Shopping #1

It's our anniversary in a few days and I'm not convinced the card I ordered on-line will make it on time....actually I'm not sure it'll make it here at all at the moment - I've never knowingly seen a postie, so whilst I assume they exist I have no actual evidence of such.

I visit Grand Indonesia's Gramedia store upon the suggestion of a colleague.  After 20 minutes I figure out that the 'wife' oriented anniversary cards are, naturally, filed under categories such as birthdays or new baby celebrations.  hmmm.

Oh the sweet relief when I finally find something half decent! Now I just need to pay...

The girl who's been crawling around the floor near me is clearly focused on her task of wrapping presents, so I figure I'd head straight to the till, as one would normally do.

I arrive at the till and I'm greeted by a lady who who speaks as much English as I do Indonesian (ie as good as none), and I'm not understanding the gesticulations.

So she gently takes the card from my hand and runs off back to card section...hmmm.

A few minutes later (by the way, Indonesians also do that funny little 'running mime whilst actually walking') she's back.....with a hand written receipt...which she proceeds to read from and enter the details off it into the cash register.  She then asks for my money and prints another receipt from the till which is handed to me.  So we're finally done and I can leave.

I couldn't help but be bemused by the convoluted process.  When I asked a colleague about it, the explanation was based around a completely different set of principles to what I'm used to.  She suggested that in Australia customers are presumed to be honest, whereas shopkeepers in Indonesia take the view that customers are inherently out to steal from them.

It would appear that the girl crawling around the floor, or someone nearby, should have taken the card from me and given me the hand written receipt.  I should then take the receipt to the till to pay, and either return for my card or the person holding the card would have come to the till with me and handed me the card upon proof of payment.

Evidently the process broke down somewhere that day.  What I still don't understand is the need to implement this process for greetings cards that sell for the equivalent $1 - $3.  Books and CD's worth ten times that, ok, but even if the wages are around $1 per hour it seems that the process introduced to prevent profit loss though stealing is, itself, eliminating the profit.