LIVING in PITTSBURGH: Giant Eagle, Lawrenceville

On Tuesday, having left a party in the ever-up-and-coming neighborhood of Lawrenceville, Will stopped at the Giant Eagle (aka Giant Beagle, aka Giant Ego) store there. This particular store is noteworthy for the vast, pocked blacktop parking lot preceding the building as well as its clientele and staff, many of whom rotate between those two groups and all of whom hail from “Old Lawrenceville”—not the self-proclaimed “urban pioneers” or artistic colonists, but those who grew up in the Ninth or even the Tenth Ward.

When Will finds himself in Lawrenceville, he often stops in at this store to buy some Stauffer’s brand Ginger Snap cookies. They’re the only store-bought cookies necessary, Will believes. On this evening he brought three bags of the cookies—priced at the same $1.99 that they were three years before, when the Household was located in Lawrenceville—to the checkout counter. The young female caucasian cashier scanned one bag three times—but only after she had already scanned the other two. Will isn’t sure about that, but thinks that is what happened. The young lady almost instantly detected her error, and after a short pause, went about to rescind the overcharge by pressing a key on the register and scanning the item again. And again, and again, and again. This resulted in a total of $3.98, which she verbalized to Will.

Will is neither the most honest, nor the most dishonest of people. When he is undercharged in everyday commerce, he often detects it, thinks “It’s my lucky day!” and walks away with the extra cash. A countervailing impulse, however, sometimes wins the day, and he will at those times coolly but proudly point out the error. Simple decency and a vague belief in karma is behind that impulse. This evening was one of the honest ones for Will, and he informed the cashier that he should be charged more.

The cashier paused, her static eyes betraying a calculating mind. Then without a word she grabbed one of the bags and scanned its bar code again. Struck with resentment that I pointed out the error, she completed the transaction wordlessly, and moves on to the next customer.