Just an FYI when asking dealers about their coal prices

I ran into this problem twice this year & was just dumbfounded .... but I shouldn't be surprised these days...

Anyway, I had my wife call around for coal prices a few months back, starting with the supplier I used last year. I knew the price had gone up, but when she called me & told me $364.50 per ton I almost fainted!!

How could they go up $73 per ton??? I had her call back to confirm, thinking that someone made a mistake & she calls back with the same info. I'm like wtf???

So just the other day I went with my father to pick up some coal so we could split the load & get it back to his house in one shot. He told the girl at the checkout that he wanted 2 tons of coal. It was at that moment that I realized what had happened months before. When my father saw the register hit $729 he almost lost his mind! What was happening was the young girls that work the registers thought 1 ton = 1 PALLET!!!
1 pallet at this place is 50, 50lb. bags which is 2,500lbs. or 1.25 tons! A little math barrier there! They had no clue what 1 ton meant!!

ALWAYS ASK when buying bagged! Probably better to ask the price PER BAG & do the math yourself!

Unfortunately this happens a lot more than it should.

Try this next time you are at a fast food place or chain store. Give the check out person 12.49 for a 7.49 bill (or something similar). The idea is to get back a five instead of some ones and change but the look of bewilderment they give you is a riot. Some need to actually be prompted to figure out the correct change. No wonder we are slipping behind other countries when our young people can't even do simple math.

I had to get a few bags of rice one time, to hold me over until a new bulk delivery arrived. The girl came out to the yard to help loading my car with bags, even though I said I would do it. So we both start throwing bags, from two closely-spaced pallets, into the back of my car. I was only getting a few bags, so when we were done and recounted bags, I noticed one of the bags looked real LUMPY. checked the label on that bag, it was nut, not rice! checked the other bags. All the bags she threw in was nut. The pallet she was pulling from was all Nut. I told her so, and started taking out the bags of nut. She says "Whats the diff? Coal is coal, ain't it?"

I shoulda loaded my own car, and saved myself some work. That was the last time I bought there, and haven't bought bagged since.

Oh, man!! That's another thing to watch for too - never thought someone would pull that one!

Rice, stove -- what's the difference??