Forget About Normal: Something Exciting is Happening at JCPenney Tomorrow!

This poor POOR little blog has been abandoned! But guess what! Something exciting is happening!

It all started when my sister and I took our teenage daughters Black Friday shopping in Marshalltown, Iowa. The very first store we visited was JCPenney. Fast forward to December 16, when I FINALLY sent this email to the corporate office. My hope was that the associate and store manager would be recognized for excellent customer service.

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I was shopping with my 15-year-old daughter, Emma, in the Marshalltown, Iowa store on Thanksgiving evening. Emma was born with a severe club foot and struggles with self-esteem issues. She is able to walk, but that foot is quite misshapen and is 3 sizes smaller than her other foot. As you can imagine, shoe shopping is no fun and is expensive. To be honest, it is often a traumatic experience, and Emma usually cannot fit into the styles of shoes she would like to wear. Emma's eyes lit up when she saw the Thanksgiving boot display in your store. I told her that JCPenney doesn't do anything for people with differently sized feet, but she insisted that I ask. The sales associate told us what I expected...unfortunately, we would have to buy two pairs of boots. I just wasn’t prepared to do that. We were standing near the shoe department a minute later, and the sales associate came running up with a big smile on her face. She told us that her manager said the store could sell us a mixed pair of boots. I cannot express to you how happy this has made my daughter. I’m pretty sure she tried on every pair of boots in that store, and she found the perfect pair in sizes that fit her feet. She’s never had a pair of tall boots like so many teenage girls wear. As an added bonus, she is now comfortable wearing leggings because the boots conceal the extremely thin calf on her left leg. This act of kindness has had an amazing effect on my daughter. I would like to thank your company, the sales manager who approved the sale and most of all the sales associate who cared enough to ask permission. All this on the busiest day of the year. We have told many people about this story, and we will continue to shop at JCPenney.

Sincerely,

Ann Schaffer

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I didn't expect a response, but I received an email from the store manager the very next morning. He asked me to call his cell phone because it was his day off. The first thing I said to him was, "I hope I didn't get you in trouble!" Luckily I did not. He thanked me for my email and asked if I could come back into the store, but I explained that I live nearly an hour away in Waterloo. Coincidentally, he also manages the store 5 miles from my house, but he really wanted to get me back to the Marshalltown store. He said they would like to do something nice for my family. So the girls and I will be going there this tomorrow 12:30.

I have no idea what they are going to do...it's so much harder to receive than it is to give! My initial reaction was that I wish the "something nice" would go to someone who needs it more than us. Of course my imagination was going wild. Here is a peak inside my twisted head...

- What if this is a big production?
- Will the news be there?
- Will someone be filming this?
- What if they ask us to be in a commercial for JCPenney?
- What if they are filming that commercial right there on the spot?
- What should we wear? I don't want to look like we've spent a lot of money on my clothes in case they think we don't have very much money, but also I want to look nice. Oh man...
- Should Emma wear the boots? (she will)
- Will Christmas carolers be present?
- Will all the associates dip into their own pockets for gifts? Are they sponsoring us for Christmas? Are our names on a giving tree in the JCPenney break room?
- If we get a gift card, would it look bad if I used it toward a ring I saw there that I really wanted, but didn't get? (It was under $100 and really pretty.)

Ok, I know my imagination needs medication. In reality, we are just going to enjoy this and will be happy with whatever they decide to do. I am also hopeful that the company will also do something nice for the sales associate.

Here's a photo of the boots in case you were wondering. Cute, right?