Target Employee Warms Hearts as Touching Act of Kindness Goes Viral

A Target employee’s kindness towards an elderly customer has led to Internet stardom for the man after an image of the man surfaced online with an inspirational message.

In the image, 19-year-old Ismael Gilbert patiently assists an elderly customer who wanted to individually pay for each item she purchased. He helped her count out her change, and kept her calm even as the line behind her grew.

When asked about his actions with the customer, the father of one said, “It just feels good to be recognized for good work, but this isn’t something new. I treat all customers the same, the way I want to be treated. It felt good because that’s the kind of example I want to be for my daughter.”

Gilbert’s actions gained notoriety after another customer, 35-year-old mother of two Sarah Owen Bigler, photographed the exchange and posted it to social media. Bigler initially found herself inconvenienced, saying on her Facebook post, “Part of me, the part that had a long day at work, the part of me who had a one-and-a-half year old having a meltdown in the cart, the part that had set an unnecessary timeline for Target and getting home, was frustrated with this woman and the inconvenience she had placed on me.”

However, Bigler’s post goes on to talk about how impressed she was with the patience and respect Gilbert showed the customer, and realized that the lessons on patience and kindness her daughter learned were more than worth the time. She ended the message saying, “If you are ever in the Glendale Target, give Ishmael a smile and a nod. The world could use more people like him.”

The story, first posted on January 13, has been shared over 25,000 times on Facebook alone.