Commission fee

In mid-March, a friend went to Japan on a business trip. He’s a journalist, going to Japan for a huge sports tournament.

Before going to Japan, he asked me if I would like to buy something. He can do me a favor. I was just thinking whether there is something I would like. And, I asked him which neighborhood he would stay in. It turned out that the hotel he stayed at isn't close to some shops that sell some souvenirs I want. Then, he told me that he would charge me a commission fee if I asked him to do many things.

Well, in the end, I didn’t ask him to buy anything. He didn’t stay in Japan for too long and he would have to change hotels during his trip. I didn’t think it was reasonable to ask him to buy souvenirs.

However, a few years ago, some colleagues asked me to buy some souvenirs for them during my first trip in Japan. I didn’t want to be a bad guy and I decided to say yes to them.

Eventually, I went to several shops to get all those souvenirs. When I came back from Japan, I met my colleagues and gave them those souvenirs. However, I didn’t charge them any commission fees.

The other day, I just met a friend who just came back from Japan. I asked him whether someone asked him to buy some souvenirs. My friend indicated that he doesn’t want to do that now. Firstly, he doesn’t want to spend extra time buying souvenirs. Additionally, he would prefer to charge commission fees because he spent time buying and taking those souvenirs back. Thirdly, some friends forgot to call my friend to take those souvenirs. Hence, my friend doesn’t want to face the same problem again and he just wants to enjoy the trip.