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Letter to the editor

A store stocked with kindness

A tragic loss puts a new spin on customer service for one 7-Eleven employee.

By WAVENEY ANN MOORE, Times Staff Writer
Published December 2, 2007

ST. PETERSBURG - Tracey Griffith is touched, but not surprised, by the kindness of customers at the 7-Eleven store in Pinellas Point where she has worked for almost two years.

They are people whom she has come to know well. Some let her know they're leaving for vacation to prevent her from worrying if they suddenly fall out of sight. So when they heard she had rushed to Texas because her son had been killed by a drunken driver, they gave what they could to help with expenses.

Monday morning, store manager Ron Jenkins handed Griffith an envelope with $500, most of it from customers who had seen the small sign co-workers had placed by the counter seeking financial help for her.

"I was very touched," said Griffith, 46.

"The people that come in the store are just really great people. I've had the opportunity to know them over the past year or so and for them to help me out at a difficult time, I was very touched, but not surprised. It's the type of people that they are."

Griffith's 30-year-old son, Scott, was killed in Baytown, Texas, on the evening of Nov. 16.

The 1987 Ford Mustang he was driving was hit in an intersection by a drunken driver, killing him, according to the Baytown Sun. One of his passengers also died.

Griffith, an assistant manager who works the 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. shift, got the news the next morning. A few hours later, she was handed $68 that had already been raised to help her with expenses. Her son, the father of two little girls, had no insurance, she said.

When she returned to work last week, she was greeted with hugs and words of comfort.

"One customer told me she had been praying for me, and that if there is anything that I need to let her know and she'd be there for me seven days a week," Griffith said.

"These are just some really wonderful people."

Others feel the same way about her.

"She's great. She cares about the store and the customers. She brings in food for the customers she makes at home - brownies, muffins, stuff like that," said Jenkins, the store manager.

"I know a lot of my customers personally," Griffith said.

"When people walk in that door, I greet them by their first name."

The store at 5451 31st St. S, across fromAlbertsons supermarket, is a community in its own right. Two years ago, when store clerk Onelia Budge died, customers were still signing a memorial a month after her death. Many had often stopped to give her a ride to work when they saw her walking from her nearby apartment.

Waveney Ann Moore can be reached at wmoore@sptimes.com or 727 892-2283.

[Last modified December 1, 2007, 21:16:16]