market basket

‘What Compassion Looks Like': Market Basket Manager Pays for Man's Groceries

The man suffers from dementia and forgot his wallet at home after taking a taxi to the store

NBC10 Boston/Nicki Heath

A Market Basket manager in Leominster, Massachusetts, paid it forward when he covered the cost of groceries for a grandfather who forgot his wallet at home last week.

The man's granddaughter, Nicki Heath, posted a message on Facebook expressing gratitude to the manager, Charlie Branch, and personally thanking him for his kindness, revealing that her grandfather suffers from dementia.

"Today, I went down to MA to bring my grandfather for a medical test. When I got to his house, laying on the kitchen island was this Market Basket receipt totalling $52 dollars," Heath said in her post. "This receipt was for groceries my grandfather, struggling with dementia, placed in his cart after taking a cab to the grocery store earlier this week."

She said Branch knew her grandfather from being a patron in his store for many years and paid for it himself.

"Not having funds to pay for his groceries could have easily frustrated, angered, and embarrassed my grandfather in his current state but Charlie wasn’t going to have any of that," Heath said. "Charlie covered my grandfather’s bill in FULL."

Heath said she went back to the store later in the week to pay Branch back for her grandfather's groceries and thank him for his kindness.

"In a world that is dark and broken and ugly, Charlie represents the light and beauty and love," she said. "So this is not just a grocery store receipt. This is what compassion looks like."

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