For the passed week or so, I've been thinking about a small, little incident that's been bugging me. In the last few days of my vacation in the states, I went to the Richmond Costco with Kyle and Steve. I went to get some food gifts to give to people out here on my return. I buy the stuff, and of course, right there, is the hot dog/pizza/chicken bake stand. I decide to go get a hot dog. $1.50. $1.62 when you add in the tax. This is very important for the sake of the story.
I grab the hot dog, and give the cashier two bucks, a dime, and two pennies. $2.12. Somehow, the cashier doesn't see the two pennies and punches in $2.10 into the cash register. I see this and point it out... to which she decides to do the math in her head. She gives me a quarter, a dime, and a nickel. 40 cents. I didn't really think about it all to much (all I was thinking about was how much kraut I was gonna pile on the dog)... but it kinda felt wrong. So I say that I feel like I'm supposed to get more change. Here goes the dialog:
Hideyo: Umm, I don't think you gave me enough change.
Cashier: No... you gave me two bucks, a dime, and two pennies.
Hideyo: Yeah... ?
Cashier: So, you get 40 cents back. Don't question me, I know my math.
At this point I was kind of shocked that the cashier would give me so much attitude about such a minor thing. But again, all I could think about was how big the dog was gonna look after all the condiments are piled on... and so, I said "Ok," shrugged my shoulders and hurried off to fill up my drink and pile on the kraut.
Once I got into the car though, I started thinking about it. I think I did the computation at least 20 times... checking, double checking, triple checking. Of course everytime, I came up with the same answer. 50 cents change. This was when I started to get peeved. Not only did I get short changed, but I got punked for thinking that I got short changed. The 10 cents didn't bother me too much. The attitude, and trying to make me feel stupid bothered me.
But then, this was the Richmond Costco. What did I expect? A smile and someone saying "Thank you... have a nice day"? Ahh it felt good to back at home... sort of.