# Cashiers! Put the damn receipt in the bag, and don't bother me with it! **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [May 6, 2001, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cashiers-put-the-damn-receipt-in-the-bag-and-dont-bother-me-with-it/64549 "2001-05-06T17:33:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![grayhairedmomma](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/47e85d/32.png) [@grayhairedmomma](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/grayhairedmomma)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2001, 3:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cashiers-put-the-damn-receipt-in-the-bag-and-dont-bother-me-with-it/64549/41 "2001-05-11T15:30:44Z")
[Quote] _Orignally posted by Brad\_D_ I, personally, have little use for the cashier counting back my change in the time-honored fashion, and am quite happy that I very rarely encounter it. When I worked in a movie theatre, this method of giving people their change was never taught, and it was only a few years ago that I realized that some feel it’s the appropriate technique. > [@](#): > > _Posted by Hazel_ > I’m not sure I get what you’re saying about counting change. I’m only aware of two methods. Either the cash register tells the cashier what the change is, or (s)he counts from the amount of the sale to the amount tendered. If the new registers that show what the change is had not come along, all cashiers would still be counting, wouldn’t they? When I worked in fastfood and retail as a cashier I was never taught the “count back” method of making change. Nor did I always have a register or a calculator to tell me how much change to make. I always (even when I did have a register) subtracted the sale total from the amount tendered. I very rarely made mistakes and it confuses the hell out of me when I buy something and the cashier counts the change back. For me it is simpler if the cashier says the total of my change and I can do a quick calc in my head to see if its even close to being right. It’s also quicker than counting back. ---
**Author:** ![Pariah](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/41988e/32.png) [@Pariah](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pariah)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2001, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cashiers-put-the-damn-receipt-in-the-bag-and-dont-bother-me-with-it/64549/42 "2001-05-11T17:58:07Z")
_Disclaimer: This has nothing to do with the clerks themselves._ The clerk placed the receipt in my hand, circled a number at the bottom of the receipt and proudly proclaimed: “And here’s the money you saved today!” He smiled at the great favor he’d done for me. … Hmm. Ok. Rationally, I grasp the concept: ‘The indicated figure reflects the amount of money deducted from your total expenditure due to lowered prices on particular items as the result of our in-store efforts to increase stock turnover or to provide an incentive to draw you, the customer, to our store more often. I have circled the sum total of the discounts provided that you might juxtapose the figure against the grand total of the bill and recognize the deduction as beneficial to your fiscal endeavours. This amount will not be drawn from your bank account, that you might use it for other transactions in the future.’ Sure. But I just _spent_ $147.56 I did not “save money.” _I spent it._ I walked through your doors and my bank account will now reflect a debit amounting to the sum I tendered to this establishment in exchange for goods procured. (And I spent a good deal; but, miraculously, it all fits into one cart. Five bags, which becomes three and a half in actual volume—some settling occurs during transit.) It’s a simple matter, nothing more than a pet peeve. It’s really a matter of wording—I didn’t “save money.” _You_ simply didn’t charge me as much for those items—as a result, I spent more on other items. My choice, I understand. However, you charged me quite sufficiently for those other items. Items which the store across town charges 1/3 less for. But it’s not as convenient to go there. So I willingly subject myself to paying a little more. _I’m not upset about your pricing._ You have a lot of employees, high overhead, and the red tape you need to deal with just to operate in California must be staggering. Couple that with the ski-stopover way-station that is my town, the bedroom community for all those HP and Intel workers, and the prices escalate even higher. Sure, I understand. But I might just carry a fluorescent highlighter so when the clerk, who’s but the messenger and I appreciate his/her efforts, circles the figure at the bottom, I highlight the Grand Total and reply “And here,” (circle!) “Is what I _spent_.” And I’ll say it with the smile of doing him a great favor. ---
**Author:** ![brad\_d](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/50afbb/32.png) [@brad\_d](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brad_d)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2001, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cashiers-put-the-damn-receipt-in-the-bag-and-dont-bother-me-with-it/64549/43 "2001-05-11T22:07:10Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Hazel \* > \*\*Brad D, you said, “I also have no preference between change or bills on top. Personally, I notice no difference in the stability of the stack or in the difficulty of subsequent stowage.” I think the point is that it’s ackward to be handed both at once, whichever way the clerk does it; what many of us want regarding bills and coins is to be handed first one, then the other. \*\* Ah, gotcha. Both at once _is_ a pain. Thanks. