Some consumer mysteries are very tiny, which is what makes them somehow even more frustrating. For example, why did a bodega charge a customer ten cents in bottle deposit fees when she bought laundry supplies? The store was somehow charging the deposit on dryer sheets, but not charging it on beverages which should be subject to it. Why? The store say that it was all a mistake.

Well, that explanation makes sense. It might be baffling to some people people that someone would contact a TV consumer reporter over ten cents, but it bothered this laundry-doer that the store might be charging bottle deposit, or CRV, on items for which consumers couldn’t get it back.

If your state doesn’t have such a program, it’s simple: to incentivize people to recycle certain kinds of bottles and cans, stores collect a five-cent deposit on each container (ten cents in some states, as viewers of “Seinfeld” know) which the customer gets back by bringing the container to a store or bottle redemption center. This is supposed to be programmed into cash registers or store computers at purchase, and in the case of this store wasn’t.

Call Kurtis Investigates: Why Was I Charged Deposit for Recyclables on Dryer Sheets? [CBS Sacramento]

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