After going around the supermarket, trying to shop, I realized most goods are not only substandard, derived from China, but that the prices of the goods are overrated.
The arrangement of the store was very confusing and I was forced to seek for assistance from their employees on the floor. This is when I was surprised!
The work was reluctant to offer any help to me. Perhaps it was my way of dress that he scorned. Perhaps he didn't like my looks, and to him, it was a disturbance.
He was talking to his workmate in a language he most probably though a villager as I looked would not understand. He infact insulted me in kikuyu. Given that it is established in Kisii town, he couldn't imagine to find one in KISII who could communicate in kikuyu, other than their own. At that point, I thought of complaining to management, but I thought it wise not to risk his job and played it cool.
He finally asked me if I have eyes! because what I was looking for was actually behind where I was standing!
I shopped very fast, feeling unaccepted in the supermarket and queued to be served by a teller. OMG! I have never seen a queue this long!
On the cashiers, as I queued, I saw every customer being handed over sweets after being served,and thought it was a promotion or an appreciation for shopping with them. I thought that was the nicest thing a supermarket could do, just appreciating their customers for voluntarily coming to their store, shopping with them and enduring through the long queues.
It was my turn!
As the teller quickly rang my stuff, I handed her the money, given that they do not accept international credit cards.
Just as everybody else, she handed over my receipt with my change, stashing sweets on the counter for me to pick and was ready to serve the next customer. At that point, I wondered how she could dismiss me quickly without giving me time to verify my change. But well, I stood still, counted my change, only to realize it was less! Asking why, she pointed her finger to the sweets stashed on the counter! I wondered what the sweets had to do with my change! She told me that it is the company policy because of lack of coins, even in the banks!and I was wasting her time as there were more people waiting on the queue!
For the sake of the unsuspecting Kenyans, and the Kenyans who were going through this daylight theft, I insisted for my full change because I never asked for sweets. I never wanted them, and if I did, they would have been part of my purchased stuff, in a larger package and a better quality.
The cashier referred me to a managers counter. They also ridiculed me in kikuyu language and wondered why I was crying over so few coins. The group of managers, realizing I wasn't going to relent and let my change go to sweets asked one of them who reluctantly went to the cashier and asked her to give me my full change niwaondokee,again in kikuyu.
I was so upset and demanded to cancel my purchase, the thing they were also very reluctant to do. But I insisted. The goods were returned after standing my ground, and my money refunded na madharau na matusi. After all, I didn't need the goods that desperately!
The question am asking myself to date. Why is this kind of robbery being done on unsuspecting Kenyans under the watch of the Kenyan government? Why will anyone want to open his business in the morning, if at all he is not prepared to give full change to his customers? Is this to say banks lack coins? If not, are banks colluding with this supermarket and the sweet manufacturers and suppliers in pretense that coins are scarce so they can rip off unsuspecting Kenyans?
How will Kenya Consumers body be bypassed by this illegal practice? Who will stand in the defense of Kenyans against such thieving, against such robbery?
How many more outlets in Kenya rip off the unsuspecting Kenyans who come to do purchases in their sores by the day?
By Justus Atuti
Follow @africanewspost
+ comments + 2 comments
This is what happens to Kenyans from shags who then live abroad then have a myopic view of everything else.... pretty sad...
1. Tuskys accepts ALL International credit cards.. you need to go back to your "international village", shopping for home goods on credit, didn't bring some cash from "international" or don't have any.....
2. sweets, "in a larger package and a better quality". Get a hold of yourself, you were brought up on KSL, if you even bought sweets then.
3. Yes there has been a national coins shortage.. we use cash not credit cards... go figure..
why are you insisting"again in kikuyu?" I feel you are the type who by sheer luck,happen to go abroad and within a short while come back with bloated ego and overrated majuism.Relax this is Kenya.