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The adventure of the empty beer crate
Dec. 15th, 2006 06:03 pmFor ages I had a couple of nearly empty Grolsch "beugel" crates in the bottom of my closet. I decided to clear them out and return them to the supermarket (one at a time), since I paid a deposit for them when I originally bought them (full with Grolsch bottles, one may presume).
So I put the first crate on the back of my bicycle (and a couple of soft drink bottles in my rucksack) and went to the place where I most likely got it from in the first place. Except, in the mean time, the supermarket had changed hands (and name). I merrily placed the crate in the machine, it whizzed and hummed, and then it returned the crate, claiming "not enough bottles". Yeah of course! It was empty!
I asked someone from the staff who was just passing, and she told me that the machines didn't accept empty crates because sometimes people take a crate from the shop and put it in the machine right away. Very clever of those people. She said she didn't claim I was doing the same but nevertheless she didn't want to accept the crate from me. While I suspected that the model of my crate was a bit old and maybe had changed in the mean time, or that the supermarket didn't carry Grolsch in these bottles anymore, she didn't say that. Instead, she claimed that the brewery would not accept the crate from them and therefore she would not accept it from me. I insisted that they would not see the difference between crates from this supermarket and its previous incarnation (thereby trying to verify if indeed the model had changed), but it made no difference.
In the end the only suggestion she had to offer was that I try another shop.
Obviously I wasn't too happy about this kind of "service".
Fortunately I didn't have any trouble getting the crate past the till - I half expected to be charged for it. The woman paid my receipt for the soft drink bottles and was surprised herself about the empty crate policy.
So, crate back on my bike, I trekked across the bridge over the canal to find another supermarket. The one I thought of first was quite a distance away but fortunately I realised that there was a smaller one about halfway. Here I asked at the till first, before entering, and I was referred to the machine outside the shop. Clever. Here that trick would not work. However, it was the same kind of machine and it also refused the crate in the same way. I wonder what it will do with partially filled crates... Anyway, I went back inside, asked at the till again, and after some waiting someone came from the back, took my crate, and after a while returned with a receipt (for a whole € 1,50).
I was so happy with this service, that I decided to do my shopping right there. (Of course, this was also because I didn't fancy going to another shop again, which would be a detour from my way home). Inside the shop, I noticed that indeed the crates had changed at least their colour.
Tomorrow, the other crate. It has a couple of bottles, so I'm curious to see what difference that is going to make.
So I put the first crate on the back of my bicycle (and a couple of soft drink bottles in my rucksack) and went to the place where I most likely got it from in the first place. Except, in the mean time, the supermarket had changed hands (and name). I merrily placed the crate in the machine, it whizzed and hummed, and then it returned the crate, claiming "not enough bottles". Yeah of course! It was empty!
I asked someone from the staff who was just passing, and she told me that the machines didn't accept empty crates because sometimes people take a crate from the shop and put it in the machine right away. Very clever of those people. She said she didn't claim I was doing the same but nevertheless she didn't want to accept the crate from me. While I suspected that the model of my crate was a bit old and maybe had changed in the mean time, or that the supermarket didn't carry Grolsch in these bottles anymore, she didn't say that. Instead, she claimed that the brewery would not accept the crate from them and therefore she would not accept it from me. I insisted that they would not see the difference between crates from this supermarket and its previous incarnation (thereby trying to verify if indeed the model had changed), but it made no difference.
In the end the only suggestion she had to offer was that I try another shop.
Obviously I wasn't too happy about this kind of "service".
Fortunately I didn't have any trouble getting the crate past the till - I half expected to be charged for it. The woman paid my receipt for the soft drink bottles and was surprised herself about the empty crate policy.
So, crate back on my bike, I trekked across the bridge over the canal to find another supermarket. The one I thought of first was quite a distance away but fortunately I realised that there was a smaller one about halfway. Here I asked at the till first, before entering, and I was referred to the machine outside the shop. Clever. Here that trick would not work. However, it was the same kind of machine and it also refused the crate in the same way. I wonder what it will do with partially filled crates... Anyway, I went back inside, asked at the till again, and after some waiting someone came from the back, took my crate, and after a while returned with a receipt (for a whole € 1,50).
I was so happy with this service, that I decided to do my shopping right there. (Of course, this was also because I didn't fancy going to another shop again, which would be a detour from my way home). Inside the shop, I noticed that indeed the crates had changed at least their colour.
Tomorrow, the other crate. It has a couple of bottles, so I'm curious to see what difference that is going to make.