It always gets my goat, and I begrudge them even one penny, if I think someone is out to cheat me, or if they try to imply by their demeanour that I am being mean or petty. One must certainly not encourage such outrageous behaviour from a restaurant or shop, because you’re supporting their business, after all, with your patronage.
A few years ago, I was waiting at a bus stop in my neighbourhood when I spotted a new Chinese supermarket next to it. Went in to check it out, as it’d be good to try and buy local. Got a packet of Malaysian-produced groundnuts, with a marked up price of 99p. Paid with a pound coin, but the shop assistant didn’t make a move to get the change. Said to her, “I thought it says 99p on the shelf?” She said with a sneer, “It’s only one penny[’s change].” I gave the packet back to her, asked for my money back, and never went there again. A few months later, I saw that they’d closed down, and thought with Schadenfreude glee, “Ha! Serves you right.”
There’s a shop on Harrow Road selling Oriental and Filipino food (rice, noodles, sauces, snacks), run by Pakistanis. They are always polite and friendly, and I try to shop there whenever I’m in the neighbourhood, although it's a long way to lug all the stuff home.
One day, I was looking at some (uncooked) poppadums on the shelf. One of the staff walking past, a Pakistani young man, said to me, pointing at the top packet, “These are broken. Take a fresh packet.” Because of his attitude, I deliberately picked up the packet of broken poppadums, thanked him warmly, and said, “It’s OK, I don’t mind. You need to sell them or you’ll lose money.”
(London, 2009)
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