Pricing

Here’s my guess. As the summer progresses, the hot dog vendors get increasingly frustrated with the tourists (and other customers). The heat doesn’t help. So now a hot dog that used to be a dollar is two (I posted something about this before). But here’s where it starts to get ugly.
The kids have “special” appetites.
Coco likes the sausage with mustard (no bun), while Madeleine likes the bun with ketchup (no sausage). Sounds easy, right? Well, you may not have been to a Sabrett’s stand recently.
There’s a language barrier.
And a willingness barrier.
And a rip-off hurdle.
What used to be two bucks and a smile is now four and a shifty grunt.
I swear I need to start taking pictures of these guys to remember who has been trying to rip me off and who hasn’t. Today’s guy looked familiar, is all I’m saying. And the last time he tried to rip me off with drink prices. But I lingered and called him on it and got a refund, but then the kids were still hungry and I had to spend the money right there again. Boy, did that grate.
On the other hand, there’s a corner store a couple blocks from our house which has the advantage of being open 24 hours, in a row. They manage to make everything an even dollar amount. They’ve got a great grasp of the tax laws, I believe. That, and their register never actually rings up an amount.
Because of the linguistic barrier, I checked the register the last time I got ice cream there. I thought I heard the guy say “ten” and couldn’t believe my ears. The register read 1,149.00 (really). So I said, “pardon?” and the guy behind the register said, “Seven. Uh. Six.”
A similar price reduction after clarification had happened there before when we got lollipops. Somehow, I love that about the place.