Why should I part with my 'change'?

FUNKE ADETUTU
Last weekend, I was at my playground (the Palms Shopping Mall) as the man on top, Phillip, would dare to call it. It was some minutes past eight that night and many shoppers were hurriedly doing some kind of last minute shopping since Shoprite closes at 9pm. Also, most people had probably shopped for consumer items that would last them for the week since it was a Sunday. Waiting on the queue to pay for purchased items could really be energy sapping; especially at a period shopping is at its peak. At times, the queues at the pay point could be very long and time consuming.
That was just the experience I had last Sunday when a friend and I decided to stop over at Shoprite for a bowl of ice cream. The payment process was also slowed down by a cashier who had to call on an attendant to help cancel an item that was wrongly imputed or one that the code detector refused to detect the code on it for the price.
Hence, the customers on queue had no choice but to wait for the process to be completed. It could also be very annoying if the price was also not on the item, especially when other purchased items had been imputed on the machine, hence the cashier would have to beckon on an attendant to check the price of the item from the counter where it was displayed.
In such cases, you have no choice but to wait for the whole process to be completed. And you can’t help it but to pray that the waiting game should be over soon if you are buying just a bowl of ice cream like me. Such was the scenario last Sunday. While we were waiting, my friend decided to go for other items and I earnestly prayed that she returned before I pay because I could not afford to linger on the queue much longer that I had. Luckily, I was the next person to pay and for me her return was timely. Thank God none of the items we picked was not without a price as the codes were readable by the machine.
But just as we thought it was over, the cashier told us she did not have change. And in such a shop, there was no way you could ask anyone to change the currency for you, at least it was not an open market. My friend and I brought out all the monies we had in us, only to discover that all we had on was on higher denomination. And no one on the queue made any attempt to help, not even the cashier whom we thought should have called on an attendant to go for lower denomination in their inner office. Hence we did not have a choice but to leave our change behind.
“So, whose pocket would that money go? My friend asked. “I can’t say,” I replied. “Well, it could go to the cashier’s or the shop’s account.” “I’m sure what we left behind must be for the cashier. But you see, the problem I have with this country is that there is no plan for virtually everything. In advance countries, such money goes to the orphanages. It’s not for the store or cashier. In fact, the company would direct it to the orphanages after they have declared profit.”
“I understand your point, but you see things don’t work that way here. And it would have been a great idea if that kind of money is given to orphanages,” I said.
That was the thought that occupied my mind as we journeyed home that evening. I wondered how much change many people would have left at the care of the cashier who would be too glad to have that as a take home. The N10 or N20 left behind by more than a thousand people who visit the store daily would have gone a long way to put a child to school or feed two or more of them in the orphanages.
Alas, we don’t have such a system in place that cares for the less privileged. It would have been a fantastic idea if such money could be channelled towards that cause. Honestly, what my friend said got me really thinking and I recalled some days when I had to leave my change behind. It was not twice or thrice. If I should keep those changes in a pigeon safe, we used to call Kolo in those days as a child, I’m sure at the end of the month I should be able to count N3, 000 or more. I’m very sure there are other shoppers who must have left more change than I have left with the cashiers.
You can imagine if it is the same scenario in all the shops on the Island, like my friend told me of her experience at the supermarket inside the electronic store at Mega Plaza . She had to leave her N10 change behind when the cashier complained that there was no change. You may be quick to say how much is N10? Of course, N10 does not mean any thing much to my friend, considering how much she receives at the end of the month.
But the truth is N10 in 1,000 places could do a lot in the life of a child at the orphanage. Hence, mega stores across the country should kindly put in place a system whereby such monies would be channelled towards orphanages, to have a good reason to part with our changes.