Monday, November 7, 2011

Oh Justice...



On Saturday I took the kids to the mall.

Olivia had $20 burning a hole in her pocket and she wanted some new earrings and an outfit. (but for mall prices that means new earrings and a shirt).

So after getting the earrings she saw the store Justice for Girls which she LOVES and had to go in there.  After MUCH perusing, trying on, and perusing some more she finally decided on a shirt.

She bought the shirt which was $3 more than she had and I told her she'd owe me $3 when we got home.

As we were walking out of the store she decided she wanted to return the shirt and get a cheaper one instead.

So back we went.

There is no such thing as a quick return anymore.

The girl needed my driver's license and a background check to return the shirt we just bought with cash.

Geez.

So as she goes to hand me the difference in change, which was $1.96, I said, "Oh, can I just give you 4 pennies so you can just give me $2 instead?"

She looked at me like I was asking her to give me free $100 bills.

"Oh, I'm sorry, I can't," she stammered, "I've already run the transaction."

"Um, okay.  It's just cash right?  So this should be fine.  You know 96 cents plus 4 cents equals a dollar, soooo...."

"Oh, yeah, I just don't think we're allowed to do that."

"What do you mean 'allowed to do that'?  I just want a dollar instead of 96 cents and here is the 4 cents so that it is all good."

"Ummm, yeah, I just, I'm not sure how they count the drawers at night and I don't want to get in trouble and I just don't think we're allowed.  Let me just check."

Oh. My. Gosh.  This was now like a 5 minute ordeal and when I was telling Shane the story later I realized I should have taken the 96 cents from her, added my 4 cents and said, "Hey, can you give me a dollar for all this change?"  But I was just so baffled by the whole thing I didn't know what to do.  She was acting like they wanted an exact count of every quarter dime and nickel people pay with.  And the whole "allowed to" thing was really throwing me off.

I assured her I had done drawers before and that all that matters is the amount needs to add up and that this would add up just fine.

She wouldn't take it.

So she asked the girl next to her, "Um, Kaitlyn, are we allowed to do this [explains story]?"

Kaitlyn, while looking up and thinking really hard: "Um, I don't know.  I mean, it makes sense, I think, but I'm just not sure if like that is something we are allowed to do."

WHAT DO YOU MEAN ALLOWED TO DO?!?!?!?!?!?  You can't give somebody a dollar bill for a dollar's worth of change?  Somebody just shoot me now.

Finally they called the manager over.

"Um, Cami (aka: the manager) can we...[explains story]?"

Cami looks at her and says, "Yeah. Of course."

Thank you Cami, I was really starting to wonder if I had gone crazy.

Let this be a lesson to all you young girls out there--Pay attention in 3rd grade math class.

You'll need it someday.

2 comments:

Allyson & Jere said...

HA! That is awesome. And by awesome I mean, tragic that those girls were THAT retarded that they couldn't figure it out. Then again, I can totally see your irritation and look on your face, that you must have had, and I'm sure it was disconcerting to their highschool brains and psyche. Glad to know it all worked out in the end.

DianD said...

It really is a sad story -- sad because, like Dad said, "tThese are the people that vote!" They're probably right up there with the ones who think you can just print all the paper $$ you want and distribute it to everyone who asks and all will be well! That would probably be the one time they'd never question if it was okay if they took $$$ for nothing in return -- not even 4 cents! Sheesh!