I have often arranged for trades, and the player I am trading with offers to pay in food, which is perfectly acceptable to me. Sometimes the player works it out in advance (if I pay for something with food, I am always quite specific about letting the player I am trading with know exactly how much of each food I plan to trade before we get to the TP, and exactly what I expect to get in exchange), but occasionally I show up at the trading post, and they haven't figured out what denominations of food and how many of each they are going to trade to make up the amount they are paying.
My observation isn't even intended as an argument against the idea as posted--but I think it would be inconsiderate of players to use a feature like this as a way to do their calculations for how to get the right amount of food for a trade into the trade, as the other player will be sitting there waiting for something that could have been figured out without imposing a wait on the trade partner.
My point in making the post was more to encourage players to be considerate in doing trades, and get as much as possible figured out in advance of entering the trading post so as not to waste any more time of the player with whom you are trading (or your own time, for that matter) as absolutely necessary.
By the way, there are some players who are very good at doing trades in a way that minimizes the time spent in the trading post--Treize comes to mind as being very good at this, but I have had opportunities to trade with others, too, and if I tried to list them all, I'm sure I'd leave some out. I also understand that players who don't trade as often may not have thought through all the ways trades can be expedited, and I don't hold grudges against people just because it takes longer to trade with them than I'd like--but I do appreciate people who try to improve in that regard, too. Hopefully, if I've ever taken longer to do a trade than you would have liked, you'll have the same view of me.
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