One of the hassles of shopping in the US is that the prices are round numbers, but they don't include tax, which means that you can have any number of cents added to your bill.
Kin Mun and I were in McDonalds for one of our lunch stops. I was served by a young girl, probably just shy of 20, with all sorts of coloured hair. She had already had to cope with my incomprehension of the ordering process in US. (There are choices to be made at every step!) Anyhow, the coffee order came to $2.17. I handed over $10.00. She was about to give me my change, when I then gave her a 25c coin (a quarter). She stood there, frozen. In her hand she had the seven dollar notes calculated by the register. So I said give me back 8c (in coins). She was still frozen. So I said, just give me back $7.08. Thank you so much she said, I appreciate it, my maths is no good, I had problems at school, I was dyslexic. When I went back to the table, I realised it was MY maths that was wrong - it should have been $8.08! So I am not sure if her gratitude was a one dollar tip. But I don't think so. She seemed genuinely grateful that I had done (some kind of ) maths for her, as she was completely lost without the calculator. She was a lovely young girl and some of these encounters are very touching.
And Maccas in the US is just like in Sydney - I think.
Is Maccas another name for McDonald's? Lots of young people do not feel comfortable doing math in their heads, unfortunately. I don't think she planned to rip you off but didn't feel capable to figure it out, poor dear
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Yes Deb. Although the stores are still called McDonalds. As it turned out, my own maths wasn't brilliant either! But she was bamboozled. Another difficulty of having 25c coins too! I don't think, in fact I am sure she wasn't trying to rip us off. She was very appreciative, it touched me!
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