The Sandwich Shop Story

I had just moved to a new town and was looking for a job. I went into a local sandwich shop that was hiring, and filled out the application. The owner sat me down, and asked me one question: “If someone came in and paid for a sandwich, and you gave him change for a ten, but he said he gave you a twenty, what would you do?”

My answer was, I’d give him the extra ten. Right then and there.

I was wrong.

The owner’s solution was to tell the customer to come back at the end of the day (closing at 11pm), and if the drawer was over, he would get his ten dollars. If not, sorry.

Well, here’s the thing, I’m thinking, this guy could be a regular customer, so if he spends, say, eight dollars every time he comes in, three times a week, that’s 24 dollars a week or $1,200 a year. So am I going to piss somebody off for ten dollars, and lose a potential $1,200? Not likely.

Sure, it may not happen often, but why take a chance? Like they say, A happy customer tells one friend, an unhappy customer tells everybody.

Was I wrong?