When I broke my ankle and was seeing the ankle doctor a lot, they made me see their x-ray tech every time I came by, which was nigh weekly at the time. One of those times, it was something like 1pm and she was complaining that she hadn't had lunch yet.

At the time my wife was still trying to figure out how to take care of me with my physical limitations, so she'd send me on my way with a backpack full of provisions, including fig bars for snacks. However, it was just a doctor's visit, so I didn't need many snacks. As such, I offered the technician one of the fig bars. At first she was hesitant, but after I showed her it was still sealed, she accepted and apparently enjoyed it.

The tech was there every day, but she had different assistants every time I came by. After the fig bar, every time I saw her she told the assistant of the day various versions of "that's him! That's the guy who helped me when I missed my lunch!"

Made me feel damned good about myself.

This is cute, gonna keep that one in my back pocket for when I want to make a deposit at the karma bank

I think some of the dissent in the comments fail to consider some of the nuances in this interaction. If this specific kind gesture isn't appealing I have two alternatives to suggest.

I keep a bunch of bottles of water in my backseat and two in my glovebox to hand out to people asking for help at traffic lights and such.

Goodwill and other thrift stores generally have books for pretty cheap. Easy to fill a shopping bag for $20. I mostly aim for beginner level novels and young adult fiction and put them in the free neighborhood libraries. Satan knows we need more children reading.

I feel like the kind of people who post pleasant fantasies like this have never worked retail because oh my god no, please no do not do this. Not only are you slowing down the line and forcing someone who's trapped there to interact socially beyond the scope of their job, there's a 100% chance I lie to you about my favorite candy and I'm gonna throw away anything you give to me (if I'm even allowed to accept it, which nowhere I worked retail would have ever allowed that kind of liability) in case you've wiped something on it.

Creeps have ruined this kind of spontaneity, and until we fix society in general it's not coming back. It's a nice thought but please let it stay a thought.

You know you can just tell them they are doing a great job and to have a great day without the creepy, flirting bit, right? You can be nice to people and express gratitude and make people smile without bribing them with cheap candy as though you're trying to slip into their DMs.

Especially when I'm having a rough day, I do not want some random showering me with pity treats when I'm just trying to make it to the end of my shift.

How about a healthy snack

Shit, I just realized, I rather do that 100 times more than donate to a cause so someone else gets a tax break

I do something similar! For Christmas, someone got me a giant pack of Reese’s Cups. I kept it in my trunk.

When I order my groceries online, I tell the person loading them into the car to grab a couple when they are done. It makes me happy as much ad it makes them happy.

This only works in winter time for obvious reasons.

:)

Ive seen this before and have actually started doing this. Though i havent done it recently because im in a different country now that doesn’t speak english so i cant communicate very well with cashiers :(