(_Continued from June issue_)
After the trouble that resulted from my being lost, of which I told you
last month, my owner was for a time very careful where she put me, but
when one is doing one thing and thinking of something altogether
different it won't be long before there is a mistake made--and sure
enough that is what happened.
A lady came up to the counter and my owner, who did not happen to be
serving at the time, asked her what she could show her. The customer
mentioned some little 10c article. My owner produced what was required
and the customer said she would take two. I was then taken up and the
sale was written down, but she did not notice, nor did the cashier, who
knowing the price and looking on the sale slip for 20c saw that and
nothing else. On the sale slip was written 2---- 10|20. It was intended
to mean two articles at 10c ea.--20c; but my owner had placed the 10c in
the $ column, making it look like $10.20. You cannot imagine how
humiliated I felt at the trouble one of my sale slips was, I felt sure,
going to cause; however, I will let it tell its own tale.
_The Story of Sale slip No. 1_
As you know, I am really meant to stand for 20c, but look like $10.20.
The cashier, not noticing the error, stamped me _Paid_, tore me in half,
placed the duplicate portion in the parcel and the original on her file
with a lot of others. Before long others were put on top of me and I
stayed there till store closing time when we were all taken off the
file, tied up and taken to the fourth floor and put in a box with a lot
of other bundles. In the morning we were taken to the audit department
where each bundle was summed up in turn by comptometer operators.
The turn of my bundle soon came; the slips were rapidly added and when
it came to me, sure enough into the machine went $10.20. When the total
of the bundle was compared with the deposit slip it showed the cashier
as being $10.00 short. The bundle was turned back to be re-added;
another operator went through it, and arriving at the same total, and it
was the same with two others who added the bundle. Mr. Cunningham was
then flashed for and the report given to him that the cashier was $10.00
short.
He questioned the cashier but she could not help him. Meanwhile the
audit department were sorting the sale slips and when they had all the
slips for each salesperson in rotation they compared them with the
tallies. When they came to me they saw $10.20 and on the tally only 20c.
They were just about to add $10.00 more on to the tally when they
noticed that the article written on my face was only a 10c article. Then
they realised that the "10" was out of place and that I represented only
20c. By looking at the cashier's stamp number and referring to the
cashier's report they saw she was listed as $10.00 short.
I was then taken to the saleslady who made me out and showed to her. Her
only comment was, "Oh, that's nothing, it's only a little out of place."
_Note._--_The above was an actual occurrence. The sale slip in
question was sent to_ The Beaver _but cannot be reproduced here_.