The currency in Indonesia is rupiah, and it is incredibly inflated. One US dollar is equal to between 10,500 and 11,00 rupiah, depending on what currency you are exchanging for it and where. This makes figuring out how much something is really worth tricky for math challenged people like me! The price tag says 295,000... let's see, how much is that, really? Since the rupiah is so worthless, I guess it makes it difficult to make small change. So if the amount of change due back to a customer is of a certain small amount or less, the customer is given candy instead of money! This is what the sign means, and we experienced it on several occassions, in different stores. Twice it was a wafer cookie type candy bar, and another time our change was a couple of pieces of hard candy.
Like my mom always says, it's interesting to see how different cultures solve life's universal issues. :-)
3 comments:
I wish we would do that here. I would much rather have a piece of chocolate than pennies!
C.
what a great idea - can you picture them doing that here - any change under $5 - and you get a candy bar! Probably more people would use cash!
Be careful for what you wish for. At the rate we keep bailing everyone out and devaluing the dollar the next time you are back home in Ohio you'll be leaving Heinens like it's Easter morning.
Andrew
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