For Blanca...
2 stories in your honor...
#1
This summer we were in Florence, about to board a train for Pisa, and we needed a quick breakfast, so we ran in McDonalds. The breakfast menu offered an Egg McMuffin, Sausage Biscuit, or a Sausage & Egg biscuit...we decided what we wanted (tough choice when they offer 3 whole options!) and the conversation went something like this:
Blanca: I would like a sausage biscuit, and a large coke
Employee: NO, either the Egg McMuffin, or the sausage & egg biscuit
Blanca: Ok...umm, I just want the sausage, not the egg...can I just have the sausage biscuit that is on the menu?
Employee: NO, if you don't want the egg then you can take it off and throw it away
Blanca: Right, but...okay, nevermind,that's fine (though you also could just leave off the egg in the back...)
Employee: Your total is 3.00 euros
She pays, thanks him, and steps aside to wait for her food...
I meanwhile have decided to make it easy on the guy and say:
Me: I will have exactly the same thing
(I already had the exact change in hand to minimize his frustrations)
Employee: Okay, your total is 2.30 euros
Me: What?...I'm confused...why was hers more? I thought I ordered the same thing.
Employee: Well, Senorina, this is the REAL price...I don't understand why you are asking? do you want to pay more?
Me: No, it's okay...umm...have a nice day
Apparently, as an employee in Europe, you have leisure to change the price of items as you see fit based on your current level of frustration with the client...(even if it has resulted from them having the audacity to order something on the menu!)
#2
Blanca LOVES to drink Coke. One day, on her way somewhere, she stopped at the supermarket to buy one, since they are quite a bit cheaper there than out of a machine. She realized, while waiting in line, that the only cash she had was a 50 euro bill...but she reasoned that this should not be an issue since the cashier appears to have ample access to a drawer full of bills and coins...
When the cashier told her the total, she offered the bill to the woman...who asked (not out of the ordinary) if Blanca had anything smaller, when she said she did not the woman just looked at her...finally saying that she was sorry but unless Blanca had somethig smaller then she could not buy that coke.
What? Seriously?!
Eventually Blanca was forced to leave the store without purchasing what she went in for, though she had ample money...just because this lady didn't feel up to counting out some change!
posted by Bethany at 5:17 PM
8 Comments:
Bethany, your 50 Euro bill reminded me of this:
The $2 Bill. Everyone should start carrying them!
I am STILL laughing!! Many of today's youth are terribly challenged without a computer to tell them what to do!! The story is funny. Lack of education is not funny!!
On my way home from work, I stopped at Taco Bell for a quick bite to eat. In my billfold are a $50 bill and a $2 bill. I figure that with a $2 bill, I can get something to eat and not have to worry about anyone getting irritated at me for trying to break a $50 bill.
Me: "Hi, I'd like one seven-layer burrito please, to go."
Server: "That'll be $1.04. Eat in?"
Me: "No, it's to go." At this point, I open my billfold and hand him the $2 bill. He looks at it kind of funny.
Server: "Uh, hang on a sec, I'll be right back." He goes to talk to his manager, who is still within my earshot. The following conversation occurs between the two of them:
Server: "Hey, you ever see a $2 bill?"
Manager: "No. A what?"
Server: "A $2 bill. This guy just gave it to me."
Manager: "Ask for something else. There's no such thing as a $2 bill."
Server: "Yeah, thought so."
He comes back to me and says, "We don't take these. Do you have anything else?"
Me: "Just this fifty. You don't take $2 bills? Why?"
Server: "I don't know."
Me: "See here where it says legal tender?"
Server: "Yeah."
Me: "So, why won't you take it?"
Server: "Well, hang on a sec."
He goes back to his manager, who has been watching me like I'm a
shoplifter, and says to him, "He says I hav! e to take it."
Manager: "Doesn't he have anything else?"
Server: "Yeah, a fifty. I'll get it and you can open the safe and get change"
.
Manager: "I'm not opening the safe with him in here."
Server: "What should I do?"
