Valentine's Day was not a good day for me.

Immediately after I logged in to Blogger I was greeted with a forced upgrade to the new version, leaving me no choice to stick to the old one. Of course there is nothing wrong with the new version, given that nothing will be changed (or so they claim), but I disliked the way they forced people to change without any alternative options, or at the very least, the allowing of "deferment".

I was switched to the morning shift today, and because I trusted the jovial old lady and the newbie who worked the previous overnight shift, I did not check the money inside the two cash registers.

Turned out it was a bad move. At the end of my shift one of the counters had a shortage of $15 bucks, and I had 5 bucks deducted from my pay (the remainder was offset by an excess). And I was unhappy.

I was unhappy not because I had my pay deducted; I don't really care. I was unhappy because they seem to blame my trust in my colleagues for this shortage, with words like "you are too kind liaox" or "you must count the money no matter what" etc etc. Actually I don't know why I was unhappy. Maybe because I refused to believe that I had made an error in my judgement skills.

Perhaps money is too evil an item to be placed together with trust, but I think basic trust among colleagues will make work slightly more enjoyable.

My mood got slightly better after I managed to get my newly purchased RAM to work on my computer. After work I went down to Sim Lim Square, and bought a stick of 1GB RAM to add on to my computer. RAM prices have been dropping drastically for the past few weeks, from $160+ three weeks ago to $105 this week, the price at which I purchased mine. Went home and put it in; worked flawlessly.

So now my computer has 1.5GB of RAM. Tried out Company of Heroes, and the game now runs much faster. I can even afford to push the graphics level to a higher one.

At Sim Lim I checked out 7600GT graphics cards, and although all the boxes stated a minimum of 300W power supply, the salesman insisted 350W to ensure sufficient power. Which means my computer does not make the cut. Never mind actually. I don't think I am spending any more money on computer related products for now.

There was an interesting piece of news report just now. Apparently CASE investigated and compared the prices of items in various supermarkets and convenience stores, and found out that the the same item can cost more than two times in convenience stores as compared to in supermarkets.

Well everyone knows things are more expensive in convenience stores, but it still comes as a shock to see a bottle of mineral water costing $1.10 in convenience stores when it cost a mere $0.34 (average price I guess) in supermarkets.

Assuming that all items come from the same supplier, one still wonders why things cost more expensive in convenience stores. Maybe convenience stores will try to attribute the higher prices to the fact that their stores are open 24/7, so high cost of electricity used on lights and air conditioners. Then again, supermarkets, although not 24/7, are much bigger in size, meaning more lights and more air-cons per store? Thereafter, convenience stores will say that they have larger numbers of stores, albeit much smaller in size, while supermarkets, although fewer in numbers, are much bigger in size, thus possess the advantage of economics of scale?

All things equal, the only thing they can justify their higher cost is the word convenience I think. Convenience comes at a price.

I don't know why, but one thing for sure, convenience stores love money. They love to sell toothbrushes at outrageous prices when they know they hold a monopoly in the area. And dumb policies like charging drinks by the cup, which means even if you want to use a cup to hold air, you still pay as though you are buying a drink. Alternatively small disposable cups are available, but one cup cost 20cents!

Personally I think that while maximising profits is important, building up a friendly environment is even more important. A store may initially earn alot from charging of empty cups, but unhappy customers may not come back a second time, and the store loses out in the long run. On the other hand, a store may not see significant profits by giving free cups away initially, but I guess little actions that make customers happy will make them come the second, the third, and more times.

In short, I think being too money-minded is not good. Hmm maybe I am not cut out for business. Haha.

Ah! What am I talking?! Everyone loves money! Who will not want money to flow seamlessly into their pockets every moment?

I do not recall any convenience stores participating in charity events, are there?

Then again, those remarks are made from a consumer's point of view. Perhaps there are plenty of unseen costs which they need to cover, thus the higher prices. On the other hand, from a lowdown employee's point of view, I see no extraordinary procedures in everyday work that requires exceptionally high cost.

I predict that in the next few days well-read customers will be using this particular report to bombard us with questions on why our things cost more. We the store assistants are in the frontline, the first to get hit if someone gets angry. Hopefully they will understand that we are mere employees, and have no say in the prices at all.

Talking about dumb policies, there are plenty of dumb policies. But that's besides the point for now.

Wahaha I wonder if the above remarks I made will get me into trouble. Hopefully not. Its just some random ranting.

I have entered/am entering my third month of work, which will be my last month. Looking back, time really flies; I have (fortunately) survived two months without much problems. Soon A Levels results will be released, and before I can settle down from the excitement/happiness/sadness of my results, I will be entering the army and missing out of the delights of civilian life.