When you get a till receipt at the supermarkets they fold the fucking thing up and pass it over to you with the change on top, coins on notes. Why? Do they get points for artistic impression or something? It drives Mrs Exile nuts because she then needs both hands to sort it out. Change, allow time to tip coins into purse and sort notes out, then receipt, and she'd be so much less inclined to drive celery into the eyes of the person at the till. I don't feel quite so strongly about it and tend to just ram receipt, notes and coins into a pocket where it can all scratch the screen of my phone to fuckery, but I can see where she's coming from.
UPDATE: After comments from the Thylacosmilus and Dick Puddlecote I see it's not a particularly Australian thing after all. Doesn't help me get any closer to working out why the do it though.
Yep, I'm with your missus here, AE, it irritates me too.
ReplyDeleteSeems the title should have been "Things I still don't get about shopping - No. 1".
ReplyDeleteA few years ago at a Safeway in Streatham, there was ons single checkout girl who used to count the change out, properly. Whenever I went there I would head for her checkout in preference to any others.
ReplyDeleteWhen I own Tesco I will force every checkout person to count the change.
Apparently Mrs Exile saw someone on the TV having a go at the supermarkets and decided to join in.
ReplyDeleteLet's hope this doesn't become 'an Australian thing', or you might be a shoo-in for 'Continent's Highest Level of Darwin Award Winners'... :)
ReplyDeleteI hate being handed the receipt and the cash at the same time. Lots of places in Scotland do that, and some don't.
ReplyDeleteMaybe it's just a subtle way of telling you to move along - I often feel rushed in shops that do this - but it's a real pain to walk away from the till struggling with bags, trying to separate coins from notes from receipts.
Julia, I've been meaning to blog on those two Adelaide girls who booked their faces instead of calling the emergency services. It should go with the Queensland girl who wanted to pop her cherry because she thought the Large Hadron Collider would destroy the world [looks... nope, still here] and the other girl who stuck her arm down a drain to help an echidna. Now, since an echidna is basically like a small badger made out of nails handling one doesn't strike me as a good idea. Handling one that's probably shit scared at being in a drain? No, ta. People get paid to do that sort of thing and I'd be happy to call one of 'em.
ReplyDeleteInsert any appropriate or inappropriate remark about Sheilas here ;-)
It's a reflief to see that the moron distribution is pretty much even, despite the geographical location...
ReplyDelete"...basically like a small badger made out of nails..."
That's a pretty good summation of an echidna! I remember when I first saw one in the flesh, I was surprised at how big they were. I'd been expecting a rat/hedgehog sized beast...