When working at Dollarama, expect that customers will complain, and for some reason they’re always considered right. Even when they’re completely wrong, they’re still right. Well, I don't think this rule is right.

Customers come into the store for an hour and fill their carts with toys, candy, kitchen supplies, and more. They come up to the counter, and as I’m checking them out, they notice that one of the items isn’t the right price on the screen. So, I have to dig that single item out of the bag, check the price sticker, and then void it. Our prices often change, some of our items go from $1.25 to $1.50 or $2.50 to $3.00. What people don’t understand is that this happens because all of the new stock is the new price, but sometimes the old stock that's already on the shelf was not changed.

Another issue is that Dollarama doesn’t take Visa, only debit or cash, and so many people complain about that. The only way Dollarama can take Visa is if they raise their prices. It costs Dollarama more money for customers to use credit cards. Furthermore, even if they did raise their prices, customers still couldn’t beat them anywhere else. Here, a chocolate bar is 77¢. At Walmart, it’s at least $2.00.

A lot of people come up to the cash and, after I ring in their purchases and they see the price, they say, “Oh, it’s that much? Never mind, I don’t want it anymore,” even though it’s $1.00. As a cashier, you can’t help but stare at them and think, “Seriously? It’s a dollar. You can’t pay one dollar for a bottle of pop?” Or, they’ll come up with a couple of items, I’ll check them out, and then they look up at the screen and say, “Oh my god, that’s a dollar? I can get that cheaper somewhere else. I don’t want that.” Again you stare at them and wonder where else they could possibly get it for cheaper than one dollar.

As a cashier, you meet a lot of people. Some are nice, they will actually pay for and walk out of the store with everything they brought up to the counter, some will put a few items back, and then some pay for and walk out with one item because the rest of the items they wanted were too expensive. I’ve even had a few people come in and ask if there’s a sale on. They’re in the dollar store, everything is already on sale.

So, when coming into the dollar store, please don’t complain about prices. It’s already cheaper than cheap.

Tiffany Cuddy 

Tiffany Cuddy is a second year Professional Writing student at Algonquin College. Writing realistic creative fiction stories is her passion whether it’s short stories or someday a novel. She loves watching TV and movies whenever she gets the chance. She doesn’t like watching documentaries; she finds them boring to watch and will fall asleep (also loves sleeping). 

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