Jul17 Written by:Kayle
7/17/2008 9:14 AM
Because inflation has been so bad, many shops are only accepting cash because if you write a check, it takes a few days to clear and by the time it clears, the money is typically worth half of its value. So most places only want cash. However, because the shortage of cash in the country, the bank restricts how much money everyone is allowed to withdraw per day (which is currently equivalent to $1)! So as you can imagine, if you can only withdraw 100 billion ($1) a day, you can't buy much in the shops with that!
Mat and I are starting to run low on many items in our household. We only have 3 more weeks until we go on a shopping trip to S. Africa. But Mat told me yesterday that we only had a salt shaker left of salt in our house. I heard that one of the shops had some salt and that this shop is still taking checks, so duing Calvin's afternoon nap, I went to the bank to withdraw my 100 billion ($1) and go to the shop. The salt was 500 billion ($2.50). I got to the cash register to use my check to purchase the salt, but the girl told me that they were no longer taking checks as of a few hours ago! So I asked if I could use my bank ATM card. We swiped it but the swipe machine wasn't working. So I went to the manager and asked if I could pay using US dollars (as more and more shops are accepting this). But the manager refused. So I left the shop dejected.
On the way home, I had an idea. If I return my empty coke bottles to the store, I can get my deposit back on the bottles and use that credited money to buy the salt! So I loaded up my 2 crates of empty bottles and went back to the store. I pull up to the bottle redemption part of the store and unloaded my crates. But as I got to the window, a sign was on the window saying that because their warehouse is full of empty bottles, they are currently unable to accept any more empty bottles! AHHH! I loaded my empty bottles back up in my car and was once again dejected. I didn't want to go home empty handed so I used my 100 billion ($1) to buy a papaya, which is now in season!
I stopped by my friend, Jodi's, house later on that day and told her of my saga. She went to her cupboard and pulled out an extra 2 lb bag of salt that she had! Next time I'll just skip the grocery store and go straight to Jodi's house!
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