By Phumla Mkize
Johannesburg – It is a blessing and a curse.
You want to kiss your phone when a birthday reminder beeps at just the right moment; while queuing at your favourite supermarket and there are enough shoppers in front of you to tell the one behind you that you have forgotten something important.
You dash for a box of chocolate without losing your place in the queue.
But when that beep is your municipal account or another bill that needs to be paid; then suddenly you realise that the cellphone is a burden and mood killer.
It is at this moment that you remember all the 10 cents you have been swindled out of by the supermarket.
I had my 10-cent moment at a bookshop.
I had been saving my rewards to buy two local books.
On this particular day, I had planned to top up with R30 cash for the book, which I had thought cost R280 – my points were worth R250. But alas, it was R282.
I counted the coins in my purse.
Oh blimey, I was 10c short.
The cashier reminded me that I could use my bank card to pay the R32 difference.
But my intention was not to swipe that day. I was going to use the points that I had earned for exercising regularly and meeting my weekly goal – and pay the difference in cash.
I begged that surely, she can give me the book; I’m just 10c short. She agreed, I thanked her and left.
I may have raised the issue of the 10c at the wrong store.
To be fair, most bookshops round off their prices. But I cannot say the same for supermarkets chains.
They lure us with prices such as R4.95 and then conveniently run out of 10c coins. What happens to all these 10 cents? They won’t sell you a loaf of bread for R12.95 if you only have R12.80.
When I use cash, which is not often, I demand my 10c. Paying by card is easier because at least they charge you the correct amount. I have seen people deliberately leaving their 10c on the counter.
Why? I have heard and I have been told by some cashiers, “sorry, I don’t have 10c”.
Other supermarkets are so brazen they don’t even apologise. To them R99.95 is a euphemism for R100. When you do the sums; they make a killing off the 10c.
The rich get richer and the staff is complicit in this and doesn’t even get a cent of that extra 10c.
Imagine: if 50 customers do not get 10c on a single day, the store makes an excess of R5 a day. Multiply it by 365 because most of these supermarkets are open daily and it’s R1 825 a year. And we all know that hundreds if not thousands of customers walk through their doors a day.
They make a fortune from a 10c!
Next time you go to the supermarket; demand your 10c.
Rather donate it to charity by dropping it into those little cans at the till points because one thing is for sure; that money is not going to the workers.
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