January 18, 2010 – Grocer

I just paid my grocery bill and now feel I can leave the country for a few weeks to take care of other duties. My grocer works the old way: he has a card file, one card having my name on it, and he writes down every purchase total together with the date. I sign. At the end of the month he totals the bill and sometimes I pay with a post-dated check, sometimes with a current check. I keep the receipts at home and total them first. It is a simple system, and with the help of a heavy thumb on the scale, he breaks even, even though the place is never crowded, and never really clean.