I was on board of the flight to Chennai from Mumbai. I started conversation with the gentleman sitting next to me. We discussed each others profession, day-to-day issues etc.
During the course of chat he asked me how often do you check the receipt while making purchase in supermarkets. My answer is certainly a no. He said yes we trust since everything is automated. The price is listed by reading the product code. The price total is computed using a computer. So we trust that there is zero percent for errors. He said this is not true in all cases.
A week after returning Chennai from Mumbai, I and my brother went to a supermarket near by my house. The supermarket is quite a popular one that has chains through out the city. After collecting the items to be purchased we were in the cash counter.
Remembering the chat I had with the gentleman, I started checking the price of items one-by-one as it is listed.
I found an item which I specifically picked checking its price was quoted double the actual price. I interrupted the person in the counter and asked for the reason for the item is priced double the actual amount.
The person in the counter informed me that there could be a problem and he corrected the price. I started inspecting the price of all other items. The surprise is that I could manage to find two more items for which the price is quoted higher than the actual price.
Machines don't lie. But after all we should not forget who initiates and operates those machines.
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