Cali 2 NL

Just a quick random rant.

I go down to the lobby of my faculty (department, really) to purchase a reader for one of my classes. It’s five euro, which is pretty nice. Only thing is, they don’t take money. All I have is a twenty, and they can’t break it. No big deal.

I ride down the street to a “super” market, which is about the size of a small 7-11. I don’t expect them to just change money for anybody, so I go to buy a coke, which is 65 euro-cents.

“Do you have any smaller change?” the attendant asks (in Europe, change includes 1 and 2 euro coins). I say no and explain that I need to break this €20 bill so that I can purchase something somewhere else. I even offered to buy a bag of chips. I’m not sure if the idea that I really didn’t need to buy something from her angered her, or what, but she said “I’m sorry, you’ll have to go somewhere else.” I stuck around to wittness the next transaction and she clearly had plenty of money (and change) in her drawer.

It took trips to two more shops before someone would break the bill. This brings the total to 3 places of business (school and shops 1&2) which would not take my money in exchange for goods. This isn’t a freaking 500- or 100-, or even 50-euro note here, it’s a 20. I understand not having change, but no place in the states would actually refuse business because of change-making annoyance.

Another odd, and slightly annoying, practice is that of not giving out actual change. Euro coins come in €2 and €1 flavors, along with 50, 20, 10 (gold) and 5, 2, 1 (copper) euro-cent coins. Frequently, stores don’t hand back the copper coins, even if you are supposed to get that change back. Purchase something for €1.95, and you’ll be lucky to get a 5 cent coin back. If it costs 1.96, you’ll almost certainly get nothing back. On a mass scale, this is pretty serious inflation.

The worst part is, it’s always against you. I can understand (although I still think it’s wrong) to round up a cent. but if it’s 4 cents (or worse, 9) you should give me back a 5 or a 10, certainly not nothing.

Done with the rant.