Spatial Discrimination
Some businesses have it right — and I’m not talking about the ones that have a tip jar on the counter. They have it very wrong. Don’t get me wrong, I tip generously when I’m being served, in a restaurant or cab or cabaret. But when someone hands me something, I see that as meeting halfway…and since I’m not being tipped, why should you, Counterman? “College fund”? “Beer money”! And you’re sixteen anyway, so get outta my way, you’re late meeting your friends at the mall. Or have a low tolerance and save some money that way–
Some businesses have it right. When I pay for their product with a credit card, there is a swipe-contraption at the counter that indicates beyond a reasonable doubt which way the card is to go through. Most often, the card is to be held in my right hand, the card’s numbers closer to my fingers. Most often, there is a sketch that shows not only the position of these numbers (Digits out, Dan) but an arrow that reminds you of the natural and predictable swipe-movement: Down (towards you), rather than diagonal or whatnot.
There are many, many ways in which other businesses complicate the credit card payment process to the point of my turning into an eighty-year-old and just using cash. Some of the swipes are left-right, or right-left, without an arrow to be seen. Sometimes there’s a three-dimensional drawing – one that features the magnetic stripe rather than the numbers, forcing me to turn over my card to see on which side rests the stripe. So, needless to say, whichever way I try to put in the card is invariably WRONG and my self-esteem shrinks to just below the meniscus of the graduate degree-less sixteen-year-old who has grabbed a fistful of superiority in giggling at the guy who’s too proud and modern and cheap to pay in cash and forgo the ensuing change.
End spatial discrimination. Society needs to come together in understanding.
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