Manager: "Tell him to come back later when he has real money."
Server: "I can't tell him that! You tell him."
Manager: "Just tell him."
Server: "No way! This is weird. I'm going in back."
The manager approaches me and says, "I'm sorry, but we don't take big bills this time of night."
Me: "It's only seven o'clock! Well then, here's a two dollar bill."
Manager: "We don't take those, either."
Me: "Why not?"
Manager: "I think you know why."
Me: "No really, tell me why."
Manager: "Please leave before I call mall security."
Me: "Excuse me?"
Manager: "Please leave before I call mall security."
Me: "What on earth for?"
Manager: "Please, sir."
Me: "Uh, go ahead, call them."
Manager: "Would you please just leave?"
Me: "No."
Manager: "Fine -- have it your way then."
Me: "Hey, that's Burger King, isn't it?"
At this point, he backs away from me and calls mall security on the
phone around the corner. I have two people staring at me from the dining area, and I begin laughing out loud, just for effect. A few minutes later this 45-year-oldish guy comes in.
Guard: "Yeah, Mike, what's up?"
Manager (whispering): "This guy is trying to give me some (pause) funny money."
Guard: "No kidding! What?"
Manager: "Get this ... a two dollar bill."
Guard (incredulous): "Why would a guy fake a two dollar bill?"
Manager: "I don't know. He's kinda weird. He says the only other thing
he has is a fifty."
Guard: "Oh, so the fifty's fake!"
Manager: "No, the two dollar bill is."
Guard: "Why would he fake a two dollar bill?"
Manager: "I don't know! Can you talk to him, and get him out of here?"
Guard: "Yeah."
Security Guard walks over to me and......
Guard: "Mike here tells me you have some fake bills you're trying to use."
Me: "Uh, no."
Guard: "Lemme see 'em."
Me: "Why?"
Guard: "Do you want me to get the cops in here?"
At this point I am ready to say, "Sure, please!" but I want to eat, so I say "I'm just trying to buy a burrito and pay for it with this two dollar bill.
I put the bill up near his face, and he flinches like I'm taking a swing at him. He takes the bill, turns it over a few times in his hands, and says, "Hey, Mike, what's wrong with this bill?"
Manager: "It's fake."
Guard: "It doesn't look fake to me."
Manager: "But it's a two dollar bill."
Guard: "Yeah?"
Manager: "Well, there's no such thing, is there?"
The security guard and I both look at him like he's an idiot, and it
dawns on the guy that he has no clue.
So, it turns out that my burrito was free, and he threw in a small drink and some of those cinnamon thingies, too.
Made me want to get a whole stack of two dollar bills........
o~\o
I liked your stories about Blanca, but I can't believe this story by "anonymous"! That is crazy. My husband used to get a lot of 2 dollars bills when he worked at Pizza Hut delivering pizza for several years. He saved them all, and now he gives them to each of his nieces and nephews as gifts when he sees them. They think it's pretty cool.
Crazy Uncle Sheldon....thanks for the story. Please don't get our family banned from eating at Taco Bell...I like that place!
I have heard the stories involving Blanca before and they were as good the second time around! But the $2 bill story? Good God!
Uncle Sheldon, really! That's one of the best stories (besides Blanca's) that I have heard in a good while.
Thomas, it's good to know that you love me. Cool stories Bethany!
--sorry about deleting the earlier comment -- here it is again:
Poor Blanca. Swindled out of E0.70 at the Florentine McDon's and a coke b/c she is too wealthy.
FYI: I have about 10 BDS$2.00 bills at the apartment now -- and they are accepted everywhere :) Barbadians know a good thing when they see it. Now if they could only do something about public transit, food prices, internet access, traffic congestion, sidewalks, benches in bridgetown, power / water outages, heckling homeless, . . .
[Has anyone bought rights to this $2 story?] My Dearest Bethany, what thanks can I render to you for such a pleasant revival of vexatious memories? They had escaped my recollection entirely. What joy was mine as I read through your account, and after such cross words with Mr. Darcy--------
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