gross grocery error

My sister had a shopping experience today that I think is worth sharing.

At the check out counter in one of the grocery stores here in Dumaguete, she was surprised when her bill racked up to 1,550.00 pesos. Even with prices of commodities all going up, she had this gut feeling that her groceries just could not have reached that amount. So she asked the bagger how many grocery items had he placed inside the plastic bag and he answered around 45-50 items, he wasn't sure. My sister, who works in a bank, saw on the cash register display that the number of items she had bought was 75. Quite a discrepancy.

So she asked if they could please double check and count all her groceries again. They did that and lo and behold, there was one item, a kid's drink worth 17.50 pesos, that was entered in the bill as thirty-two (32) items instead of just two (2)! The salesgirl manning the cash register was totally flabbergasted and dismayed at her gross error and she was very apologetic and looked quite ready to cry as her supervisors were glaring daggers at her.

We believe it was an honest mistake on the salesgirl's part, an error that anybody could make. Still it was an eye opener for me, who never checks the items against the total bill, or even look at the "number of items" notation on the receipt or on the lead computer display at the check out counter. Maybe a lesson for all of us shoppers, too, to be more vigilant because errors like this do happen.