A New Jersey man had the rather unorthodox idea of throwing a party at the Walmart self-checkout counter. Perhaps driven by rage and cynicism, a bit of his motivation can be found in the event description on Facebook, which reads” celebrating another successful year of picking, paying, and bagging your own groceries while actual employees just stand around and check receipts.”
When he saw that 21,000 people had marked the event as ‘interested,’ he decided to turn his cynicism into goodwill. Walmart was unwilling to host the event, but creator Andrew Delgado wasn’t going to give up so easily.
“While this started as a joke, it has me thinking. What if… I was to organize a big toy drive where we have a Santa Claus and then we all purchase toys from the store, pile them outside, and then donate them to whatever children happen to come to the store?” Delgado wrote on the Facebook event page.
“I genuinely believe that something good can come from this. Times are tough for a lot of people. I think this would be perfect.”
Writing to his local Elks Lodge community organization, which agreed to offer their Lacey Township location as a drop-off site, the stage was set to see how many of those 21,000 people, a number which by that point had grown even larger, would show up.
The groundswell of support, and coverage from local news, became so great that Delgado had to reiterate twice on the event discussion section that it was absolutely not going to be held at Walmart, despite the original description.
The turnout was stunning, with over 7,000 people participating and trucks of presents, food, pet food, and other donations flooding the Elks Lodge. (SEE the Video here on Facebook.) At least one local store got involved, and the news of the event made it all the way onto USA Today.
DONATIONS GALORE: Oklahoma Teen Overcomes Shyness to Collect and Give Away 54,000 Toys
Delgado posted regular updates, in which he estimated the gifts would make it to over 1,000 families in the Lacey area of New Jersey.
“Well, our journey has finally reached the official end. We rolled over to Popcorn Park Zoo to deliver the last of their donations and then stopped at Lacey Food Bank to drop off the literal SHIPMENT of boxes full of food and toys to them as well,” Delgado wrote on the ‘final update’.
MORE CLEVER TOY DRIVES: ‘Operation Christmas Drop’ Has Delivered Toys and Supplies to Remote Islanders via Parachute Since 1952 (WATCH)
“We didn’t have a whole lot of time to plan this but we did an amazing job nonetheless.
Also, the manager of the local Walmart store drove a truck to the event and unloaded a ton of toys food etc. He’s actually a really great guy and I really appreciate him coming through for us,” he said, adding as a postscript to the whole bonanza, “I don’t actually hate self-checkout.”
SHARE This Joker Turning His Cynical Jibes Into Gestures Sweet…