A land of shortchangers.

How often are you shortchanged in your country? Once a year? Once a month? Once a week? How about everytime you buy something? That, rather oddly, is the case in Malaysia.

You see, I had become accustomed to the Singaporean way in which if a bill comes to an amount requiring change smaller than the existing coins, that the shop would round DOWN, the bill - and therefore, absorb the loss for itself. Singaporean stores don't therefore, shortchange, the customer. However, Malaysian stores...all of them that I have been to so far...have a rather different approach: they have "rounding adjustments" on the bill - which are always upward alterations in the bill total - to make the change easier. Malaysian stores always try to shortchange the customer: this happened to me in MacDonalds, and in a Supermarket, in 7-11...in fact, everywhere I went, the stores would automatically shortchange me.

Taxi drivers almost always shortchange the customer, too...but that deserves a post of its own.

It strikes me as funny that Singapore and Malaysia were once one united country, yet on one side the shops never shortchange the customer - and on the other side, they always do. Why did one country choose one path - and the other choose the alternative? It is most strange.

I know that the sums involved are small, at each transaction - but since they apply to EVERY transaction, it adds up and would, in the course of a shopping year amount to a sum that anyone would object being picked from their pockets by a passing thief. Yet, picked from their pockets it is, every time they shop in Malaysia.

I should add, at this point, that prices are generally much cheaper in Malaysia than Singapore - except for imported and brand name goods - yet, the point remains, that shortchanging is the norm, in Malaysia, whereas it would be considered abnormal in many other places.

However, it was a surprise to me to see "rounding adjustments" on bills - because I have never seen that, before, in the 20 or so countries I have visited. So, that makes Malaysia unique, in my experience. It is not the only way in which they are unique, but more of those on other posting occasions.