laoyangdelp

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遭遇“零元購”

laoyangdelp (2025-07-13 11:18:01) 評論 (4)

講一個最近發生在我身邊的故事。

我在本村圖書館做義工,是一個“Friends of the library” 的非營利組織。我們村裏圖書館的新書大部分是這個組織籌款購買的。而我是在這個組織在圖書館門口的一個小吃部工作。這個小吃部賣一些零食,snacks,cup of soup, 飲料,咖啡等等,義工管理,所有profit全部捐給圖書館。小吃部是honor system,義工隻管將食品飲料標價後放在外麵,顧客自覺投幣取物。主要顧客是放學後來圖書館做作業的中小學生和帶小娃來聽故事的保姆們及來圖書館上網消磨時間的退休老人。幾十年來,這個係統一直works well。直到最近,尤其是這個星期。比如周三下午,我值班時,一個黑女走過來,各種零食都拿了一份,又從冰箱裏拿了飲料,卻一分未付。我提醒她,“do you need change?”She said:”no, I’m alright.”轉身捧著一堆東西進了圖書館。結賬時我發現,現金箱裏隻有不到$30元的現金,而櫃台上少了$65元的小吃和飲料。

這就是我親身經曆”零元購“的故事。因此我發了電郵給所有的義工,結果星期四的義工說,她值班時投幣箱裏隻有不到40元錢而櫃台上少了$120的食品。義工組長昨天緊急通知,因為最近的情況,小賣部下星期停業一周。不知這個幾十年來每年為圖書館創收上萬的小賣部是否就會因為”人心不古“而壽歸正寢。

後續:周六的義工為下周關門做準備時遇到了這個:

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3. Another lady asked for a cold coke, and why I was emptying everything. I told her about the loss we were incurring. As I handed her the coke, she quickly  grabbed two water bottles and hurried to the door, without paying. I almost wanted to go after her, but she was fast, I was frustrated. As I was leaving the library, I saw her in a car and I wanted to approach her but then I stopped, the car was broken multiple places and had a ton of stuff in it. I left sad. 

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也許這就是我前麵提到的同一位。看來是個homeless,這星期盯上我們這個小賣部了。其實真正的homeless有food bank和shelter提供吃住,絕對不會餓著。可她有車卻連food bank都懶得去。