I Feel So Dirty
Posted on | April 13, 2007 at 8:28 pm | 12 Comments
Hmmm, maybe I should start a separate blog for just my Safeway stories…
So N and I were driving to my place the other evening, and we passed by my Safeway. You know, the one with the creepy old fiber-obsessed bagger guy. It’s also the one that is being remodeled. I wanted to show the remodeling to N and she wanted some bananas (potassium: good), so we decided to stop in. We got a couple of bananas, which came to a whopping total of 35 cents. When we got to the cashier, I paid in cash with a dollar bill. The change machine then spit out 65 cents, which I grabbed. Then the cashier handed me another 65 cents in change and my receipt. I was so confused examining the change in my hands that instead of walking out the door, I wandered into the area where some workmen were doing something to the ceiling. (It was the area where the old entrance was, so I was obviously just acting on outdated instinct.) N, who hadn’t noticed the extra change issue, was like “Where are you going and why are you staring at your hands” and then she guided me to the proper exit while the workmen made fun of me. I think they thought I was her mentally disabled brother or something.
So, not only did we get free bananas, but they paid us 30 cents to take them. (It’s true, kids… do the math.)
Now this is the kind of thing where my innate code of ethics kicks in and I go and give the money back. But this time I didn’t. Was it because the amount was so small? Was it because the cashier (a young male) looked bored and apathetic? Was it because the next person in line had a big basket and looked scary and was in a hurry? Was it because I knew that Safeway had made some mistakes that cost me in the past (forgetting to give me the requested cash back from my credit card, not loading a bag in my cart, etc.) and I wanted some payback? Most likely, it was just because I was flustered and confused. N almost made me go back when I explained what happened, but by then we were too far gone and too lazy.
And no, we didn’t see OFOBG (Old Fiber-Obsessed Bagger Guy).
So now I will have to live with this shame and guilt for the rest of my life. But I used to be a Catholic, so I’m used to it.
What would you have done?
Latre.
Comments
12 Responses to “I Feel So Dirty”
April 13th, 2007 @ 8:45 pm
I would have gone back and bought more bananas to see if they would give me more money.
My local grocery store deli counter keeps charging me for cheddar but giving me American cheese. Crooks. Or idiots. I can’t figure out which.
April 13th, 2007 @ 9:32 pm
I would have filed an amended tax return in order to claim it as income. (you HAVE filed already for 2006, haven’t you??)
April 14th, 2007 @ 8:27 am
yesterday at King Soopers ..after I got home I found an extra bag in my car…someone elses groceries…..”NOW WHAT am I going to do with a giant jar of generic tomato sauce ,two cans of chili jalapinos and a can of healthy chicken soup” I thought..”and what about the person that got home and couldn’t make their tomato-jalapino-soup mix thingy?” I have it here if anyone is interested…..
I would have kept the change..its karma a balancing out of things …we all have been short changed at the store and not gone back..so no guilt Roger!!!
dem catholics will get ya everytime with that!!!
hee hee
April 14th, 2007 @ 11:33 am
Strictly speaking, the ethical case is pretty cut and dried – return the money. In reality, that small of an amount is a waste of everyone’s time, so just make sure you don’t enjoy it and you’ll come out OK on the moral front.
Give it away to someone better off than you, or donate it to a disgraced politician’s legal defense fund, or leave it in the penny dish at a neo-Nazi bar. Be creative, but remember, have no fun whatsoever in the process, or you’re a bad boy!
April 14th, 2007 @ 11:35 am
I think I just used it to buy diet pop from a vending machine.
April 15th, 2007 @ 3:56 pm
I’m agreeing with the folks who say, technically, return it – but since, as you point out, the store essentially owed you money (for transactions that were too penny-ante for you to complain about), I don’t see a huge issue with your taking it in this case.
But yes: you should report it as income. Time to file an amended return!
April 16th, 2007 @ 11:50 am
I would have returned it as soon as I was aware of it, since the mental anguish is not worth it, but I’m obsessive that way. Could also potentially cause problems for that individual clerk if their drawer is off (probably less likely for a small amount), and the particular clerk probably did not benefit from prior mistakes.
April 18th, 2007 @ 5:26 am
Ethically speaking, whether the store “owes” you or not should have no bearing on whether you give the change back; the cashier is the one who has to reconcile his drawer at the end of his shift, and no one’s gonna tell him, “It’s ok that you’re short, you probably gave the money to someone we short-changed in the past.”
HOWEVER, like everyone else has said, it wasn’t practical to go back and return it, it wasn’t that much money, and it’s not a huge deal. Forgive yourself, dear Flasshe!
If you see the cashier again, you could always offer him the money. He’ll probably wave it off.
April 18th, 2007 @ 11:30 pm
Paula’s right – but I wonder if stores really demand that their cashiers pay up sixty-five cents in shortfall – since the time it takes to tell the cashier to do that, fill out the necessary paperwork, etc., would cost the store more than sixty-five cents in labor costs anyway. Incidentally, in the last few years I’ve noticed more and more stores going to the automatic change-return thingy: I think there are two reasons for this. One is that they no longer assume their employees are capable of making the correct change on their own; the second is that they’re aware that many customers, having been handed the bills by the cashier, forget the change and walk away. (I’ve seen this happen several times: only once or twice did the cashier call after the customer. The other times, I did.) Those forgotten thirty-seven cents add up: more profit!
April 19th, 2007 @ 3:00 pm
Here’s a weird trend I’ve noticed, only in the past 2 years or so, but I’ve resisted blogging about it, as it seems–literally–petty:
Cashiers will sometimes, out of convenience and/or kindness, give you a dollar back if the change is really 99 cents. But lately I’ve noticed the reverse–e.g. giving back 5 cents if the change is reallly supposed to be 6 or 7 cents, assuming you don’t want that penny or 2 cents.
This has happened so many times in the past couple of years that it seems like a statsitically significant trend…like the 100th monkey syndrome.
Hey, cashiers: it would be nice if you asked whether I wanted that penny!
April 19th, 2007 @ 3:36 pm
But lately I’ve noticed the reverse… e.g. giving back 5 cents if the change is really supposed to be 6 or 7 cents, assuming you don’t want that penny or 2 cents.
That’s happened to me a few times lately, especially at Subway. The first time it happened, I thought the error was in my favor. But then when I thought about it, I realized it wasn’t. Yeah, it would be nice if they asked.
April 20th, 2007 @ 10:33 pm
They should just eliminate the penny and round everything to the nearest five-cent interval: I mean, stores are literally (literally literally) giving away pennies, it seems like a waste of everyone’s energy to keep using them.
In the giving-only-approximate-change department: where that really bugs me is at restaurants…because typically, if I put coins into the mix it’s because I want certain kind of change in return (i.e., get rid of pennies or nickels) – often so I can give the right tip. When the change comes back with something “extra,” it kinda confuses me…plus I have to go through this effort of figuring out where the change comes from (the water’s pocket? some miscellaneous “fluffy” cash window the place uses as a cushion?). A couple times, I’ve been counting on a quarter back (so I could tip, say, $2.25) and when I don’t get it, I have to undertip (because I have no other change).