A Penny Ignored Is A Penny Spent

It’s another weekend in retail land, and I’m scanning items for a very friendly young woman. Our store will occasionally have items that are marked down to one cent, meaning that they have been cleared out of our inventory and we will no longer be carrying them. If this happens, we’re supposed to adjust the price to be 50% off of the original price.

I finish the transaction, and the woman is about to leave, when she pauses and looks at her receipt.

Customer: “What did I buy that was only a penny?”

Oops. I take the receipt.

Me: “Hm. Looks like the purple vase was pennied out, as we call it, and we won’t be carrying it anymore. When that happens, we’re not supposed to sell the items for a penny, but…”

With a delighted grin, she grabs the receipt.

Customer: “BYE!”

The customer books it out of the store with her cart. There’s nothing I can do but laugh. My manager comes over to find out why my customer literally ran out of the store, and I apologize for not catching the error. I then describe what happened, and he starts laughing, too.

Manager: “I can’t even be mad. That’s the funniest thing that’s happened all day!”

Wherever you are, ma’am, I hope your penny vase looks great and that you enjoy telling that story as much as I do!