Etiquette and essentials
The OK Supermarket in my neighborhood doesn’t even bother distinguishing between a cash queue and a swipe queue. Everyone in Zimbabwe is swiping (except me). The Spar by me, on the other hand, has outlawed swiping for cash. And I’ve witnessed that they do enforce this. I don’t mind when people ask to swipe for me. It’s not the best etiquette, but the situation has made this a necessity and I’m happy to help people out. But there’s still some queue etiquette which I have a hard time politely accepting. If I’ve been waiting in a queue for five, approaching ten minutes, I don’t think it’s nice etiquette for someone I’ve not seen in the queue to walk up with their basket full of groceries and say, as they slide in front of me, oh I was here. I’m sorry, but no. You were not here. Actually you were in the two aisles that have food doing your shopping. I tend not to say anything. I think it wise to avoid a verbal confrontation. But I do try as best I can to give a serious hairy eye-ball to signal first, I’m not at all happy with this and second, if you’re a Buddhist this is not a way to gain good karma and in fact, it’s a way to increase the likelihood that you will come back in your next life a cockroach. So far, the hairy eye-ball strategy has yet to result in someone taking what I think is their more sound etiquette appropriate place at the end of the queue.
The other day at the OK, I experienced several new twists in the world of swiping. The two people in front of me were buying three loaves of bread and a bottle of Breakers (some sort of alcohol). Which I guess possibly were their bare bones essentials. The attendant rang up the total. They swiped. Came back insufficient funds. A conversation ensued with the attendant about the exact cost for each of the items. Then a conversation between the two customers about what to do. They looked in their pockets only to find pocket change. Which in Zimbabwe I’m sure is far below the world’s average for what constitutes pocket change. Then they made a phone call asking someone to transfer more funds. A few seconds passed. They asked the attendant to try again. It worked. I had no idea one could transfer funds that quickly. But they must have made a mistake. Or they didn’t have sufficient funds to transfer as they only had enough money for the Breakers and two loaves of bread. So they settled on that, their essentials. I was quite happy because I snatched up their discarded loaf of bread. And even it was the really good bread that I like. The more doughy kind shaped more like a ball/blob as opposed to shaped like a taller and sturdy loaf. So it was my turn to buy my bare bones essentials. Two packs of cigarettes and a loaf of my preferred bread. I counted my cash. The attendant asked if anyone was swiping for me. I said no. To which she responded: Can I?