July 12, 2012
'Ma'am change please...!'...'Please give us change ma'am'...'Change kodi!'... these are common phrases that everyone, especially people in Mangalore have become used to. Yes ... this is one irritating thing that we are being forced to hear each day time and over again.
'Oh no! Not again!!!'....'Come on! Give me a break!!'...'This can't be happening again!!'... these are my usual mental responses to such requests or rather 'orders' from the shopkeepers. The funniest response that you can get from them when you say that you don't have change is a funny stare...as if we just deprived them of the last drop of water on earth!
What annoys me most is when we have drained the last member of the 'change' family and we go with a 1,000 or 500 or even 100 rupee note, we get to hear the same! Ya ..ya....I know what you are gonna say....things are still the same and Jack and Jill is still up the hill!!
Another 'irritating' habit of cashiers....any guesses......yes! You got me right! Giving toffees instead of change! Come on guys! If we wanted toffees we would have purchased them! Okay.. now you give us toffees instead of change...and tomorrow if we customers don't have change, would you accept the same toffees from us??? Why is it that only when customers don't have adequate change they 'have' to get it at any cost? The funny attitude of the shopkeepers are ' beg, borrow or steal! But we want change madam!'
Even hypermarkets like Spar have adopted such a technique. But we customers feel that instead of a necessity, at times, it just comes out of habit for them. Even if they have change they keep nagging us for more. Grrrrrr...........why???! We expect to get change from such supermarkets but coincidentally they expect the same from their customers! Now what happens when both parties don't have change? It might result in the addition or subtraction of a couple of items to make the due amount a round figure. Again, sometimes, it has resulted in angry customers showing their frustration openly to the cashiers. But the question is... what exactly can the cashiers do? Can they really make the situation any better?
Adequate change should be provided to the cashiers so that they wouldn't have to beg or nag the customers for it time and over again. Actually we customers are also to be blamed at times. I feel that we, as customers, should stop the age old habit of asking change even though we have plenty of it. Come on guys! If you want change that badly, go to a nearby bank and get it. Unless we have some change vending machines like in the US, there is really nothing else that we can do. We are left with limited options.
But now a couple of new techniques are going to be adopted. One of them is giving tokens instead of change so that the customer can redeem those tokens the next time they shop there. The other technique is of 'credit' card, which also does the same function in bigger hypermarkets. It is indeed a good sign to see such ventures.
And what about our auto drivers? Are they any less? In fact, many a time they are more than happy that we don't have change because they can gobble the difference amount even if it is one or two rupees, saying the age-old dialogue 'change illa!' Woah... so simple! They either scream at us if we say that we don't have change, or they loot us! The choice is really ours. Either give them 'exact' change, or get ready for the worst! It is quite a wonder that though they accumulate change all day in their rides, they still are out of it when you need it!
So next time, before we all cringe our faces when this shopkeeper or that rickshaw wala ask us for change, lets just double check our wallets, 'in case' we missed out a dime hiding in that little corner of our wallet!
P S - Spare me for naming only one single hypermarket. Its not that I have anything against it. But the thing is that invariably every time I go there they keep asking me the same thing!!
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