Target Cashier’s Kindness Inspires Young Mom, Teaches Daughter A Valuable Lesson

Everyone has been through what Sarah Bigler experienced last week. She needed to rush through a trip to the store, pick up a few things, and get home in a hurry.

So she picked a line that looked short, but ended up behind a woman paying in change for every individual item on the conveyor — separately. One can sympathize with what Sarah likely felt next — annoyed and inconvenienced.

That was until she realized the cashier at her local Target was performing a heartwarming act of kindness that stayed with her long after she left the store.

The act of kindness took place in a suburban Indianapolis Target, Fox 59 reported. Sarah posted on Facebook that on this particular afternoon, her daughter Eloise was in tow, one of her sons was sick at home, and another had been picked up from the sitter and was in the middle of a tantrum.

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After picking her line, the harried mom placed her items on the conveyor and didn’t notice until she was finished that the customer ahead of her was an elderly woman — and she was going to take a long time at the register, Fox 8 recounted.

“Part of me, the part that had a long day at work, the part of me who had a 1 1/2 year old having a melt down in the cart, the part that had set an unnecessary timeline for Target and getting home, was frustrated with this woman and the inconvenience she had placed on me.”

But then she looked closer: the cashier, Target employee Ishmael Gilbert, wasn’t nearly as annoyed and impatient as she was. He was helping the customer count and sort all her change, one coin at a time — quarters in one pile, nickels in another, dimes in a third.

The young mom noticed that the Target cashier wasn’t huffing, rolling his eyes, or insisting that the customer hurry up. His kindness was pure and sincere, and he remained patient with the customer throughout the long transaction.

Bigler recalled the cashier respectfully calling the woman “ma’am” and soothing her with reassurances of “you’re fine” every time she apologized for being slow as she counted change with “shaking hands.”

“When she asked if she had enough to buy a reusable bag, he told her she did and went two lines over to get one for her and then repackaged her items,” she wrote. “Never once did this employee huff, gruff or roll his eyes. He was nothing but patient and kind.”

And then she noticed something else: her daughter, Eloise, was watching the Target cashier’s kindness with rapt attention and learning an important lesson that Sarah felt that she could’ve never taught her daughter on her own.

Whatever frustration she had left melted away.

“(Eloise) … was standing next to the woman, watching the employee count the change. I realized I hadn’t been inconvenienced at all. That my daughter was instead witnessing kindness and patience and being taught this valuable lesson by a complete stranger; furthermore, I realized that I too needed a refresher on this lesson.”

When it was her turn at the register, the Target cashier’s kindness continued — he thanked her for her patience and rang through her items. Sarah thanked him for the important lesson. Ishmael’s act of kindness so moved Bigler that she forgot all about her piling list of errands and need to rush home, and when she was finished, found the manager and told her the story.

Then she went home and told it on Facebook. The story of the Target cashier’s kindness — and an accompanying photo — have since gone viral. Since then, Ishmael has been stunned by his moment of fame and the kind messages he’s received from people all over the country. He said the kindness he shared with his elderly customer wasn’t an isolated incident.

“I treat everyone with the same respect,” the cashier said. “And I get it back in return.”

The closing line to Sarah’s viral post is definitely true: “The world could use more people like him.”