Cash Drawers & Tills - Smallest Denomintaions Go From Left To Right or Vice Versa?

In My Humble Opinion
1

After a guest bartending gig last night, I noticed what I used to assume was an exclusively Bronx/Italian phenomenon in Babylon LI, at a small tavern owned by a Polish Woman.

This bar - as well as the 2 businesses I work for in the Bronx/Westchester area - keep their currency ‘backwards’ in their cash drawers.

In most (American) tills, there are five compartments for coins and five for paper currency. Since I’ve been old enough to have working papers, every retail establishment - with the exception of the three I mentioned above - have had their cash drawers laid-out as follows:Left Compartment: Pennies & Dollar Bills
2nd Compartment: Nickels & Five Dollar Bills
3rd Compartment: Dimes & Ten Dollar Bills
4th Compartment: Quarters & Twenties
Right Compartment: A Melange of Half Dollar / Dollar Coins & Fifty / Hundred Dollar Bills.Don’t ask me where the $2 bills go - it’s not often I have my fingers in the kitty.

Since last night, I’ve been bothered by the fact I’ve now been in 3 places where they keep the cash in their drawers backwards; with the larger denominations on the left and the smaller denominations on the right. I guess I’m lucky; when I counted out the take last night, I balanced - So no one got four $20s change on a $6 drink.

I have one (poll) question: Have you ever worked in a place where they buck the trend and lay their tills out ‘backwards’?

It’s not like these places are managed by East Asians or Middle Easterners - That I could understand.

I’m not calling for a new federal regulation that requires all business establishments to have one standardized way of laying-out their cash drawers.

I guess there is no ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ way - But the xenophobic westerner in me keeps whispering, ‘left to right - in size order’.

Have I found the only 3 places in the entire US that follow the large to the left & small to the right cash drawer layout…or are there others?

2

Er… everywhere I’ve ever worked has had it “backwards”, large on the left. I always assumed it was because most people are right handed and you use more ones than anything. Cash drawers I have known include one major retail (Suncoast) and several libraries.

3

I haven’t worked in retail for years, but I do patronize a lot of businesses, and it seems to me that every cash drawer I have ever seen has the ones on the right and the higher bills on the left. I’ll have to start paying attention now.

4

IME, lower denominations are on the right, and higher denominations are on the left. It’s been this way in every till I’ve ever seen.

Now, it may make sense to put the currency in the tills in ascending order from left to right. That’s how we read and count, after all.

But most people are right-handed, and most change is in smaller denominations. Thus, it makes sense to have the smaller denominations on the right because they will get the most use and will be easier to reach with the right hand.

5

IOW, the Bronx/Westchester area seems to be predominantly ‘backward’; not every other place I’ve seen.

6

Everywhere I’ve ever worked has 20s and higher on the left down to dollars and pennies on the right.

7

Hmmmm, Maybe I have it backwards…and most places don’t.

I’m basing my small to the left -> large to the right till experience on:[ul]
[li]2) Gas stations (At age 15)[/li][li]3) 7-11 Convenience stores (Ages 16-18)[/li][li]1) Beer Distributor [/li][li]2) Lumber Yards[/li][li]1) Hospital TV Rental Service[/li][li]The cash drawers & Quick Draw Lottery Machine @ the Restaurant / Tap Room I have a partnership in[/ul]Like Fat Bald Guy, I too am gonna keep my eyes open and make a mental note of other places I do business with.[/li]
Maybe Zsofia’s theory on bias toward left handed people is the case.

8

I’m with JohnBckWLD on this one. Of course, my retail experience is one hardware store and a Wal-mart, but in both of them, the ones/pennies were on the left, and large bills on the right.

9

I was always told to keep the ones in the compartment closest to the customer. That way if anyone decided to grab and run, they get a handfull of ones, and not the $100 or $50s.

10

Yup, everywhere I’ve ever been is the same: Ones on right, going up in denomination to the left.

11

Probably it’s because I’m a coin collector, but I actually pay attention to this, though I’ve never worked in retail. When I first read the topic on the main menu, I thought, “Small bills and coins on the left, large on the right.” I was surprised to learn that so many other people from other parts of the country do it differently, because I’m sure that’s how the cash drawers in New York City tend to be arranged. I’m originally from western Pennsylvania, and I confess I can’t remember how it’s done out there.

