Spare time, a streak of mischief, and an active imagination are dangerous things for a boy. About thirty some odd years ago, I was in the back room of my father’s grocery store and I heard the distinctive snap of a mouse trap going off and sure enough there was a mouse who had just went on to meet his maker. Now the common sense thing to have done next would have been to simply dispose of the corpse, but I saw a much grander opportunity and decided to go another route that showed a complete lapse in judgment on my part. I thought that this mouse would be a great source of a good laugh at the expense of my mother, who was up front working the cash register, so I hatched a plan. I grabbed a small meat tray and wrapped the mouse up in the tray and placed it on the scales and printed off a label for “mouse” at $1.99 / lb.

After verifying that there were no customers in the store at the time, I proceeded up front and dropped the mouse on the counter in front of Mom and that’s when things spiraled out of control. The next series of events are somewhat hazy to me today, but I seem to remember something about a chain of events beginning with my mother shrieking at the sight of the mouse and my father unexpectedly coming around the corner and spotting Mom backing up from the wrapped mouse and then saying “son you’re going to get my store closed down”! The next few moments of the mouse incident have been blotted from my memory. I understand this can happen when traumatic events occur to a person that the human mind just cannot process. 

As you might have gathered, I learned a valuable lesson that evening. It’s not a good idea to wrap a mouse up as a prank. It’s not good for business and it’s a dangerous thing to do with Dad around. I learned a lot of lessons in that grocery store, but possibly the most important was the need to say thank you to customers. In fact, I will go far enough to say that those two little words are the foundation of customer service. In truth, I made it through the mouse incident without bodily harm since no customers were in the store at the time; but one of the surest ways to upset my Dad was failing to say thank you to a customer. You see he understood customer service and he understood that without customers he had no business.

I feel the same way, without members we have no Farm Bureau. So let me take this opportunity to say a big thank you for your membership. Don’t forget your membership offers you big savings on a lot of things including Ford vehicles, home security systems, Enterprise rental cars, Choice Hotel rooms, and many more. Thanks again for your membership and your business.

- Bryan Wright is the associate director of organization/member benefits for TFBF. His email is bwright@tfbf.com To learn more about member benefits, head back to www.tnfarmbureau.org/memberbenefits or call the member benefits hotline toll free at 1-877-363-9100.