Doing it the American Way

I feel obliged to teach Israeli merchants the American way of business. It's enough that by living here things get all fucked up.

One example is that Hubby told me the other day that our drivers' license expired. I figured something was up - how would he have taken notice unless something horrible happened to make him take notice. We received a renewal form in the mail but he looked at it and said the licenses expire on June 3.

"How do you kow it expired?" I asked.

"I got a ticket the other day"

Bingo. He probably read the friggin license renewal form backwards because it probably expired March 6 - being that Israelis show their days and months differently than North Americans. It shows up as 6/3/06. OK - so after 11 years in this country he STILL didn't get it.

Frustrated a bit by this misunderstanding, I walked into a store because they had stuff on sale and saw a dress suitable for my daughter's wedding. I tried it on and it looked absolutely lovely. No need for me to go to 100 stores to find something and make myself crazy. It's rare to find a dress nowadays that makes me look skinny. It was a shimmery copper dress. I loveto shimmer.

I told the saleswomen, and they probably heard this for the first time in their lives -

"I'm gonna teach you people about 'layaway'. Layaway is what people do in America when they want to buy something and not go into debt. They put a certain amount of money on it and it is theirs. You keep the dress until the entire amount is paid - it could take a bit but it will get paid."

"Israelis just use their credit card."

"Yup - they sure do. And my credit card is at its limit. No more debting for me."

She insisted on half the amount up front. I agreed. Wow! A breakthrough in Israeli retail. I'll have easy payment terms at no interest and look skinny at my daughter's wedding. How much better can it get?