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Turbo\_Dog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ce73a5/32.png) [@Turbo\_Dog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Turbo_Dog)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2001, 11:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cashiers-put-the-damn-receipt-in-the-bag-and-dont-bother-me-with-it/64549/44 "2001-05-11T23:04:30Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Hazel \* > \*\*What kind of help would be provided if the customer said “yes”? A store employee would carry the purchases out of the store for the customer? But presumably, neither the cashier nor the bagger (if there is a separate bagger) can leave their post. Who provides this help? > > It sounds like something that would be practical only if vertually all customers had cars parked right outside the store, to which an employee could take the purchases. Maybe it’s a service offered only by stores in regions where this is likely to be the case. Which means, not in urban areas. > \*\* The cashier will have a bagger take your bags out to your vehicle, and then place them in the trunk/seat/wherever. In the meantime, the cashier will get another bagger or bag groceries themselves. In every grocery store I go to, I’m asked if I would like “help out to my car” 9 times out of 10. As far as urban areas, I live in St. Louis. It was also this way in San Diego and many stores in LA before moving here. ---
**Author:** ![Hazel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e56c9b/32.png) [@Hazel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hazel)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2001, 2:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cashiers-put-the-damn-receipt-in-the-bag-and-dont-bother-me-with-it/64549/45 "2001-05-12T14:14:49Z")
Ok, Turbo, got it. I sure never encountered this in Manhatten. Grocery stores don’t have parking lots. People are walking to their apartments. I don’t encounter it in the suburbs, either, although many of the stores do have parking lots. ---
**Author:** ![squib](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ebca7d/32.png) [@squib](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/squib)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2001, 12:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cashiers-put-the-damn-receipt-in-the-bag-and-dont-bother-me-with-it/64549/46 "2001-05-13T00:04:08Z")
Handing you the receipt: This is better than in the bag. In the old days, I paid with cash or a check, and I didn’t care about the receipt. Now, I pay with a debit card, and I need the receipt, or at least the bottom portion of the receipt, which brings me to the next point. Circling my “savings” on the receipt: Knock it off! I use the receipt later to enter the amount I spent into my check register. It’s hard enough searching through all the dense-pack, dot-matrix, pale lavender, weak-ass ink cartridge printout for the date and amount without the clerk circling the single most useless piece of information on there short of “Thank you for shopping . . .” in red ink. Also on the date and amount: Cut to the chase. Put the date and amount next to each other on the receipt please. I want to tear off the bottom two inches of the receipt, stick it in my wallet and toss the other six to twelve inches of receipt in the bag where I won’t have to deal with it ever again. On management requiring the receipt: I always wondered about that practice. And then somebody explained the rationale. It prevents the cashier from pocketing the cash without registering the transaction. This is the only reason that makes sense to me why they would go so far as to give the customer a price-break incentive to make a big deal about not getting a receipt so I tend to believe it. ---
**Author:** ![Rilchiam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/2bfe46/32.png) [@Rilchiam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rilchiam)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2001, 8:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cashiers-put-the-damn-receipt-in-the-bag-and-dont-bother-me-with-it/64549/47 "2001-05-13T08:21:58Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Pariah \* > \*\*_Disclaimer: This has nothing to do with the clerks themselves._ > > The clerk placed the receipt in my hand, circled a number at the bottom of the receipt and proudly proclaimed: > > “And here’s the money you saved today!”…Rationally, I grasp the concept:… > > [complex socioeconomic analysis] > > …I highlight the Grand Total and reply “And here,” (circle!) “Is what I _spent_.”\*\* I’m thinking of that scene from **Cable Guy** : “They didn’t have utensils in medieval times but they had Pepsi?” “Dude, I got a lotta tables.” ---
**Author:** ![bernse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a9a28c/32.png) [@bernse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bernse)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2001, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cashiers-put-the-damn-receipt-in-the-bag-and-dont-bother-me-with-it/64549/48 "2001-05-13T17:13:08Z")
This drives me up the fucking wall. What burns my ass is when they hand the reciept _with_ the paper change (bills). The almost forces me to put the damn thing in my wallet. My damn wallet has more reciepts in it than money for christs sakes! This may work well for a woman, whom generally have a purse and/or a larger wallet. I usually ask them to put it in the bag but sometimes they beat me to it and mix it up with the change already. Damn! I am getting pissed off now just typing this! ---
**Author:** ![Juniper200](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/df788c/32.png) [@Juniper200](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Juniper200)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2001, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cashiers-put-the-damn-receipt-in-the-bag-and-dont-bother-me-with-it/64549/49 "2001-05-13T19:02:52Z")
Well, _this_ woman carries a trifold wallet in her hip pocket, and she’s about ready to start smacking clerks who hand the receipt back with the bills. Listen clerks. My wallet is not a receipt storage center. Handing me the receipt with the bills means that I have to put them away seperately, taking care not to spill cash and coins all over the place. You are only holding up your own line by doing this, so next time, listen to me when I tell you to put the receipt in the bag!! Thank you for your attention to this matter. ---
