A couple of nights ago, I nipped out in the evening to my local 7-11. I had been laid up for a couple of days with a nasty dose of food-poisoning, and thought that some salty snacks and electrolyte drinks were needed to keep me from death. I ended up buying a bunch of other things too.
The lady on the checkout (middle-aged, rather muddle-headed, new to the job, I think) seemed strangely reluctant to use the barcode-reader.
Instead, she totted up my purchases on a handheld calculator - apparently using a combination of memory, guesswork, and asking colleagues to verify the price of each item (rather than referring to a stocklist, or anything sensible like that). I was particularly anxious to know if the barcode-reader was somehow out of action because I happen to have discovered that at least one of the items I was purchasing is significantly cheaper (according to its barcode) than the apparently advertised price on the shelves.
The dithery woman made three attempts to tally my purchases using the calculator, coming out with three different figures - the last of which was 211 kuai. When I did manage to coax her into using the barcode reader, she would do so grudgingly for one or two items and then obstinately return to using the calculator alone. When I did finally badger her into swiping the barcode on everything, my bill came to..... 174 kuai.
I don't think she was consciously trying to rip me off. But there did seem to be a staggering lack of awareness of why a customer would prefer to use the barcodes, or not trust an employee's (entirely unsupported!) mental arithmetic, or resent being overcharged. And, really, there was nothing at all wrong with the barcode-reader; it was much easier and quicker to tot up the bill using it than to flounder around with the calculator.
What is the matter with you people?! Using the barcodes is not optional!
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