I've posted a few things here that give an impression of the daily chaos which is South Africa -- and they have generally been popular. This morning, I visited a chemist, and a hardware store. At the chemist, the woman in front of me told the teller she wasn't sure that she had enough money for an item she wanted across the road. They should just hold on. She vanished across the road, while the teller waited. When she returned, she said that the item had in fact cost her less than anticipated. Could the teller fetch a few more things for her in the store? She had a baby to wrap. Now the teller vanished. Another teller appeared. Was I paying cash, she asked. Yes, I said, cash. OK, said the teller, I should present myself. Again she asked, was I paying cash? Yes, I said. Ooh, no, she said, she wasn't taking cash. Now she needed to call the manager to deactivate the till. In the meantime, two other customers got in front of me in the queue. At the hardware store then, a man in front of me told the teller that he needed to use the phone. He leaned over the desk to grab the handset -- with his big body flat on the desk. There was only room for him. Once that was over -- it was a long call -- a man pushed in front of me, saying that he had in fact been waiting for days -- I had merely been waiting for minutes. It looked as though his wait wasn't over, though, as he ran into some interminable problem with the teller. As in the previous store, another teller appeared, and called me over. She dialled a number, and spoke on the phone while she sought to attend to me. Being quite distracted, she now got in a muddle with my purchase. She needed to call for help. The teller with the waiting-for-days man left him standing, and came over to assist my teller. Finally there was poetic justice -- I was in front of the man who pushed in front of me. OBSERVATION: I do wonder how much more money businesses might make if they didn't carry on like this.
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