**Author:** ![sweetchariot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/74df32/32.png) [@sweetchariot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sweetchariot)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2012, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cashiers-put-the-damn-receipt-in-the-bag-and-dont-bother-me-with-it/64549/50 "2012-07-26T21:58:42Z")
> [@Hazel](#): > > Okay, here’s how it used to work. The cashier rang up your purchases, then hit “total”. The register spit out a receipt, which was put in the bag with your purchases. Which is where it belongs! You paid, and got you change. > > But then someone came up with a new development in cash registers. Now, when you pay, the cashier enters the amount you gave him/her, and the register shows what the change should be, then the recipt pops out and is, invarably, handed to you along with your change. > > It seems to me that the handing-the-customer-the-receipt thing started happening because with the tell-the-cashier-what-change-to-give registers, the receipt pops out too late in the transaction, after the bag is already filled and handed to the customer. > > I don’t like this. I want the cashier to put the receipt in the bag where it belongs, and not bother me with it. > > And when it comes to purchases which are not being put in bags, such as buying one candy bar, one ice cream bar, one newspaper, one magazine, or the like – I don’t want to be given a receipt at all. It used to be standard practice not to issue receipts for purchases like this, but lately, if I buy a magazine or candy bar at a newstand, I’m handed a receipt. What am I supposed to do with it, Mr. or Ms. Cashier? Huh? When the single item I’ve purchased is not going into a bag? Actually, I realize that the cashiers are just following policies set by someone higher up; I wish the policy setters would re-think this. Who would want a receipt for the purchase of one ice cream sandwich, or one newspaper? Or even an ice cream sandwich, a newspaper, and a magazine? > > I think that these registers that tell cashiers how much change to dispense were a really bad idea. They’re a classic example of “fixing” a problem that didn’t exist. What cashier needs to be told what change to dispense? Making change is extreamly easy. It does not involve “doing arithmetic in your head” – all you need is to know how to do is count. Just count. All the cashier has to do to make change is count from the amount of the sale to the amount of the bill tendered. Anyone can do this; anyone can learn it in minutes. Boy…I am totally thinking opposite of you…for every purchase I make with a debit card, I want a receipt…I don’t care if it’s a 1.00 or 100.00, I want a receipt, and I am tired of the cashiers now asking if I want one. I gave you money, now I want a receipt for my transaction. Stop asking me, and act like a Customer Service aide is supposed to do…take care of the customer! And sticking it in the bag…NO WAY!!! Receipts stuck in bags can get thrown out by accident with the bag. I want it handed to me with my change so I can stick the receipt in my check book, to be logged at a later date with my other debit card transactions! ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2012, 10:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cashiers-put-the-damn-receipt-in-the-bag-and-dont-bother-me-with-it/64549/51 "2012-07-26T22:12:28Z")
Who wants a yellowed, faded, falling-apart old receipt anyway? ---
**Author:** ![xenophon41](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xenophon41/32/253_2.png) [@xenophon41](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xenophon41)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2012, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cashiers-put-the-damn-receipt-in-the-bag-and-dont-bother-me-with-it/64549/52 "2012-07-26T22:14:27Z")
_Thank you!_ I’ve been waiting what seems like more than a decade for someone to say what I was thinking, **sweetchariot** , and now I’m so gratefu— wait, I just read post # 2 in this thread. Never mind. ---
**Author:** ![Chimera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Chimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimera)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2012, 12:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cashiers-put-the-damn-receipt-in-the-bag-and-dont-bother-me-with-it/64549/53 "2012-07-27T00:09:12Z")
Having been falsely accused of driving off without paying for gas - when I worked a job where that would mean me getting fired and blackballed from the industry - I absolutely insist on getting and being handed a receipt every time I buy gas. Well, these days I mostly pay at the pump, but I still get and keep the receipt. At the grocery store or other places, I do like that they ask me, but I do tell them to put it in the bag, or I hold open the bag for them and tell them to put it inside. I just get annoyed when I get bills for change and they hand it to me mixed in with the bills. No, sorry, bills go in my pocket. Receipt goes in the bag. Oh, and I never bother to balance my checkbook anymore, so I don’t need to log anything. I can check the balance on-line any time if I need to know what it is. ---
**Author:** ![FoieGrasIsEvil](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foiegrasisevil/32/16638_2.png) [@FoieGrasIsEvil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FoieGrasIsEvil)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2012, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cashiers-put-the-damn-receipt-in-the-bag-and-dont-bother-me-with-it/64549/54 "2012-07-27T00:14:41Z")
Is it okay to handle a zombie receipt? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cashiers-put-the-damn-receipt-in-the-bag-and-dont-bother-me-with-it/64549.md?page=2)