Monday, August 07, 2006

Penniless Lane


Yesterday I stopped at the Farmer Jack at Ten Mile and Coolidge . I don't normally like to shop at that store due to its repeated failure to have enough registers open relative to the number of shoppers, no matter the time of day. I only go there because of its location.

In yesterday's shopping trip, I was only purchasing two or three items, so I used the self-checkout lane. Since the total cost was $5.49, below my usual $10 threshold for credit card use, I paid cash. I inserted into the machine a $20 bill and received $14.50 back. For those of you who may be mathematically challenged, the machine shorted me a penny. Apparently, the machine automatically imposes half of the "give a penny, take a penny" protocol.

A penny is obviously not going to make or break me, but it irks me for two reasons. First, my change at the end of each day goes into one tzedakah fund or another. So please don't think that stinginess is prompting my outrage. Second, while "give a penny, take a penny" is a good idea, it should be the consumer's choice.

A few years ago, Air was rightly upset about Farmer Jack's refusal to stop shoppers with more than the maximum number of items from using the express lane, a violation of which also occurred yesterday in the lane I used. He protested by refusing to put his carts into the corrals in the parking lot. I'm struggling with devising a way of letting Farmer Jack know how upset I am in a manner as effective as Air's.

1 comment:

Air Time said...

My protest was more than to not put the carts in the corrals, I would leave them in the middle of the parking lot, so that they would get hit by other cars, righting the damage that was inflicted on me by Farmer Jack.