Macro

There is a Macro store on Chaeng Wattana (or Jang Wattana) road. I havent' been there until today when I finally stopped by. I was going to go to the IT mall after my dental appointment to pick up a new power supply for my laptop (I have to curl the cord to get it to work, don't ask me why it works, it just does), but the traffic was horrible. So on the way home, I decided to stop at Macro.

It was great. It was like being in a Macro's or Sam's in the U.S. I was very happy. I'm going to try to do my next grocery shopping there.

Earlier in the week, I went to the Lotus grocery store, which I also liked a lot. I generally go to Carrefour since its closest and easy to get to. I was a bit annoyed at my last visit, however. I picked up a couple of electric tooth brushes which were sitting above a price tag of 499 baht. I grabbed two (one for Jacob and one for myself), picked up a couple of other items and headed to check out.

I saw an empty cash only lane, and did a quick calculation in my head. I figured that I had about 1,400 to 1,500 baht worth of stuff in the cart and 1,620 baht in my wallet. I confidently unloaded my merchandise in the cash only lane. My smile vanished as the cashier rang up the merchandised and announced in Thai that I owed 1,720 baht. Neung pang jet loi yee sip baht. I didn't have enough. I had miscalculated. Could it be true? I had literally taken two semesters worth of calculus in a two week period before entering Boston College's Finance Phd program, and then went on to yet more complicated math, and yet I had failed to correctly add six or seven items in my grocery cart. Could it be so?

Initially accepting defeat, I asked the cashier to remove one item to put me below the 1,620 baht in my wallet. I could have run over to a nearby ATM, but would that be fair to the poor Thai soul waiting behind me in line (actually, I dont' mind making Thai people wait, spend a few months here and you'll feel the same :D). Then it occurred to me. Maybe I hadn't misadded. When I add the cost of things in the grocery cart, I tend to round. I generally dont' care if I come to a precise number, just close. I knew that what I had put in the cart shouldn't have come to 1,700. So I asked the cashier how much the electric toothbrushes cost. She said 650 baht each. I told her the sign said 499. She called over a roller skate wearing price checking collegue to verify my claim. He zoomed off. She totalled the rest of my items. I declined to pay until I knew the entire price.

Soon the young man on wheels returned, and the cashier smiled, saying that the price was 650 baht. It was as if time froze as she said 650 baht. Beyond her words I could almost hear her thoughts, "stupid falang, you have the wrong price, followed by her mocking laughter. I told her that I didn't want any of it.

What was I to do? I had lost face in front of a lowly cashier. A boy on roller skates had proven me wrong. Should I walk out dejected in defeat? Was my memory faulty? Were those lonely few gray hairs on my temple just one sign of my ever increasing age?

I decided that I would not go quietly off into the night, so I went over to the section where I had found the toothbrush. There, they were, lined up in all their glory. Beneath those electronic cleaners of plaque was a sign that read 499. I approached on of the four workers assigned to the aisle (okay they were probably assigned to a few aisle, but there are a hell of a lot of workers at a Thai grocery store who spend a lot of time standing around), pointed to the tooth brushes and asked in Thai, "how much". She looked at me for a second, that "um, can't you read the numbers" before saying 499 baht. Recognizing something might be amiss, she picked it up and took it over to a price scanner and it rang up at 650 baht. The woman and her collegues all said "oh" at the same time in recognition that the price was mislabelled.

I smiled as I walked out of the store. I felt vindicated that I my memory was not diminished. My basic math skills were still intact. In a strange sense, I felt like I had won. What I had won, I am not certain, but yet I felt like a winner.