ROSEMARY ABBOTT | Culture
DAYLIGHT ROBBERY
Shaun McHardy pretended not to feel emotionally gutted by the transaction he made today.
The 33 year-old MBIE employee had just shelled out $19 for a single pint of Panhead Supercharger on Lambton Quay. In an attempt to make his Friday evening run as smoothly as possible, he then proceeded to pretend he was okay with being politely robbed by the woman serving him.
“I barely registered the bartender’s words when she told me the price,” McHardy explained as the blood inside him began to boil.
“She just flipped the Eftpos machine around with this blank look, like it was a perfectly reasonable number. And without thinking, I just tapped my card. Just like that. Nineteen dollars gone, and for what? Four sips and a bit of foam.”
McHardy attempted to pull off a relaxed expression as he waited for the payment to process, forcing himself to chat casually with his coworkers. It was a big ask to hide the pain of the equivalent of a micro-loan being withdrawn from his account
One colleague, Jason Stevens, noticed a fleeting look of horror in McHardy’s eyes but assumed he was just thinking about his workload ahead of next week.
“He kept nodding along with our conversation, but I saw him glance down at his glass several times, like he was trying to figure out some kind of riddle.”
Shaun then explained how he really felt to our reporters as he sipped his beer slowly in a vain attempt to avoid paying for another one.
“I kept telling myself, ‘You’re paying for the ambiance, Shaun. You’re supporting the local economy.’ But honestly, all I could think about was my net worth being chipped away.”
More to come.
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