Place: Subway
Lunch: Spicy Italian (the November featured $5 footlong), chips, Coke
Ever go by a Subway and think "Gee, I never noticed that Subway before", and it's because it just opened and even though you drive by there every day you didn't see it coming?
I suppose that's because Subways just kind of magically appear in strip malls overnight, and possibly because who cares, there's like fifty Subways within a ten-mile driving distance of any point on Earth. Or at least it seems like there is.
Anyway, they opened last week. Who knew. No grand opening banners. Few customers. That's a good thing here because this may well be the slowest Subway crew EVER.
My sandwich looks like it was run over in the parking lot before they served it.
Slightly more noticeable last week...Dunkin' Donuts returned to the market for the first time in...oh...a few decades. The press release claimed it's "the first Dunkin' Donuts restaurant in the area since 1972", but I think that's when the last one OPENED. I think they were here until 1980 or so. There's definitely one old Dunkin' building still standing in town that until recently was a taco place.
I stopped by on opening day. It was busy, but not ridiculously so. I parked right out in front. Waltzed right in. Third in line. Had a free Munchkin. Ordered my usual...a Boston Kreme and a hot chocolate. Also got a Strawberry Frosted just because.
Total $3.28. Handed clerk $20.28. Got back NOTHING.
Didn't think about it for a second, then caught on. "Hey...you owe me $17."
She stands there looking innocently confused, then says something to another employee. "It'll be just a minute, sir."
She rings out the next customer, because she can't just open the drawer, according to the other employee. She needs a transaction where the drawer pops open so she can make change.
Except this guy is paying with a credit card.
So does the next customer.
Why do people use credit cards for $3.00 transactions?
Another employee asks me if he can help me, not because he's helpful, but because I'm in the way now. I explain why I'm standing there. He gets a manager, who nervously shows the cashier how to open the register.
I finally get my change and move over to where you wait to pick up drinks. Mine, of course, has been sitting there for awhile. One of those regional people franchises bring in to oversee store openings wastes no time explaining to me that they're just opening today and these things happen and therefore it's nobody's fault.
Short-changing has become such an issue with me that I have to wonder if cashiers are doing this on purpose to supplement their low wages. We have a local Target store where you simply couldn't pay cash without exact change...they'd skim you every time, regardless of who the clerk was. (Don't know if it's still like there, I quit going to that one years ago.) I also had it happen to me at a Walgreen's recently. I confronted that clerk and she got upset, completely denying it. I confirmed I was right when I got home and balanced my books. (Yes, I'm that anal...I track every penny.)
Then I stopped this morning at QuikTrip for Lotto. I had a $1 winner and was buying $3. The machine was directly in front of me behind the counter. The clerk inserted my existing ticket. The machine made its "You're a winner! Woo hoo!" sound and the display showed I owed $2 after he plugged in my $3 plays.
He turned right around to me and said "No winner on that ticket. $3.00 please."
Seriously?
I pointed out that he was incorrect. He turned again. "Oh, right. $2.00."
Maybe that's why everybody's paying $3.00 tabs with credit cards.
I went back to Dunkin' this morning. Hit the drive-thru this time. Got a couple of doughnuts and a hot chocolate. Paid with exact change.
Drove off only to later discover they gave me the wrong doughnuts.
