Like I Needed Another Reason to Love Stew's

I write about Stew Leonard's, the world's largest dairy store and community asset, a lot. Even before I lived in Norwalk, home of the original Stew's, my parents used to drive from Long Island to Norwalk to go to there. Don't believe me? Go here and type in my maiden name in the search box.

Stew's is now about 2 minutes from my house. We go there at least twice a week, both for the experience - which includes animitronic farm animals and lots of free samples - and to buy milk (which is fresher and less expensive than at the "regular" grocery store).

Yesterday I took the girls there after school for an impromptu visit. I was going to wait until today, but wanted to avoid the "storm crowds" that will likely be lining the aisles tonight. As the cashier finished checking out my $12 purchase, I searched in my very messy pocketbook for my wallet. It wasn't there. While thinking "Crap!" and hoping that it was in the car, I explained to the cashier that I didn't have my wallet, but I knew my credit card number and asked if I could pay that way. Understandably, she couldn't authorize this and so a manager came over to help.

I followed him to customer service while he checked in with the security guy to see what he thought. Alas, it was a no go. HOWEVER, rather than taking my groceries, they offered my store credit, taking my name and contact information using the only ID I had on me (A UCONN photo ID from my lapsed attempts at getting my MBA). Granted, it wasn't exactly a spending spree, but it was really nice to know that they had a process in place. Very customer-friendly and oriented.

The icing on the cake? My wallet was in my car! I quickly returned to the store to pay off my debt. On the way out the security guy that had met us at customer service saw my sense of relief and offered us tokens for free ice cream. The girls were in heaven. Even if they were frozen from eating ice cream in the parking lot in the 30-degree weather.

PS: Anyone have any recommendations for magic lotions or potions for alleviating biscuit feet? For some reason (perhaps my three showers a day?) my feet and heels are dry as the desert.