The Beer Transaction

            The other night we had a little get together of about twelve people who came over for a few hours after work, so we needed beer. Since she would be working during the day, it would be my job to go out and buy the beer. At first, I thought it would be as simple as going to the supermarket and just buying a case of beer, but it was far from that.

              The handyman of the grounds had to come with me, not only to help carry the beer, but negotiate the purchase. This is how the process works; first we had to bring a rack that had empty Prestige beer bottles (from a previous party) to a street vendor, the street vendor and the handyman discussed a price value for the empty bottles and new beers, then the rack of empty bottles would then be taken away by a third party who returned a few minutes later with the same rack but with new beers on it. The entire process took about fifteen minutes and I had a lot sweat rolling down my face from the sun and dozen or so smoky grills lined up on the street cooking chicken and other types of foods.

            There was also a bus right in front of us that was broken down and blocking traffic on the narrow street, causing a lot of yelling and car’s honking their horns. The street vendor we dealt with was a chubby lady missing half of her top teeth who also sold drinks with a small kid (assuming it’s her son) next to her. She had three long coolers filled with sodas and water. While we waited for the new beers to arrive, some guy passed by and dropped a large brick of ice into one of her coolers. Another vendor walking around with a basket of drinks on his head asked me if I wanted anything, but the lady chased him away assuming if I did want to buy a drink, I would buy it from her since we were already in business together. Her daughter even passed by as well in her school uniform after being done with class for the day I suppose, so there was certainly a lot going on at once.

             As it turns out, bringing empty bottles of whatever type of drink you’re looking for gets you a discount on the new purchase of it. I should try bringing a case of empty beers next time I go into a 7-11 and see if I can get a few dollars off….