Finding Change in Egypt

No, this post has nothing to with religious or governmental change in Egypt. This has everything to do with currency and making change with money. Whether you go to a street vendor or a department store in the mall, no one seems to be able to make change. Where are all of the small denominations of money??!!

There is an acceptance here that if the total is 19 LE, you might actually just end up paying 18 LE (roughly $1). Maybe the bill is 12.50 LE. You may actually pay an extra .50 LE, or the establishment might swallow the .50 LE. I know, in the grand scheme of things, this is very minimal. The problem really comes into play when you order things to be delivered.

When Zach and I order things to be delivered, we usually order extra just to round it up to the nearest big denomination. If a food bill comes out to be 164 LE ($10), we will usually order more to make it closer to 200 LE so we don't have to mess with asking the delivery guy for change. And, yes, I say delivery guy because I have never had a delivery woman.

So, here's an anecdote about making change that happened to me three days ago:

After school, I went into a pharmacy about one block from our apartment. I bought lotion (which turned out to be body wash) and a nail file. The total came to 87 LE. I gave the guy a 100 LE bill. So, if we all do our math, I should get back 13 LE. He gave me a 10 and... a granola bar because he didn't have small change. Haha!