Bitching Over Bananas

"Where did you get the bananas?" the girl behind the weighing counter asked me. She spoke to me in Malay. 

I had placed on the counter, in a clear plastic bag 3 banana fruits. 

"There," I pointed to the combs of Cavendish bananas on display at the rack, beside the weighing counter.

"Show me where you got them from," she insisted.

Apparently, I was not to separate the fruits from the combs on display. If I wanted to buy, I had to buy the whole comb.

I took the comb which I had taken my 3 fruits from, and showed it to her. It consisted of 6 fruits in a perfect comb. Just a smaller comb compared to the rest.

"You have to take them all. I'm afraid other people may not want to buy it anymore," she said, of the comb of banana which I had taken the 3 fruits from.

"It's too much for me," I said. 

"You just can't buy them like that. Take them all," she continued, insistent. 

I was getting impatient. For one, I was in a hurry. I was merely dropping by to get my weekly supply of fruits. And this girl here was delaying me. 

So I decided to be a bitch and I steadfastly refused to buy them like she insisted.

For another, her reasoning did not seem logical to me. Why wouldn't other people want to buy that comb of  6 bananas like she had claimed? It looked perfectly alright. I HAD NOT mutilated or severed the fruits. I had merely plucked from the edges, 3 fruits which I wanted to buy. And I did it neatly too. The comb which I had left behind on the rack was  intact. It was just a SMALLER comb, compared to the the others. 

Plus, I did not want to take the blame. If the supermarket did not want people to pluck bananas off the combs of fruit, they COULD HAVE and SHOULD HAVE placed a notice there. I did not see any notice which forbade people to do so. I had ALWAYS bought only the few bananas that I needed - be it at Aeon Midvalley or Supa Save Seria, Brunei. I NEVER got into trouble. Perhaps things were different here in my own backyard.

And, why should I buy MORE than I needed to?

"Weigh these first," I told her, pointing to my bags of oranges and apples. 

She did it reluctantly, her face sour. Then, she alerted her supervisor. He came and she explained to situation to him.

He looked at my bananas in the bag .... and he looked at the shelf .... and he said, "Never mind." 

Sulking, she weighed my 3 bananas. I could not decide whether she was unhappy with him for NOT siding her, or whether she was angry with me, or both. But I could not care less. I got what I wanted and I was off.

Actually, I must commend the girl because she was just doing her job. She was responsible. And she was probably looking out for the interest of the supermarket. For that she deserved to be the employee of the month. ;p Or perhaps she was afraid that I had mutilated the fruits, which I did not.

She was just rather unlucky to have encountered me, who stubbornly refused to budge. Normally, I would be agreeable, and I would purchase if I had to. Perhaps it was the way she spoke to me which ticked me off ... and turned me into a bitch! ;p

Well, I would suggest that the supermarket sell the bananas in smaller combs, so that people like me would not tear the bananas apart.