Getting floored Flour(ed) after 2 months at this Trader Joe's store, thanks to a missed call and a misdirected message!
A feel-good quarantine story (a long one, at that!)
Last Sunday, I woke up late in the morning (read, in the afternoon, as on most Sundays) to find an MMS, a missed call, and a text message, in the same order, from an unknown number. The MMS contained an image of Trader Joe's toilet paper, and the following text message was an apology: "I'm sorry. I got the wrong number."
I was about to reply "No worries", when, out of curiosity, I zoomed in on the image to check the Certificate of Registration that I saw pasted behind tissue rolls. Noticing that the address was of this Trader Joe's store in the neaby city of Aliso Viejo, one that we used to frequent a lot earlier before we switched to one that's nearby in Irvine, I thought (for fun's sake, and also out of desparation) of checking with the sender of the message if this store had any bags of All-Purpose Flour available!
At this point, I should highlight the fact the missus Amogha and I had been on the lookout for All-Purpose Flour to top up our depleting reserves for about 2 months! But we returned disappointed after every visit to different stores because none of them seemed to have a stock of All-Purpose Flour. As a Ralph's employee had mentioned when I enquired regarding the availability of flour, it seemed like everyone out there has been baking like crazy since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic!
Anyway, not expecting any response to my message, I replied: "No worries at all. Can't help but ask if this Trader Joe's outlet had All Purpose Flour?! :D".
About an hour later, the sender of the misdirected message replied: "Ha ha. We do and I can put one on hold for you. We are in Aliso Viejo"!
WOAH! The sender was an employee at Trader Joe's and had offered to put a bag of precious All-Purpose Flour on hold for me! I no longer felt sheepish about my initial reply because it somehow had helped us hit the baking jackpot!
Feeling truly blessed for the simple joys of life, I replied: "Wow, today is my lucky day! That'll be wonderful! Thank you so much! Please let me know when I can stop by. My name is Steve Nipps, and I live in Irvine. Thanks again.".
Soon after, the sender responded: "Your names on it. And it's behind the desk.", followed by "Sorry to bug you this morning yet glad I could help."
Woohoo! Feeling truly grateful, I replied: "Awesome, thanks a lot!
We've been trying to get our hands on All Purposes Flour for over a month with no luck, so your misdirected message with the Trader Joe's bath tissue image was a blessing in disguise! :)
So glad that you got the right "wrong number" (namely, mine!) :D".
Then, on asking the sender their name, pat came the reply: "Yes it's Sarah O. I was texting a fellow manager that we got the "good" toilet paper in. But whoever typed the phone list put a 2 as the last number. We have laughed about this all day. And then I butt dialed you twice. "
Haha, what a fantastic coincidence for us it turned out to be! Amo and I had been laughing about this the entire day too. We soon found ourselves in the Trader Joe's Aliso Viejo store after a 30 minutes-long drive, one that we used to enjoy on a weekly basis earlier, but this particular one seemed more exciting! The flour rack had been wiped clean by the time we got there (GULP), but Sarah had reserved one bag for us as promised! We were so happy for the way things worked out, but also relieved because we were even contemplating what if this was a prank that the sender was playing on us based on my initial reply! Phewww.
Sarah had left for the day when we got there, but some of the staff at the store were already aware of this story when we got there. So, along with exchanging some friendly chuckles and comments, we got a bag of flour sporting a sticky note with the text "Hold - Steve"! Talk about getting floored flour-ed after bagging a prize
To express our gratitude to Sarah, we got a flower bouquet for her, and requested her colleagues to hand it over when she came in the next day. So, soon after exiting the store snd disinfecting myself, I texted her about this flowers-for-flour offer: "We got the bag of flour, Sarah! Thank you so very much! Noticed that the flour rack was already empty at the store, phew!
We left behind some flowers for you (think of it as the flowers-for-flour offer)
Have a wonderful week ahead. Cheers!"
And, what do you know, it turns out it was her birthday, and we ended up getting the return gift in advance: "Thank you for the flowers. It so happens to be my birthday so that's wonderful. The flour ran out @ 10. I just happened to save a bag but didn't need it. So once again the timing and situation was impeccable!
Cheers to you and your wife."
A BIG THANK YOU, Sarah and Trader Joe's! I'm an even bigger Trader Joes Fan after this episode! read more