A Little Change

"When paying with cash, be the change you want to see in the world."
 - my brother, Huck


I stood there, holding my few purchases, staring incredulously at the woman behind the counter.
"Really?" I said.
She shrugged. I set my milk and eggs and fruit on the counter and left, unable to buy them not because I didn't have the money. No, it was more like I had too much money, you could say. Or not the right kind. I had been turned away by a woman who didn't have $5.50 in change to give me, when I tried to buy $4.50 worth of food with a ten-dollar bill.

This has happened so many times.

Friends and I joke that, "Here in Ecuador, you can buy more with a few dollar coins than you can with a twenty-dollar bill." Laugh to keep from crying. Pull out a twenty to pay for anything less than $10, and it better come with a near-grovelling apology. The country is practically run on cash, yet no one has any change.

This is so counter-intuitive to me, because in my head I think, "You're the owner of a small family-run corner store, and you're turning away business just because you don't have a few dollars in change?" I suppose to them, it's normal. You didn't get the change so you can't give it. Oh well. No apology even, just a shrug and that's it. For me it doesn't make sense that when this is a reoccurring problem you wouldn't do everything you could to keep stocked with change so as not to turn away sales. It's foreign. For them - I suppose it's just how they were raised. Not foreign at all.


I listened to a podcast recently about the very first McDonald's which was introduced to communist Russia. The people interviewed told about how at the time, every product was in such high demand that customers were treated with disdain because the employees had the ability to look down on anyone wanting to buy anything. He said that it was not uncommon to go into a nearly empty restaurant, be looked up and down and told, "We're full, there's no tables available for you." This of course is absolutely the opposite of the US standard of service, where employees are instructed to bend backwards for the customer, who is 'always right', so as to make the sale. Making money - being successful -  is of bottom line importance in the US. So we are taught to smile, be friendly and complimentary, because the customer wants to feel welcome and valued.
Smiling and acting friendly was something which had to be taught to the Russians.

In the podcast (a series titled "Invisibilia"), the people interviewed talked about how in school they learned about "The American Smile".
"In America, people who are smiling aren't necessarily happy, and they may not be hiding anything either," they were informed. "There, people smile just because. To us it feels very suspicious, but to them it's normal. You don't have to be wary of it."
Because service with a smile is part of McDonald's presentation, Russian servers were taught how to grin, how to greet people with a cheery attitude, instead of the disdainful, control-ridden air of most employees. They said it was contagious. People coming in for a meal would actually smile back, and it became a place people wanted to go and hang around. I know what you may be thinking: of all places ... McDonald's? I guess if they're making the world a more unhealthy place at least they're also trying to bring smiles as well?


The thing is, we all have different points of view. Different perspectives on what is right, what is most important. Whether it's being sure of making the sale or smiling even when we may not feel like it, to just not caring enough about having change to do anything about it, we all have cultural norms. Here, I've gotten used to being squashed on crowded buses by people who aren't partial to personal space, asked all sorts of personal questions by strangers, and turned away by small business owners without change. It's foreign, but I have to accept it. We're all foreign to someone: our traditions, our perspectives, the way we handle things and the choices we make can all be bizarrely different to someone else. So as my brother said, be the change you want to see ... at least when paying with cash.