At 1pm this afternoon our school's office closed the shutters, locked the doors, and sat back in our chairs to soak in the beginning of the weekend. My co-workers at the school had kindly accepted my plea to drive me home so I wouldn't have to wait an hour for my roommate to finish her work. On our way we stopped by San Jose Mart to pick up a few things. It was to be a quick shopping trip. Jean and Dany got what they needed and I scrambled to remember what was on my shopping list as I put whatever good looking produce I found into my basket.
At the counter I added everything up in my head. I needed $10 worth of stuff so that I could use my card, the only form of payment I had on me. As the Filipino gal at the register scanned my items, I noticed that one of the things I bought was waaaay more expensive than the sticker on the shelf had said. I declined to buy the over priced item. Now I had a problem. I was just a hair under the $10 mark. Knowing that my roommate and I were out bleach, I ran to the isle with cleaning products and quickly weighted out my options. I grabbed a bottle of Lysol and ran back. The cashier rang it up. "Six dollars! For that tiny bottle? The price tag on the shelf said three..."
At this point I began to get frustrated. You'd think seven months of living here would have taught be to just roll with it, but every time I shop, I manage to forget that accurate sticker prices in the grocery stores on this island are a grossly overlooked thing. I ran back, grabbed a six dollar bottle of bleach that was double the size, deciding that if I was going to spend that much, I might as well get my moneys worth. The bleach rang up as only three dollars. How ironic. At this point I had asked them to void two items and add one additional item, and right before discovering the last of the pricing mix up's, the cashier had gone ahead and charged my credit card. Now the girl had to void the transaction and re-charge my card, a process that took almost ten minutes. All this time I stood there, my patience waning away to nothing and my attitude increasingly negative, the cashier didn't look up at me or give me any explanation as to why they were making me sign a whole pile of receipts or where they had taken my credit card for almost ten minutes. I walked out of San Jose feeling frustrated and confused.
Back at home I began to think about the whole thing from the cashiers perspective. Regular day, regular customer. Only, she's American, and she's not happy about the sticker prices being wrong on some of her items. With a relatively small staff it is hard to keep up with accurate sticker prices. The high turnover rate of merchandise doesn't make keeping up with it easy either. She is getting frustrated and I don't want to make her feel more so.. better to give her space.
I don't know if these are the exact reasons she had, but I am sure it was something along these lines. When it comes to the cultural differences between the Filipino people on Saipan and Americans, one of our misunderstandings is over the non-confrontational approach embedded into Filipino culture. I have seen it demonstrated by so many of my friends here. Confrontations seem to be avoided at all cost, and if they do happen, they are very subtle. I didn't get any explanation from the cashier because she didn't want to upset me. Her natural response was to be passive and indirect. My natural response to the situation was to demand answers. When I saw the way she was behaving and didn't think as to why, I began to think even more negatively. "People could steal my credit card information. My friends are waiting on me and this is wasting their time and mine! Her answers are so vague, and she isn't giving me any eye contact. Rude?"
I am embarrassed to admit it, but this is the frame of mind I walked out of that grocery store with. Saipan is so similar to the states in certain aspects. I wasn't aware that I had expectations that were setting me up for a reality check. Frustration, confusion, and all simply because I didn't take the time to understand the facts about living here or where this girl was coming from.
On my next trip to San Jose Mart I plan on being more careful to check the prices and careful to not come across like a crazy American girl. Then again, perhaps she understood where I was coming from. :)
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