Causing Infractions With Customers

Customer: “Give me about half pound of the all-beef salami.”

Me: “Sure thing, ma’am.”

(I slice up the salami. I’m usually pretty good at eyeballing the weight of a product, but when I put the sliced salami on the scale, it’s pretty underweight.)

Customer: “I think that will be enough. Is that less than a half pound?”

Me: “Yes, it’s about four-tenths.”

(The customer gives me a blank look.)

Me: “Four-tenths of a pound.”

Customer: “I don’t understand what that means.”

(The customer looks to her husband for help, but he looks as perplexed as she does and just shrugs.)

Customer: “Are you sure it’s less than half a pound?”

Me: “I’m positive, ma’am.”

Customer: “I don’t know…”

Me: “A half is five-tenths, right? Four-tenths is less than five-tenths.”

Customer: “I don’t understand what you’re talking about.”

Me: “Okay, uh, well… what’s worth less, forty cents or fifty cents?”

Customer: “There’s no way all that salami only costs fifty cents!”

(She did eventually buy the four-tenths of a pound of salami at the listed price, though I doubt either she or her husband were convinced it was less than half a pound.)