Supermarkets are places you either love or hate. There can be no doubt that the small local shopkeeper can’t compete with them on price, but certainly can when it comes to politeness and friendly service offered.

At a supermarket in Burnley there works a young produce assistant, who is very ambitious and in only three years he has worked his way up to senior produce assistant, with two staff working under him. He is always the first to arrive on a morning and always the last to leave at night and has his eye on another promotion, perhaps even to produce manager soon. One day while he is tidying up, an elderly gentleman asks if can buy half a cauliflower, politely the lad tells him that it is store policy to only sell whole ones, but he will help him to find a small one. The man said that even a small one would be too big as living alone he always wasted a lot. The lad persevered and showed him a small one he had found, but the man persisted and asked to see the manager. The assistant told the man to wait a moment and said he would ask the manager. Walking to the back room to the manager’s office, the lad knocked on the door, entered and said to the manager, “Excuse me sir, but some “pratt” out there wants to buy half a cauliflower.” As he finished his sentence he noticed the manager looking over his shoulder towards the doorway and standing there was the old man, so he quickly added, “And this gentleman has kindly offered to buy the other half. The manager approved the deal and the man went on his way, a satisfied customer.

Later in the day the manager sent for the lad and said, “I was very impressed with the way you got yourself out of that situation earlier, we like people who can think on their feet. Where are you from son?” “Manchester sir,” the boy replied. “Well why did you leave Manchester, are there no jobs down there?” The lad said, “There’s nothing good in Manchester sir, there’s only prostitutes and footballers.”
“Really,” said the manager, “I’ll have you know my wife comes from Manchester.” “You’re kidding,” said the boy, “Who did she play for?”