Playing the angles at Chipotle

Guac on the side allegedly is a larger portion than guac inside your bowl or burrito. That's what the internet told me once, and I've stuck with it and always asked for guac on the side.

It's probably true. Even if it isn't, getting anything on the side leaves more room in a burrito. And the real benefit is I can dunk the chips in it.

Guac is actually free on a veggie burrito, and still free whether or not you ask for it on the side.

Last week or so, because I also had chips, I had this bad feeling that the cashier was going to associate the guac with the chips and mistakenly charge me for it. It happened really fast and I didn't see all the black magic that went into the register, but he asked for $13 (I had a drink too).

Seemed like he probably charged for the guac to me, but not being 100% sure I decided to just balk and pay the man his money. It's just really soul-crushing the times you argue over 60 cents and it turns out you were wrong and didn't have a valid complaint. I didn't want to open myself up to that possibility that day.

So fast forward to right now, earlier today, and I came face to face with the same cashier. I know he wrongly charged me last time because I checked the receipt later. But I did it differently today. I paid for only the burrito first. Now he has no choice but to associate the guac with the veggie burrito and ring it in as free.

And then after it was safely paid for, I asked if I could please have chips and a drink, as if the idea had just come to me.

I could have ordered the drink with the burrito. The important thing is that the chips and guac don't go together. But then I wouldn't have been as sure what the total cost should be, and just in case he was gonna wrongly charge for guac in this scenario too I wanted to be able to catch it.

It was a really thoughtful Chipotle order. Guac on the side, and pay for it in separate chunks to work around the cashier's glitch and avoid an awkward moment.