Wednesday, November 17, 2010

Shoppers’ Shame

With just a bottle of body lotion in our hand, Lil Girl and I chose the shortest queue. It was not to be the quickest. A lost-looking man and his paying wife had bought a thousand little things which took some tallying. When the shop assistant said “175 Ghana Cedis”, he took off his purely gentrifying glasses, and checked the screen of the register himself. He broke into sweat for his wife had just 135. Between turning away and searching her frowning face, he spent two minutes looking like an Ass, and wasting our time (well, he did not, for everyone in the queue was laughing hard and freely). I’ll never understand two things. Why could they not do a rough tally of prices? Why could they not take out stuff when the amount was too high? After a while, he took a note from this pocket and another from that pocket until he got the 400. And then they slunk out of there, surely vowing never to return (or at least not with each other).

5 comments:

  1. I don't understand why one would laugh at a stranger's embarrassment/misfortune. Frustration - I can empathize with, especially for those of us who are impatient, but funny??? Unless of course they weren't exactly the geriatric couple I have in mind...

    ReplyDelete
  2. To answer the specific comment about geriatrics, the couple was about 35.

    ReplyDelete
  3. SMH

    There's nothing wrong with putting stuff back when you don't have enough money at the register. But I bet in Ghana, it's a big no no.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Agree with Raine, some care so much what people say.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Kwame Mensa-Bonsu18 November, 2010

    I do most of the heavy shopping myself, thank you very much. Women tend to do a lot of impulsive buying. Me? I enter the shop get exactly what i want and just get the hell out! No overspending that way.

    ReplyDelete

After writing your comment, please select the Name/URL box below, and write your name in the box, before submitting your comment.