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Customers go beyond to help a Florida Publix cashier get new hearing aids

Posted at 6:32 PM, May 10, 2018
and last updated 2018-05-10 19:02:25-04

Customers of a Florida Publix store went beyond buying groceries by helping a longtime cashier get new hearing aids. 

A customer noticed a sign posted to Joan Sardinas checkout lane that read:

"I'M SORRY, MY HEARING AID IS BROKEN

PLEASE SPEAK SLOWLY & LOOK AT ME SO 

I CAN UNDERSTAND YOU AND GIVE YOU PUBLIX SERVICE

THANK YOU AND HAVE A GOOD DAY!"

One of those customers reached out to social media, and to different hearing aid specialists around the Bay Area. 

Specialist Don Stephens with Sears Hearing Center offered to help by telling Sardinas she could come in and get fitted for not one, but two new hearing aids. 

Stephens tells ABC Action News he has been in the industry for thirty years.

"Everyone deserves to hear better," he said. 

Stephens works out of Sears locations across the Bay Area that include Westshore, Citrus Park, University Mall and Brandon. He is working with Sardinas to get her inside one of those locations in the next week. 

He said a set of hearing aids can cost up to $5,000 if not more. 

Sardinas posted a thank you video with her Publix manager on Facebook saying thank you. 

"Oh God, from the bottom of my heart, I'm just overwhelmed and I would thank them a million times and I'd do it with love," she said. 

Sardinas said no one has ever been this nice to her. 

"All the customers here are family," she said.