Every Time After Every Time

My first job was at a little family-owned grocery store, and we had one regular who always argued the total and insisted we had to ring up everything again because we had to have done something wrong. 

Every time, after ringing things up a second or third time, she’d pull out the calculator and ring things up with me – this was long ago enough that we didn’t scan things; we typed in the amount by hand and all items had their price stickers attached.

Every time, she’d complain:

Customer: “This was why they needed to teach math in school!”

Every time, she’d triumphantly show a lower amount on her calculator. Every time, I’d explain:

Me: “You didn’t add the tax.”

Every time, she’d huff and pay the amount I told her it was.