It never occurred to me to wonder, but it seems that what’s “right” depends on where you’re from, for the most part. Next time I’m in western Pennsylvania or Ohio I’ll have to check. Before I read this, I would have assumed they did it small on the left and large on the right there, but now I’m not sure at all.

I did work as a dishwasher for a while. Sometimes I’d come in after someone else to start my shift, and the previous guy (they were always guys) would have had the dirty silverware arranged in a particular way. The silverware soaked in a four-part plastic tray filled with soapy water. It was never clear enough to see the silverware at a glance. Every dishwasher, it seemed, had their own system. Mine put the forks on the left, the butter knives next, then the spoons, then odds and ends on the right. When I started a shift, the first thing I’d do would be to switch the silverware. This only ran into trouble when we were really busy, and we had several guys back in the hole. That’s when worlds collided, and we all leaned toward the wise counsel of the guy who came up with the idea of just tossing dirty silverware into the garbage. You could get into trouble for that, but it sure sped things up!

I guess I got off topic, but I just had to share.

12

All the cash registers I’ve ever worked around Chicago or SF were ones on the right. Just like how we write numbers.

13

The ones I work with have the ones on the right, then the fives, tens, twenties, and an empty slot for anything else bigger or odd (like a coupon) that comes along.

14

Exactly. I’ve been a cashier for a major retailer for over 20 years, in several different locations, and each store was set up slighly different. In the ones where the customer was on our left, the money is small>large, and vice-versa when the customers are on the right.

15

When I worked retail, my large bills were on the left. Years later, when I was a change cart attendant in a casino, I arranged my till the same way.

With a cart that people walk up to willy-nilly, of course, you’ll never be in a position where your large denominations will be farthest from the guest, but arranging the bills this way just seemed to me to be natural somehow. And it worked.

Well, it worked for me, but YMMV.

16

I’ve worked in retail and restaurants and in a credit union in three different states over the last 30 years and the ones have always been on the right, with the last space on the left for the bundle of extra ones (with the large bills hidden underneath) and for the rolls of coins. $2 bills get given out to the next person as quickly as possible, and half-dollar/dollar coins get tossed in with the rolls of coins until they are also given away quickly.

17

I think I might have figured it out.
In my earlier years, when cashiers would actually count your change back to you. ahem…we would arrange our drawers smallest to largest, from LEFT to RIGHT.

We read and count from LEFT to RIGHT.

So if the amount due was let’s say, $9.46 and you had to break a twenty for example, you would start from the pennies on the LEFT and work your way up to the RIGHT.
You might say, “$9.46 out of twenty.” From the LEFT you count backwards starting with the pennies, “…47, 48, 49, 50.” Then to the nickles, “…55, 60.”
Then to the dimes, " 70, 80, 90, $10.00" [depending on the selection of coins available in your drawer. But it’s counted backwards - to the customer - as a courtesy and convenience to the customer.] You might do, 47, 48, 49, 50, then right to the [2] quarters. “and 50 makes ten.”
Then the bills, starting from LEFT to RIGHT, the ones, “…11, 12, 13, 14, 15, and five [five dollar bill] makes twenty.”
Make sense?

Fast forward to registers that do the math for you.

“$9.46 is your total, and $10.54 is your change [out of a twenty]- have a nice day!” As they pull cash from LEFT to RIGHT, starting with the largest denominations, the 10, then 2 quarters, finishing with 4 pennies. As we would normally WRITE a number or a cash amount. And PLOP, a handful of “something” gets dumped in your hand, usually cash is crumpled and not even FACED. Hence, how drawers might “seem” to be set up “backwards” to a person operating under a previous generation’s “cash handling” protocols.

Have a nice day!

18

Store cashier here. Large on the left, small on the right. I think it’s a right-handed thing, and I am glad of it, having a disabled left hand.

19

Large on the left. Bills and coins.

This matches the order of Hindu-Arabic numbers and that helps quite a bit in learning and using the system.

Also, you do NOT give the customers the big stuff first. You start with pennies and count out loud up to the amount the customer just handed you. In addition to being clearer and less prone to error, you don’t have the idiocy of the clerk trying to put coins on top of bills.

20

$1234

That’s One thousand. two hundreds, three 10’s and 4 ones.