I have always heard incredible stories of opportunities fellow staff members have had to make people at Mall Of America happy. Until yesterday, however, I never had the right chance to do that myself. With all of the festivities of the MLB All-Star Game happening, a large crowd of visitors made their way to Mall Of America. The day of the All-Star Game I was working upstairs in the entrance with the highest traffic and I noticed a couple families coming in all wearing Make-a-Wish lanyards. Knowing what I know about Make-a-Wish I assumed those families wished to attend the All-Star Game and were visiting Mall Of America while they were in town. With this in mind, I decided to take action. I approached one family and asked if they were here on a Make-a-Wish trip and they said they were. Without giving it a second thought I ran in the back and got them each a Mall Of America shopping bag with our coupon book and deals for other retailers inside.
We usually sell those bags so after giving them away I went down to our Executive Vice President's office to make sure that was an okay thing to do. I told her I just felt like I wanted to do everything I could to make their visit here the best. Without hesitation, she started digging in her drawers and pulled out all the tickets she could find, telling me to go back and give them away to the Make-a-Wish families I saw. I was overwhelmed with the sincere gesture that we both wanted the same thing for these families.
This is truly why I love my job. Yes, free game tickets and the excitement of meeting celebrities is nice but when it really comes down to it, I am working for a company that cares as strongly as I do about making the world a better place. That is the real reason I love my job at Mall of America.
Until next time,
Samantha Phillippi