The cashier overlooked the milk in my shopping cart, so there had to be a separate transaction to process it. I paid for it with American Express, and it suddenly occurred to me to apologize.

"I'm so sorry for that. Your fees on that card will probably exceed your profit."

She looked at me as if I were speaking an unintelligible language.

"My fees?" she asked.

"Yes, American Express is the most expensive card on the market. You guys have to pay per charge and also a percentage of the transaction. This was only a couple of bucks spent here, so these fees can really eat into your profit margin."

"I don't pay any fees," she said.

It was at this point that I realized that we were on two different planets. She works for the company as a worker. The store makes a contract with her to show up and do certain things. She does them. She gets paid for this. That's the beginning and end of her economic role in the matrix of exchange. She is unaware that she is a consumer too, of the employment services offered by the store; these services must be paid for out of revenue generated by sales.