the value of being kind

[u/nun_CARTII]

For nearly seven years, waitress Melina Salazar showed extraordinary patience and kindness to Walter “Buck” Swords, a notoriously difficult customer at Luby’s Cafeteria in Brownsville, Texas.

The 89-year-old WWII veteran frequently complained, cursed at staff, demanded piping-hot meals and never left a tip. Despite this, Melina continued serving him with compassion.

After Walter died in 2007, Melina received an incredible surprise. He had left her $50,000 and his 2000 Buick in his will as a heartfelt thank-you for her unwavering kindness.

A powerful reminder that kindness can touch people more deeply than we realize.

[u/battlejess]

Not the same thing (and like others have pointed out who found the original source, reality apparently isn’t either) but there’s a “grumpy” regular at the diner I waitress at. I find him just a bit gruff, but he’s always been nice to me. Tips very well. I recently found out, from a customer that serves him at another location who was complaining about him that he tips horribly. She was not happy to find out that wasn’t my experience at all.

I was also warned when I started there about a regular couple, being told by a woman who’s been there for over a decade that they only ever tip $3, no matter what they order. I’ve been there about four years now and they now tip me 15% (a little over $7 usually). It’s not a huge tip, but that’s $7 2-4 times a week (they come in a lot).

Funny what a little kindness can do.

[u/li-ll-l_ → u/battlejess]

Had a customer when i worked at Starbucks that everyone hated cuz he always ordered a half caf dark roast with extra cream and then always complained there wasnt enough cream. I learned how much cream he liked from watching him pour his cup of extra cream into his drink and i always made his drink for him in that particular way. He became a super nice guy to me and always tipped me pretty well

[u/battlejess → u/li-ll-l_]

Yeah, it’s super easy and much less of a headache to just learn what a regular likes and do that. Even if you can only remember one thing about a regular they respond super well to that and will often, in my experience, be a lot more understanding.

And it’s amazing when it’s busy if I can just go up to a table and say “the usual?” and have more time to do the thousand other things I need to do. I can greet a table with their drinks all ready and skip an entire trip across the restaurant! They’re happy, I’m happy, and in the end my wallet is happy too.

It does however backfire on my coworkers sometimes when I spoil my customers by remembering their order to the point I know it better than they do and they struggle to communicate it to others… oops.