Ever shop at SHOPPERS? The CEO of the past 4 years has resigned. There’s no one inside the company ready to step up to the job, so a world wide search will be underway.
My opinion: As more and more provinces start to protest the stranglehold the Pharmaceutical Industry has, and as they start to insist on more access to generic brands and bulk-purchasing (YAY Ontario for taking the lead on this), pitching the job of CEO for Shopper’s is a pretty tough sell. Having said that, I have a vague notion that they make as much from their (gorgeous) makeup and perfume sales as selling prescriptions. On second though, nah, that can’t be true. Can it?

LINKED IN files to go public! (ie. the you’s and me’s of the world can buy stock in their company if it goes through) and hell yes, I’d invest! (per usual: don’t mistake me for a financial planner, or construe this advice! I’m just sharing my personal take here.)

NETFLIX is freaking out (as well all should probably be) about Bell and Roger’s evil plan to start charging us by-the-gig-consumed for internet usage as well as giving a generous amount and capping it. Apparently a lot of Canadians were stung when they started using Netflix, not realizing they were exceeding their allotted bandwidth as they watched movies. Ouch.

oh, and: Sarah is going to pay off $15,000 in Student Loans this year! Pop by her blog and wish her luck!

I’ve had a couple tough days.  I’m off work, ill.  Headache, achey bones, and a fatigue that’s taken me down for the count.  I hate being sick!  Additionally I’m missing a lot about Vancouver these days.  Don’t get me wrong – I really enjoy Yellowknife – but there are experiences and places and shops and wifi and people who are only to be found in Vancouver.  So in addition to bone and head aches, there’s some ache-of-the-spirit in the mix.

This evening I did what all sick people do to console themselves.  I made the treck to the video store.  Alas, I came out empty.  No The Wire.  No BSG til late July apparently.  I forgot to ask about Firefly (anyone seen the series?  I saw one episode – are they all as awesome?)

Plan B:  buy some chocolate. One idiosyncrasy of life up here is that the majority of shops shut down at 6pm but not, thank goodness, Shoppers.  I went the distance, folks, I selected a beautiful Lindt milk chocolate bar, went to the til — and my debit card was declined.  And declined.  And declined again.  It’s payday and I work for the Gov’t so I’m guessing Central One’s servers went down, but in any case, so much for my chocolate.  Life was beginning to spiral downward.

Until a lovely thing happened.

The young woman at the til, seeing my crestfallen face, told me to hang on one sec.  She punched a few buttons on the til — handed me the chocolate bar, smiled, and said, it’s on me.  Not on the house.  It’s on me.

I stood dumbfounded.  Eventually I stammered out my thanks, and happily accepted the chocolate bar she had just bought me.

It cost her $1.50.   Not much in the grand scheme of things, but its impact was multiple time a buck-fifty.  It was a lovely, unexpected, random act of kindness.

I don’t know if I’ll make a point of paying her back or if I’ll pay it forward or quite what I’ll do.

I thought I’d start by simply sharing.

Readers, have you experienced a Random Act of Kindness?  Care to share?

ps: I got home, and reached a vancouver friend who, of all things, is also housebound.  He’d rented One Week, and I was able to find it on iTunes for rent, so we’re sharing a movie, virtually.  Life is lookin’ better.