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Imagine traveling to another country and going shopping. Would you expect to pay with the local money or whatever you happen to have in your wallet?

In this story, an American tourist is in Canada.

You can probably already see how this is going to go, and as an American, I apologize in advance. I promise we’re not all like this.

Anyway, she’s shopping in a store and asks an employee a question about the prices. Her way of phrasing the question is pretty crazy, but her reaction when she goes to pay is even worse.

Again, I promise we’re not all like this.

Let’s read the whole story.

Uh, I’m sorry you don’t think we use ‘real money’…

I live, and work in a coastal Canadian city, that sees a fair amount of cruise ship traffic.

One day we there is a particularly large ship in and there is an influx of tourists shopping in the store, it is a high-mid range clothing store; however it is also sale season so there are plenty of red tags around.

A small group of American women come in and are looking around and pick out a couple of items and come up to the cash and ask me, “is this price in real money?”

The employee explains.

I look at her and politely reply that it is in Canadian however we do take American.

She says OK and walks away.

After a short time she comes back and puts a sale hat on the cash counter and asks to buy it.

I ring it though, tell her the Canadian total and then the American one (the exchange rate now is stronger on the Canadian $ so the American price is higher) and then explain to her that we can only take whole amounts and she would get back Canadian change.

Oh the drama!

Well she does not like this and stand at the cash and argues with me for 15 min and had me explain 3 or 4 times why: a) the American price was higher and b) why I couldn’t give her back American change because what good is that other stuff to her.

At this point in my head I’m screaming at her to go get a F-ing coffee if she doesn’t want the change, the fact that we take American at all is a courtesy to her and that we don’t have to, but out loud I’m being super polite.

All the while her daughter is standing behind her saying NOTHING.

Another customer saw the whole thing.

In the end she buys her sale hat using her real money, gets Canadian change back and leaves.

Once she is gone another customer who had been nearby and watching this exchange and asked it that really just happened and how I was able to not hit her…

I don’t like thinking about people in stereotypes but really…

That is crazy. Canadian money is just as much “real” money as American money. It’s not like this is Monopoly money or something.

Let’s see how Reddit responded to this story.

Yes, this, exactly!

Apparently, some Europeans are confused about sales tax.

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post this story about a woman who reports her manager after they had zero compassion for a family tragedy.

This person thinks the other customer should’ve spoken up sooner.

Another Canadian can relate.

This is why it’s just all around easier to pay with a credit card. Then you don’t have to deal with Canadian coins if you don’t want to.

Honestly, I like keeping a few coins and dollars when traveling to other countries. It’s like an inexpensive souvenir.