‘I’m going bankrupt $10 at a time.’ Weary shopper tired of being gouged by businesses

One of my husband’s favorite sayings during any vacation excursion is that he’s “being bankrupted $10 at a time.” At a Disney park, I can count on this phrase being on a continuous loop.

On one trip to Disneyland, while I was buying a couple of $5 churros from a cart by the Haunted Mansion, my husband’s bankrupt banter got so bad I threatened to put his “favorite” saying on a T-shirt. That way he could wear the shirt and spare us from having to hear his vacation refrain over and over again. His response was, “There goes another $10.”

Now, I feel some shame about making fun of my husband because I’m currently feeling like I would actually wear a T-shirt that says, “I’m going bankrupt $10 at a time.” This is because it seems like getting constantly gouged with fees and requests for tips at places like drive-thru windows is the new normal.

The latest thing to irk me is the announcement from AMC Theatres that the company is going to “sightline seating.” Sightline is code for you’re going to shell out more money for the better seats.

It’s bad enough that airlines do this but to now have to pay an extra fee to not get a neck strain when I’m watching Kansas City’s beloved movie star Paul Rudd in “Ant-Man and the Wasp” is extremely irritating.

I understand that the movie theater industry is struggling but I don’t know if charging more money for “preferred” seating is the way to get more butts in those seats. Here’s an idea — how about keeping restrooms cleaner.

Oops, maybe I shouldn’t have said that because I might have just given movie theater companies another idea for a fee: “preferred” restrooms. For a mere dollar extra per ticket, you can access a restroom with toilet paper, floors that look like they’ve been cleaned in the past 21 days and trash cans that aren’t overflowing.

Honestly, I would pay that fee because one time I walked out of a theater and across the parking lot to use the restroom at a fast-casual restaurant rather than subject myself to the ladies’ room at the theater. Sure, I missed a good 10 minutes of the movie, but it was worth it. I think the pandemic proved that Americans will make limitless sacrifices for toilet paper.

I will say that at least AMC is up-charging you for something that is actually tangible: a seat that isn’t lousy. The same can’t be said for the egregious practice of tipping at drive-thru spots. When I was first asked if I wanted to leave a tip for Diet Coke at a drive-thru I actually thought the woman taking my money was joking. But nope, there it was on card scanner — various suggested tipping amounts for services rendered for a $1.09 purchase.

This freaked me out a little because I’m a tipper. Having worked in the customer service sector I believe in tipping but the whole tipping at a drive-thru was messing with my tipping mojo.

Flustered, I rounded up the amount to $2 and drove off confused. So confused, in fact, I pulled into a parking lot to work through my feelings. I also started googling and learned about tip creeping, tipflation and tip fatigue.

I was definitely experiencing all of the above.

My “a tip to far” moment came when I was “asked” to tip a cashier at a retail store for the act of charging my credit card for the purchase of a blouse. That was when I decided to feel zero guilt for not tipping in certain situations and to really get behind the idea of wearing that bankrupt T-shirt.

Reach Sherry Kuehl at snarkyinthesuburbs@gmail.com, on Facebook at Snarky in the Suburbs, on Twitter at @snarkynsuburbs on Instagram @snarky.in.the.suburbs, and snarkyinthesuburbs.com.