Given how common rounding up at the register has become, this exchange I had Sunday with a grocery store clerk was probably inevitable:
Clerk: Would you like to round up?
Me: Round up for what?
Clerk: I could round the total up and take two dollars off for the reward points you've earned.
Me: But why would the total be rounded up? What cause is this for?
The clerk then told me the name and nature of the cause. I agreed to forfeit the 28 cents I would have gotten in change otherwise. It's perplexing, though, that a customer is almost expected to round up-- without knowing why. I'm waiting for the day when a clerk asks, "Would you like to pay more than you owe for no apparent reason?"
