I'm a regular customer at the local Marvelous Market that is literally just around the corner from my office. I stop in every morning without fail for a large coffee and maybe a bottle of water, or some challah bread if I'm feeling crazy.
I like the Marvelous Market. Every morning, the same woman calls out a bright, cheery "Good Morning!" as I pop in and (nearly) every morning she asks me if I want a muffin or a pastry.
This morning, I shook it up a little. I didn't get coffee, I got tea. And a large tea at that. Naturally, I assumed that -as at Starbucks- the cost of two tea bags is built into the price of the large the large tea at MM.
NOT SO, my friends. When I got up to counter after browsing a little bit and deciding against an orange juice, the cashier - the SAME WOMAN who rings up my coffee EVERY MORNING- rang me up for a $4.74 tea.
Yes, my tea cost also as much as a footlong sub from Subway.
When I asked her why (knowing, as a frequent tea drinker that tea in a cardboard cup will usually only put you out about $2), she shrugged her shoulders as if she had no choice and said it was because of my extra tea bag.
You have got to be effing kidding me.
I am accustomed to store proprietors bending over backwards to keep good customers, even if it means letting a 10 cent tea bag go.
For a moment, I thought about dumping my tea all over the counter, Boston Tea Party-style. Now I know how our forefathers felt when those Brits tried to tax their tea! Seeing as I wasn't under cloak of night or wearing Native American garb to conceal myself, I didn't think it would have the same effect.
I paid for my tea and left. But I can still feel those revolutionary stirrings, churning within me with each sip of my overpriced tea.
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