Show Me the Money!
by Serendipitous | Published on August 6th, 2008, 7:28 pm | Life
Tonight I had to make a what I thought would be a quick trip to the grocery store. I had a short list: soda, milk, and wine. I got the three items and stood in line in the Express Lane (12 items or less).
There were three shoppers ahead of me:
1. A lady whose items were already being scanned by the clerk,
2. A lady putting items from her cart onto the conveyor belt (and BTW, she CLEARLY had more than 12 items), and
3. A lady with a bag of salad and a diet Coke.
It still seemed like it would be a quick run through the line, but it wasn't.
The first shopper tried to pay with a card (credit or debit, I dunno) but her card was declined. She had the clerk take back a couple of items, but her card was still declined. She told the clerk she'd be back. A manager had to come over to void the whole thing, and then they moved on to the next customer.
The next shopper ... remember it's supposed to be 12 items or less, which she had more than 12 to begin with AND she wandered to a sale bin and grabbed stuff while the clerk was scanning the items from the belt)... her total was $110 and change. SHE tried to pay with a card and was declined. Like the first shopper, she said something about going to get money and that she'd be back. And again, the manager had to void the transaction.
The salad and coke lady paid with cash. No prob. Me? No cash, but I had a debit card... that wasn't declined.
However, earlier in the week, I'd had a similar problem with the debit card being declined, but it was only semi-embarrassing because at least I had another account to hit and didn't have to leave the restaurant without a lunch. (It did suck to check my account and find out that I screwed up basic subtraction!)I really felt bad for the ladies ahead of me who didn't have the funds for their groceries, mostly if they were embarrassed, and not so much about the money situation. It's not like I've never had my card declined or that I've never seen it happen to someone else, but seeing it happen to two people in a row... what were the odds?
