Numeracy

A few nights ago, mid evening, I went into the local Morrisons to buy some of their price-reduced stock. I always check their machine-addition in such circumstances. For the second time in two such visits, I found an error. In their favour. It has always been in their favour.

Or so it seemed to me. I thought it was about one pound over what it should be.

Such an opinion should never be expressed to the likes of a Morrison's employee because most, not all, just would not believe that one could come to such an opinion.

I double-checked myself; and that isn't easy because the one (often contracted) word description of each item doesn't necessarily match what you have bought. I found once that a quiche made with feta cheese was receipted as a fruit flan.

With such a grasp of reality, I wonder what they eat at home. I wonder if they know.

It took about 5 minutes to reduce the query to one item and one line on the bill. 35p asked for; 135p taken.

I went to the complaints desk. I said that 7 of 8 items were fine but one was billed wrongly, 135p for 35p, and I showed the item; and might I have the difference. She took everything out and checked all the items herself, exclaiming about such things as feta being classed as a fruit, whatever the insanities were in this case, and eventually said that she concluded I had been charged 135p when I should have been charged 35p.

I thanked her for a successful investigation. It was about 15 minutes wasted now.

She asked me if I would like a refund and I indicated I thought that was an appropriate idea. You see, she said, it's misread the label. I thanked her for this information, knowing it was pointless to complain that a labelling system which displays one amount and is machine-readable for another is a piece of shite.

Well then, she said, that's 85p, isn't it?

Is it? I asked.

Well, she said, it's something and 5p; and reached for the calculator. The calculator, in her hands, confirmed her belief that135 minus 35 is 85; and she asked: Is that ok?

I acquiesced – another 5p to charity; 30p last time – and we moved on to the hand-written A4 landscape sheet stage where this transaction was recorded. It has no provision for recording the details of the calculation, merely the fact that someone has decided that a certain amount of money is owed. It must be done. They can't be too careful.

Help.