Employees at North Carolina restaurant pick up grocery shoppers' tabs with company card: 'You want to help people'

A North Carolina restaurant owner is making sure that her employees get the opportunity to give back this holiday season — even if they don’t have the means to do so.

Annette Brown, who owns A’Nets Katch fish market, is usually closed on Mondays, which is why the members of her staff were probably confused when they were called to meet outside the local Food Lion supermarket in Knightdale on Nov. 19. Turns out they were in for a surprise that none of them could ever have anticipated.

“Sometimes we’re in a position where you want to give and you want to help people but I know a lot of times you can’t, simply because you don’t have the resources or the funds or something to give,” Brown told her staff in a video posted to Twitter. She went on to say that she’d be taking care of the money, but needed help to put her charitable plan into place.

Brown instructed her staff to go into the grocery store and find somebody that they connected with and follow them to the cash register. Once the employee was behind them in line, and the shopper went to pay, the employee would step in and take care of the entire tab with the company credit card.

Immediate reactions to hearing Brown’s scheme included tears and hugs — but those were quickly eclipsed by even stronger emotions, when the employees actually got to giving.

Brown was unable to respond to Yahoo Lifestyle’s request for comment during the pre-Thanksgiving food rush. However, she told WTVD just how successful the venture was.

In total, the employees picked up the bill for nearly a dozen families, and paid a total of $2,100 in groceries. As for the employees who took part, Brown surprised them with a gift certificate for the same amount as the bill they helped pay.

“Spread compassion, especially around Thanksgiving. Not only Thanksgiving and Christmas and stuff like that, but we need more compassion, we need more big hearts,” Brown told the outlet. “The simplest things; help somebody load groceries, buy them a cup of coffee.”

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