Tip varies according to how many bags there are and who takes them out to the car.
Wait, the commissaries are, I assume, military equivalents to supermarkets, and you’re tipping the baggers at the register? Does that suggest I should have been tipping the baggers at Safeway all this time? Do people tip supermarket baggers?
Commissary baggers work for tips. Apparently it pays well – some of those baggers have been there over ten years.
Other than waiters, these are the only people I tip.
Tipping is a whole other discussion.
Here in England, we have gone almost cash-free. I have a £5 note that was a tenner until I needed change to put air in the car tyres and I drew that before Christmas.
Over here there is a crucial difference between debit and credit cards (apart from the delayed payment). If I buy something with a debit card, that is pretty much the same as paying cash. If something subsequently goes wrong, and this is even more applicable to online purchases, it can be hard to get the money back. With credit cards, I am in a much stronger position and the CC company will refund all my money if I show that the seller was at fault.
Holidays are a Good example and so long as I pay at least £100 of the advance charge on a CC I can recover the whole amount if it goes tits up.
For tips I carry new US $2 bills. They’re unique and kind of fun to give out. They are easy to get at a bank.
It’s all about the Jeffersons, baby…
My kids loved to get their allowance in twos. I asked my kindergartner, why, and he piped up with “Because I like to confuse store clerk people who are under twenty.”
Me: “Wait, how do you know how old clerks are? Are you that observant?”
Kid: [shrug]
I’ve been tipping a lot in cash these days, even if I’m paying by card. And handing out bills to a lot more homeless folk than in normal times.
I’ve got the same bills in my wallet that I had at the start of this thread. Pre-covid I went through $300-$400 per month in cash. Starting to wonder just what the heck I spent it on.
I spent mine on wonderful things, like tall frosty pints of Farmhouse Ales in the local pub, watching basketball with rabid fans on Prime Rib Night.
And flapjacks with eggs and bacon at the local greasy spoon, with tables full of retired guys and bottomless 10W40 coffee.
So that’s the downside to having lots of extra cash these days…
I was probably about the same. I no longer attend my weekly & monthly poker games (& leaving a couple bucks at the liquor store on the way), contribute to group lunches at work, have a drink at bars, eat at restaurants. My haircut frequency is way, way down and I’m really overdue at the moment.
A local burger restaurant has a gimmick of putting $2 bills (and 50-cent coins) in your change whenever they can, and I have indeed confused some young cashiers at other stores when handing them those $2 bills. One cashier was extremely suspicious; he didn’t come right out and accuse me of counterfeiting, but his doubt was plain to see and he reeeeally wanted to know where the bill came from and why I had it.
Plastic for most things but cash at bars and restaurants. In bars, I pay as I go and simply leave when I’m ready. I HATE waiting for the wait staff to pick up the bill and card and waiting some more for them to return.
Just for fun I looked up the phrase “Cash is king,” and apparently it has nothing to do with actually carrying cash. It’s about having liquidity or having cash to invest or use on short notice. i.e. You can have a company with a favorable balance sheet but you could still be short on cash to make the purchases you need. It’s great if everything looks profitable on paper but if you don’t have the funds to make necessary purchases you’re in a bind.
My debit card is essentially the same as cash in that there’s really no difference between the two when it comes to making a purchase.
The biggest difference is that, unlike your debit card, cash can’t be compromised.
Of course it can be. And when it is, the consequences are more severe (100% loss) and longer-lasting (permanent).
shrug
Speaking of carrying less cash and relying more on cards, I recently downsized my wallet. It’s a small bi-fold, barely big enough to hold US bills, and a few slots for a few cards. It’s almost feminine in its ‘cute little-ness’, if I can describe it that way. And no, not being denigrating to the fairer gender.
Umm…yes, you are.
As a guy full of “cute little-ness”, what the hell?
But I too gave up the big wallet, and now only carry a slim card holder with one credit card, debit card, insurance card, an emergency blank check and a $20 bill.
And I carry $50-100 cash, folded in my front pocket. Haven’t lost it yet.
eta: What got me to downsize was a friend with a thick Costanza wallet. He could NOT sit on it, so would put it on the bar. So, the guys at the bar all dissected it one night, and it was 3" thick, full of receipts and cards he really didn’t need… “unless I go visit my parents in Seattle next Christmas, then I’ll want my QFC coffee punch card!”
Oh, same friend called me once, because he was trapped in an underground parking garage that only took cash.
Not…
When I was in my 20s I liked the trifold wallets. Large space for bills, especially IIRC Italian lire, which came in different sized bills. Some were pretty large.
Then in my 40s I liked the ‘hip hugger’ bifolds. Smaller. And yet the downsizing continues…
Now I’m using the tiny bifold that is downright dainty and I really like it. I searched a bit and it is called a front pocket wallet, like this one –