when did sweets become legal tender
Posted by Social Matters , Monday, October 14, 2013 10:29 AM
WHEN
DID SWEETS BECOME LEGAL TENDER
I
once overheard a conversation between a young customer and a very rude cashier
at one of the well known local supermarket. The cashier gave her sweets instead
of her change, and when the customer asked if she came with sweets if the
supermarket would accept that as legal tender, imagine your total bill comes to
499 shillings and you reach out and give the cashier 495 shillings and two
sweets, the cashier went on a rage saying next time the customer needed to
choose what items she was buying better, so that she did not need the
shillings, even after the customer left the rude cashier was still ranting.
A while back there was a corn snack that
I loved so much, after comparing prices I decided to buy it at the supermarket
where it was two shillings cheaper, sadly I never got my two shillings I got a
sweet. It’s now almost legal, big retail supermarkets are making sweets to be a
legal tender, but today after walking into a supermarket in Thika Town, I was
supposed to get 4 shillings on top of my change but the cashier without asking
and even though he had enough one shilling coins, decided to give me two
shillings and a sweet, I told him no, give me my change in full or return all
the items and give my money back, he gave me my change half heartedly. So now I
have a couple of questions for the supermarkets (cashiers and owners included).
·
Who
gave you the right to substitute my legal tender for sweets?
·
Would
it kill your cashiers to ask customers kindly ‘will you have some sweets instead since we have no loose change?’ after
all it’s my money. Every morning their
supervisor had better had them repeating ‘it’s
not my money, it’s their money, and I am not doing them a favour, it’s their
money that brought them here.’ A couple of times in the morning, tea break
and lunch when the fatigue sets in should do it.
·
My
dental cover, are you the one who pays for it?
·
If
I wanted sweets, don’t you think they would have been in my trolley?
·
Even
if I have a child, meno iki uma, will you help the poor mother put the child to
sleep?
·
Are
you paid by the sweet factories to sell the sweets for them
·
If
I was a shilling less, would I still be able to make a purchase at your
supermarket
·
Why
don’t you put up notices in your supermarkets indicating that you do not give
shillings in change
·
Do
you know a bob can buy me one biscuit/small mango/sweet, three bob buy me a
match box that will last me three weeks and guess what that shilling in the
long run is a lot of money, that I could have saved.
To add insult to injury, there is no bob
shortage in Kenya, why can’t they visit Mama Mboga, or the local shops and
exchange their fancy notes for shillings. Imagine the thousands of shillings
that they steal from Kenyans monthly, in the excuse of ‘we have no coins.’ Well today I decided, ‘give me my change,’ or ‘give
me, my money.’ As for the rude cashiers, with a misplaced sense of
entitlement, who think that for most indigenous Kenyans, being served in a
supermarket is a privilege; it is not especially when it makes absolutely no
economic sense. All Kenyans deserve value for their money; all these ads of
cheaper services are of no use if you cannot get your correct change back. Call
me cheap but give me back my bob, I worked hard for it. Someone had better tell
these supermarkets; just because you can use the word mint with Central Bank
does not mean you can give me some tasteless cavity causing mints instead of
legal tender.
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