As longtime readers know Merle Wayne Sneed is often mystified by the things other people do.
Having a intimate conversation on a cell phone in a hardware store springs to mind. Using an "outside" voice while conversing, is doubly bad.
This picture is from the car wash that I frequent and hangs over their express line. Express means that you ride in the car while it is washed. All you get is the exterior washed, no drying, no windows, no vacuuming. It costs $3.99.
I went to this car wash Monday morning and pulled up to the regular wash line to wait for the ticket-writer to ask me what sort of car wash I wanted. She was busy talking to a woman in the express line. So I waited and waited.
Over the course of the next few minutes, the ticket-writer made three trips across the lanes of the car wash to a podium about 50 feet away. She would talk to the driver, walk to the podium, go back to the driver, back to the podium, etc.
It finally occurred to me that the jack-a-loon in the express lane was paying for the $3.99 car wash with a credit card and it wasn't going well.
That brings me to my rant of the day. Is it too much to ask that a person using the cheapskate line at the car wash bring cash? Is $4 too much to carry? Really?
I suggested to a guy who looked like he might be the manager that the Express Wash ought to be cash only. He said that if they don't take credit cards, they lose business.
The car behind me in line backed up and left while the credit card tango was in progress. That can't be good for business.
Things in this blog represented to be fact, may or may not actually be true. The writer is frequently wrong, sometimes just full of it, but always judgmental and cranky
Nov 25, 2009
As longtime readers know Merle Wayne Sneed is often mystified by the things other people do.
Having a intimate conversation on a cell phone in a hardware store springs to mind. Using an "outside" voice while conversing, is doubly bad.
This picture is from the car wash that I frequent and hangs over their express line. Express means that you ride in the car while it is washed. All you get is the exterior washed, no drying, no windows, no vacuuming. It costs $3.99.
I went to this car wash Monday morning and pulled up to the regular wash line to wait for the ticket-writer to ask me what sort of car wash I wanted. She was busy talking to a woman in the express line. So I waited and waited.
Over the course of the next few minutes, the ticket-writer made three trips across the lanes of the car wash to a podium about 50 feet away. She would talk to the driver, walk to the podium, go back to the driver, back to the podium, etc.
It finally occurred to me that the jack-a-loon in the express lane was paying for the $3.99 car wash with a credit card and it wasn't going well.
That brings me to my rant of the day. Is it too much to ask that a person using the cheapskate line at the car wash bring cash? Is $4 too much to carry? Really?
I suggested to a guy who looked like he might be the manager that the Express Wash ought to be cash only. He said that if they don't take credit cards, they lose business.
The car behind me in line backed up and left while the credit card tango was in progress. That can't be good for business.
Things in this blog represented to be fact, may or may not actually be true. The writer is frequently wrong, sometimes just full of it, but always judgmental and cranky
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
8 comments:
I feel the same way when someone at Starbucks uses a credit card to buy a cup of coffee. Remember the days of the "minimum charge"??
I'm with ya all the way on this one. Somehow people are forgetting the concept of cash. If I were a conspiracy theororist...
you know me, Merle--I so rarely use a credit card, that the company calls me when I do use it to make sure someone hasn't stolen it. I think I used it once last year to order some Christmas gifts.
I'm a cash kinda gal-- I carry about 80 bucks (and plenty of small bills & correct change) on any given day.
It actually makes my life a lot easier.
My father, who never used his only charge card, would be lost in today's world where no one seems to carry any cash. It has become far too easy to pay by credit card, especially in places that don't even make you sign for under $50. The risk if you are mugged is much greater if you lose cash than if you lose your credit card. I can imagine business do stand to lose more by having a lower limit than by accepting the card for whatever the charge. There still are quite a few places that don't accept AmEx, like the cheapo place where we buy our gas.
Conversely, there are things you can't get with any amount of cash. The rental car place down the street won't take a debit card, even.
I can't remember the last time I paid for anything.
The neediest people are often also the most clueless about the needs of other people. It's a big problem.
the so called convenience of a 'cashless' society is just one more lie
Post a Comment