"Please open your container"

So, lunch at the student union a few days ago. Fried rice, pre-packaged sushi (better than it sounds) and a bottle of pepsi. $7.00

When I first started going to the House of Hunan in the food court - the fried rice was packaged in a re-usable plastic container with a transparent lid. So, paying for the food was simple since the cashier could see what it was.

Since those containers proved to be too expensive - they switched to opaque sytrofoam. Still, paying was easy since they just asked what was in there and I told them. Apparently, this was a cause for some concern, so they started marking the containers before they would hand them to me. No biggie, makes sense to me.

But they now insist that you open the container to show them what you've got. Well, during the wintertime, I've got my hands full, is what I've got. So, set everything down, open the containers for inspection, close them back up, then get out my wallet and pay for my food.

And they're still marking the containers. Which makes no sense to me. To circumvent this system, a person would have to carry in a pre-marked container with a differnt identifier and swap the contents for a cheaper price - or use a black marker and carefully modify the mark to that of differnt food item.

What they are esssentially saying is that they don't trust some people to not cheat the system. But the result is that they can't trust anyone and treat everyone like they're trying to get away with something.

The same kind of thing happens at Arby's - at least the one near where I live. When I pay for my food with a $20 - they mark it with a special pen to see if it's counterfit. Every time. Not a random sampling - every time. And now they're also checking $10. What's next? Toss a $5 on the counter and get it inked up to prove I'm not a counterfitter?

So, for the record - if I say I'm getting fried rice, that's what's in the box. And I'll be paying with money that I earned - and not that I printed myself.

end.rant = back to work...