Sunday, January 13, 2008

A moral dilemma in the checkout line

At the grocery store today I used a rain check for 50% of kids vitamins (actually, all four of us take them because they taste good). The vitamins were originally $6 on sale for $3 last week, but they had run out, hence the rain check.

I noticed, however, that the clerk was entering them as $3 at 50% off, for $1.50. Trying to be honest, I brought this to his attention. He thanked me, and looked confused, and rang it up wrong again. I pointed it out. He then started ringing them up at 50% off $1.50, or 75 cents each! At this point, I realized that probably my only option was to go get the manager, and that seemed counter productive for everyone. Plus, the people behind me in line were getting impatient, so not knowing exactly what to do, I didn't say anything.

Still wondering if I did the right thing...

10 comments:

Ben D. said...

I think as long as you tithe off the savings you are fine ;-)

Knumb said...

Obviously, the store wouldn't put the extra money into employee training if you had gotten the manager....

kent said...

You know, some people just can't be protected from themselves. You did the right thing. Although it might have interesting is he had tried to give you 50% off of $.75. How low could you have gone? You have got to wonder.

Corey said...

yes

Brad Wright said...

Very funny Ben!

Yes, I wondered about employee training as well.

I hadn't thought about going for 37cents... maybe the cashier would have noticed that!

Thanks Corey.

SARA said...

I hate to be the one to burst this bubble but I don't think you did the right thing...ouch!
I would have held the line up till he got it right even if it meant getting the manager...how else is the clerk to learn and not repeat this again.
As for the people in line, maybe it would have been a good thing for them to witness how to solve a moral dilemma.

Brad Wright said...

You may be right, Sarah, but I didn't want to "punish" the clerk for his mistakes.

I could have returned some of the bottles to the shelf, but the raincheck was only good for a certain amount of items.

Hm-m-m...

Joyce said...

This has happened to me several times where I have been undercharged. I am amazed at how often it happens (ringing the price in of my meat at the price of how much it is per pound, not how many pounds I have of it; ringing up the wrong produce key so I end up getting celery for 29 cents, etc.).

I always go up to the customer service desk afterwards with my card or money in hand to pay. I've been tempted to just let it go, but that pesky Holy Spirit just won't let me! I've gotten different responses -- always a thank you, often great surprise that I would stand in line to pay them 60 cents, and occasionally told to not worry about it and sent on my way.

But it's just not worth it to me to grieve God over a couple of bucks. To me, it's worth a few extra minutes of my time to be upright in front of Him. Who knows? It may even be a witness for Him. *shrug*

Joyce said...

I have been thinking about my last comment for the past few days and realized that it probably sounded pretty self-righteous. That wasn't my intention. I grieve the Holy Spirit daily in many different ways, but this particular situation is one that He has very clearly pointed out to me -- and so I can't ignore it.

I hope that clears up my original response and that you don't think that I was being judgemental in any way. I promise I wasn't.

Anonymous said...

that's an interesting moral dilemma.

have you tried posting it at www.moralitycompass.com? it's a project aimed at mapping the moral code of the internet.