Change
One of the few areas where shopping in Kazakhstan varies dramatically from shopping in the US is in the attitude towards coins and change. Practically every time I try to buy anything from a store, they ask if I have exact change.*
Now, people don’t generally use amounts less than 5 tenge, even though 1 and 2 tenge coins exist. Instead we use matchbooks and candies (and once, at the drugstore, a hemoglobin bar). So, very often if you are buying something for 67 tenge and you give them 100 tenge, they hand you, not your 33 tenge change, but 30 tenge and a book of matches.
It’s really cool if you have a gas stove, because you need the matches anyway. And a box of matches often costs more than the change. In fact, once I bought something and didn’t have exact change. So they handed me a book of matches as the equivalent of 2 tenge. It reminded me that we were out of matches at home, and it might be good to bring home another box. So I asked how much another box would be. 4 tenge, they said! Having only 10 tenge in coins left, I ended up taking home another 3 boxes of matches: 4 boxes in total for 12 tenge.
But the ultimate moment for me was the other day at the cafeteria. Now this cafeteria always wants coins. They ask for exact change every time, huff and puff if you don’t have it, and once extracted from me 200 in coins, instead of bills; she practically grabbed the coins out of my hand when she saw them. The other day, I went and had some odd total—326 tenge, call it. The cashier sucked in her breath when she saw my 500 tenge note.
“Oh, don’t you have exact change?”
“Sorry, I don’t have any coins.”
“Oh, please check. Maybe you do.”
“Sorry I have exactly 3 tenge. Look.”
“Oh, oh. Is that all your change?”
“Yes, it’s all my change!”
“Well, ok.”
She proceeded to open the cabinet behind her, revealing bags and bags of change!
I recently had the chance to contrast this with American attitudes when I returned to the US—because one is always afraid that one has forgotten what it was like back home. The one time I was asked for exact change was when the cashier literally didn’t have the change, and had to overpay me by ten cents, giving me a quarter instead of 15 cents change
I invite foreigners and Kazakhstani—and especially Kazakhstani who have been to the US—to comment on this, give me your stories. Am I missing something here? Are we the crazy ones?
* one irrelevant linguistic note. In Russian, the phrase “Do you have 6 tenge?” would transliterate as “Will there be 6 tenge?” And I am always tempted to answer, “Well somewhere, sometime there will be!”
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I gladly over(?)-play the role of dumb foreigner when they want exact change - I’m buying something from them, it isn’t the case that they are doing me a favour by letting me buy their goods. As such, I expect them to be able provide the correct change, or equivalent in useful goods.
On the other hand, I can see one reason why wanting exact change might occur. In my days working in shops back in the UK, if you have a change bag whose total is known, you’d rather not have to break into it if possible - it makes cashing up at the end of your shift a lot easier, if you have ten 2 Tenge coins than having to count 109 of the them out, having broken into the big bag because a customer couldn’t provide exact change.
Comment by Chris Merriman — 21 November 2006 @ 1:11 am
Chris,
It’s usually not a question of breaking into counted change bags, because most stores don’t even have them at the register. Many stores are very lax about even keeping enough change in cash drawers, probably out of paranoia.
And regardless of the presence or absence of loose change in a cash drawer, most store employees will ask you either for exact change or for change that makes their job of counting change easier.
It’s an exceedingly small thing, of course, but something that over time seems larger than it really is. You’ve made a good point– it’s another aspect of the attitude, especially in retail, that stores exist to provide employment for the people who work there, and customers are annoying people who get in the way while they’re trying to restock shelves or clean the floors and don’t politely carry enough loose change.
Comment by Narcogen — 21 November 2006 @ 11:58 am
stores exist to provide employment for the people who work there, and customers are annoying people who get in the way while they’re trying to restock shelves or clean the floors and don’t politely carry enough loose change.
Nice way to put it. Next post on this theme might be on waiting for 5 minutes while the employees make the displays look pretty.
Comment by KZBlog — 21 November 2006 @ 1:19 pm
Hi,
It really pisses me off, when here in Shymkent they gave you the change in gum.
The other day I was in a Turkish restaurant (I don’t know why but Turkish restaurants usually do it) and they had to give me some 260 Tenge in change and they gave me 200 Tenge and a packet of Orbit… why couldn’t they give 250 Tenge and just take 10 Tenge off ??
Grreetings from the South,
David
Comment by David — 5 December 2006 @ 7:15 pm
hopefully this blog aint just4 foreigners but u guys have to get used to the fact that anyone in kazakhstan that has any ( as little as it gets) power or control; for instance clerks at the register will be abussive. Thts just the way it is right now in kazakhstan. Lol, i am amused by your criteria and how you compare kazakhstan to USA, in a good way. And its true, kazakhstan has a long way to go. Only thing you have to do IS BE MORE FIRM…The only way to deal with this is to be FIRMER AND BOLDER WITH THEM and not let these clerks or anything give u “gum”…they have all the change….they’re just lazy and dumb..so sometimes you are going to have to raise your voice. Nice site though.i’ll keep reading more. Hope i was of help; if not whatever.,
Comment by Aizo — 21 April 2007 @ 12:34 am
Aizo: This blog is for anyone who wants to read it. I’m always thrilled when anyone wants to hear what I have to say, and ideally I try to reflect a bit of Kazakhstan and foreign views.
Yeah, the best point in cultural adaptation is when you realize that if people act to you a certain way, you can act that way too. So if clerks are firm to you, you can be firm to them back. Thanks for the comment.
Comment by KZBlog — 21 April 2007 @ 10:38 am