The market scales

Text: an original contemporary personal account-style practice extract.

On my first morning at the market stall, I weighed a bag of pears and announced the price. The stallholder stopped me because I had included the empty container’s weight. Before weighing the next bag, I placed an empty container on the scales and reset the display to zero. She watched the display rather than my hands.

Customers were beginning to gather. I wanted to work faster, but the stallholder asked me to repeat the check with a second container. Speed, she said, would come later. For the rest of the morning, the little zero on the screen received more of my attention than the line of people.

From the opening paragraph, identify one action the writer took to prevent the container’s weight being included in the next weighing.