When store employees can remain calm and help customers during frantic holiday shopping, everyone wins! Consumerist reader O. had a long day of navigating crowds desperately trying to finish buying gifts, so losing a bag full of merchandise at Target was a bummer of a way to end the experience.

But all was not lost, thanks to capable Target guest services employees. O. was worried, especially after reading a story last week on Consumerist where many of you voted that lost merchandise is the shopper’s responsibility once they purchase it.

But we do like to give thanks when the customer actually wins, so we’ll let O. tell you how it all went down.

I spent most of Sunday shopping and dealing with crazy crowds. My last stop of many was to Target. I ended up leaving a bag, containing over $60 in purchases, at the cash register. I didn’t realize it until I got home about 40 minutes later.

When I called the store and spoke to an employee named Jonathan, he said that the bag had been turned in. Recalling last week’s Consumerist story about someone leaving a bag at a store, I expected to be out the money or have to put up a big fight. Much to my surprise, Jonathan said that if I brought my receipt back to the store, they would replace the merchandise. No questions asked, no hemming or hawing, he just told me that it was no problem (which was a perfectly acceptable substitute for “you’re welcome”!).

When I got to the store, Jonathan was on lunch, but another employee had the same reaction… they would replace the merchandise. Before I went to get the replacements, we checked their returns/lost and found area and ended up finding the bag about five minutes later.

This all happened while the store was packed. Every employee was very friendly and never once gave me any attitude or grief. It was a great way to end a very long day shopping hell!

Thanks are also in order, we think, to a fellow shopper for returning the lost items in the first place, instead of seeing it as a free bag of stuff, ready to take home.

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