Of the many differences between Europe and Colombia, there are a few that make no sense to me, regardless of how many elaborate explanations I try to devise. Today I want to complain about one of them: the little money tray.
It turns out that when you want to pay something (in the supermarket, a little shop, the university canteen) you're not supposed to hand in the money to the cashier: you're supposed to leave it in a little tray for him/her to take it. If you are to receive some change, the person will put it in the tray and you're supposed to pick it from there.
In Colombia using such a tray would be surely out of the question: if I want to pay something and I simply leave the money next to the cashier, he or she would have every reason to be upset. Indeed: in our culture anyone would find offensive (or disrespectful) the act of forcing the other to pick up the money from some surface when you could have given it to his/hand with a similar effort.
I guess that the main motivation of the tray is to keep money transactions as impersonal and cold as possible. Perhaps accidentally touching the customer when giving back the change is a bad corporate habit. Or perhaps the little tray is to represent the fact that the cashier respects the customer so much that he/she is not allowed to hand in the money. Who knows.
My main problem lies on the fact that I am extremely clumsy when picking up little coins in a rush. So, if the little tray's purpose was to speed up transactions, they failed with me. And I am pretty sure I am not the only clumsy one around.
4 comments:
In Denmark there is usually also a little tray. It is used most times but not always. People don't notice whether it's used or not. I guess Danes don't consider it to be anything important.
In Bolivia, they don't have trays, as expected.
Ebbe, you imply trays are largely irrelevant and you're right.
My concerns about them are exacerbated by what happens at mensa here: cashiers in mensa not only are big fans of money trays but also give you the change in the food tray. Many times they have put coins in the very same napkins I intended to use. Perhaps this might have occurred to you; I find it extremely annoying.
He he. Yes, as I've remarked before you're 80 years old when it comes to certain things. And then again only 15 concerning other things. You're an involved human being. ;-)
That's interesting, Ebbe. I only hope to be like a 80 year-old for the irrelevant things, and a 15 for the rest :)
Post a Comment