Or should this be “The rant of a time poor shopper”
This is not strictly a business matter but does help to highlight the way the different genders deal with negotiating transactions.
I always seem to join a queue in a shop with a lady in front of now this lady can be any size and any age but I only notice it’s a lady because of what happens when we get to the checkout counter…
Now I, and I believe that includes most men, have some rough idea of what the items they have chosen to purchase are going to total up to so can prepare to cover the cost when asked to in a timely manner. But get behind the person I was recently, when finally the counter comes up on them it’s almost a shock and, additionally, the amount requested seems to come as a complete surprise.
The person in question is clutching hold of her handbag as if her life depends upon it and grudgingly opens it to retrieve her purse when the total owed becomes clear. This then escalates into a search of the deepest crevices of her purse to finding what cash is hiding away. After some rummaging she withdraws the amount and then what she says next brings a cold fear into my heart; “I think I have the extra change”! This throws the mathematically challenged shop assitant into a cold sweat of panic and now all calculations will have to be done again. After payment is carried out we have the purse closing ceremony where it is repeatedly checked and finally closed then returned to the handbag which is also then closed and checked, but please note this has to be done at the counter, exasperatingly we then the receipt has to be put away safely before finally moving off to one side to let the next person in the queue have their turn. If there are three or four women in the queue in front of you, take my advice, give up and go elsewhere. For me the process is simple, regardless of the total, men get out the largest note in their wallet and quickly pay taking the change and receipt in one hand and then stuffing into their pocket for later checking if they can be bothered.
This is by no means a modern phenomenon if I remember correctly in the famous film The Glen Miller Story starring James Stewart as Glen Miller and June Allyson as his wife Helen there is a scene where Helen is tired of living the life of a nomad and wants to settle down. Glen says that they can’t afford it and Helen replies that she has saved enough for a Deposit by emptying his pockets of change every night. Now in the late 1930’s I can believe that may have been possible but now finding £50K in my pockets or down the back of the sofa is downright impossible however women are still predisposed to carry out the change liberating routine.
I would never contemplate riffling through my wifes handbag, god knows what I would find, as that would be a gross violation of trust.
The point I am making is that the speed of transation allows men to close a deal and move on where a women needs to be sure that it is all going to plan.
If nothing else it explains why I never seem to have the right change for the parking meter…
