I Was That Customer at Walmart

So, I work in retail and have for years now. It’s not my favorite job, but it pays the bills and the coworkers are good people, so it works out fine. Anyway, a few weeks ago, there was this elderly lady who came into our store. She asked me to help her with something at the customer service desk because she wasn’t sure what to do. I got her squared away in no time and went back to my regular duties. A little while later, she comes up to my register again. This time, though, it was clear that there were items on her cart that had expired discounts and weren’t supposed to be at the sale price anymore. She asked me if I could help her pay for everything with just a few dollars she had because she wasn’t sure what else she could do. I tried my best to explain politely that we couldn’t change our regular pricing policy, but when she started getting upset and saying it was an emergency, well, something inside of me cracked. I didn’t want her to feel bad or turn away empty-handed with no help at all. So, after making sure nobody was looking, I rang up everything as though it were on sale for the lower price. I felt terrible doing this because I knew there would be consequences if we got caught. But seeing how upset she was made me think of my own grandmother and that kind of pulled at my heartstrings in a way I couldn’t ignore. So, I did what I thought was right at the time despite knowing it wasn’t exactly by-the-book stuff. Here’s where things get worse: later, when management found out about the discrepancy (someone else must have noticed and reported), I got into big trouble for it because it could cost us money and set a bad example. The lady never came back or thanked me in any way either, which made me feel even more guilty since she left without so much as an acknowledgement. I know what I did was wrong from a professional standpoint but doing it still keeps me up sometimes. Maybe someday I’ll find the courage to apologize properly for taking that risk and causing trouble for my employer.