight. I do think the owner, taking such a big risk, did a tremendous chessed for his customers and will hopefully be showered with blessings, and perhaps more importantly will see his faith in his customers justified when they all pay their bills.

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