So I was meeting a friend for coffee at a well-known Tim Hortons in South Winnipeg. It shares a great big space in a very busy part of town with Wendy’s.

I wasn’t feeling like coffee. I’d already had 3 or 4 cups that day so I went to the Wendy’s counter and asked for a small Diet Coke. The fellow who took my request and was going to pour some from their fountain asked me to pay before he poured.

I’m glad that’s the system and in a moment you’ll know why. He gave me the price. I heard the twenty-five number and so I took a loonie and a quarter out of my pocket. He then repeated the price and I thought he said 2.25. Didn’t think anything of it. Took out another loonie and then I heard him loudly and clearly say 3.25…I said Are you Serious? He said. It’s 3.25. So I said, No sale. Took my 2.25 off the counter went and sat with my bud without having purchased anything violating a principle I have observed all my life.

I don’t believe in sitting in a business establishment without having spent a nickel. Just to be clear. I’m a capitalist. Pro-free enterprise. I am not calling on the government to tell any restaurant what they can charge. But I’m free not to pay not to participate.

I understand enough about the market and the current state of the supply chain to know that 3.25 for a fountain soft drink at a fast food restaurant is too much and many others do not charge that.

If customers want to pay it that’s fine. I wonder how high inflation would really be if many members of the public were to simply say no sale when the price wasn’t right.

Was I comfortable with how I reacted to the price? Not at all. But I would have felt far less comfortable paying it. This customer is always right. Telling the truth, I’m Charles Adler.