A couple weeks ago, grocery shoppers in New Hampshire were faced with a cash register glitch--none of the registers in the Hannaford Supermarket in West Lebanon, NH was working. There were between 30 and 50 people shopping at the store when the registers went down--several in line. The store said it would take about an hour to get the registers back online. Instead of shutting down and sending all the shoppers out, the manager called his bosses.
All the people who were already shopping or in line got their groceries bagged up and given to them for FREE! The manager, Shawn Quelch, said, rather than turning customers away or making them wait--the company decided to let everyone take home all their shopping for free.
The store ended up giving away between $3000-$5000 in free groceries--but gaining invaluable goodwill and store loyalty. The store representatives said they pride themselves on customer service, and that was their first, best chance to make it right.