I have kept receipts, of course. But 9 times out of 10 I just throw them away. (I don’t buy and return a lot of clothes like my wife.)
I’m perfectly fine with having the bills next to the receipt; if the receipt is on the top or the bottom, it’s easy enough to throw away. But I don’t need it sandwiched in between some stuff.
Maybe you just have dextrous cashiers where you live. But where I am, the (klutzy) cashier tries to hand this carefully balanced stack to you and about half the time some coins fall off.
I don’t understand how people can get so worked up over something as stupid as how you’re handed your change. :rolleyes: Grab your bills between thumb and finger, make a cup out of your hand, and tilt your hand so the change slides off and into your cupped palm.
Well, I agree, Apocalypso, it’s a minor thing, but when you’re trying to handle stuff in bags and pocketbooks and possibly coffee, you’ve usually got only one hand to deal with stuff like change. And at my local gas/convenience stores the counters are tiny and crowded with crap so there’s no room. And the clerks are probably trained to shove your stuff at you and hurry you out of there. Hence my little trick described above to make them slow the heck down. Prior, the coins always slid off the bills and went everywhere, delaying everyone. Plus, I get a charge out of my little power play, heh heh.
From people’s descriptions here, it seems like we live in a world where change is being spilled left and right. I would expect to walk into the supermarket and find customers on their hands and knees chasing rolling coins. But I don’t see that.
Myself, I prefer getting bills before coins. At a glance I can see exactly what I got back.
When I’ve shopped at Orthodox-owned stores here in the U.S., they always put the change on the counter, presumably because of the guidelines regarding male-female contact. While most Israelis aren’t “religious,” I’d guess that clerks would generally put it on the counter in case the customer is orthodox. And once a practice like that becomes customary, people don’t even think about why they started doing it in the first place.
That works nicely if you have large, dextrous hands. If your hands are small and/or arthritic, no such luck.
Not to mention the whole “don’t just dump money at me” issue. Even when the machine tells you exactly what to give me, prove to me that it’s what you’re giving me. That means counting it out in some fashion, not just throwing it in my hand.
1.) They do it because the display lists dollars and then cents, so that’s how they pull it out of the till.
2.) However, that’s *no damned reason *not to hand the customer the coins first, then the bills.
Not true of any woman I know, myself included.
Most* people who’d be smart enough to figure out why you’re giving them more money than the item costs in multiple denominations aren’t working as cashiers. Anytime they get confused, just tell them to punch it in anyway and see what happens. Or just say, “I’m trying to get larger bills/coins back.”
*Yes, there *are *smart people on cash registers. I was one of them, in high school and college; some of my friends still work jobs that sometimes require them to work a register. However, I also know my former coworkers. Some of them were very nice, but there’s a reason they were in a job that doesn’t require a lot of mental agility.
Special? I didn’t say it was special. It’s a fucking pain in the ass, is what it is. I have to pour the coins into my other hand, extricate the receipt without spilling everything, then get the bills folded and into my wallet. They should put the coins in my palm, bills on top, and the receipt in the bag.
When I have to run the register at work, I grab the dollars, then the change, then shut the drawer. Then hand the person the change, then the dollars. One of the reasons for doing this is that it’s harder for a quick changer to do their work after the drawer is closed, also, if I hand the person the wrong amount it’s easier for me to get everything figured out with the drawer closed…less chance of making the mistake worse rather then better this way.
Don’t you pay that way?
If there’s an item costing 17.27, you will never start wth the pennies. You’ll get out the 10, then the 5, the 2 singles, the quarter and then the pennies.
I cannot think why the hatred for the guys.
If I’m getting out coins to pay then I want to be as close to the amount as possible so I will get few or no coins back. My preference is for higher denomination coins over lower denominations.
If I owe 27 cents and there’s a quarter sitting on top of the stack of change I pull out of my pocket, I’ll notice the quarter but I’ll look and see if I have two dimes and seven pennies first.
No, I’m not going to count out 27 pennies while everyone is waiting but I always try to get rid of my smaller coins first. You may never start with the pennies, I (almost) always do.
If you’re giving me change, put the coins in my palm. I can close three fingers over them leaving my thumb and forefinger to hold the bills. That way I can control the coins and bills independently with one hand. (Usually my wallet is in the other hand)
Yes, they do that in Thailand. It’s usually done in at least a little better-quality place, not necessarily fancy (although there, too), but possibly an air-con place that charges a bit more than your regular street stall. It’s usually customary to leave any coins behind and take only the bills, the perception being that you’re money-grubbing if you have to pick up every single coin. The non-air-con street stall places will just hand you your change and no tip expected.
They also have a certain way of accepting money and handing it back, usually if they’re of Chinese heritage rather than straight Thai (most shopkeepers seem to be of Chinese ethnicity). They’ll hold the elbow with one hand and give a little snap to the wrist.
This is true. After 10 years of my being fairly on the ball, I was let go after being scammed by a customer. They had her on tape doing the slight of hand, but I was still let go. For the required three months. Then they hired me back and all was forgiven. For a year…
…'til that fucking murderer shithead drove a truck through the store and then thankfully blew his head into red mist before he hurt anyone else I cared about.
Yeah, I don’t work there anymore. Neither does the store’s GM at that time.
Enough about that.
Hey, if you get some extra free change, know that your extra coke machine cash means someone may have been fired, and can’t pay their rent or feed their kids, and merry christmas, dickhead.
I always pay change first. I couldn’t respect myself in the morning if I handed someone a wad of bills and then tried to throw some coins on top (or the aforementioned sandwiched receipt). Both as a customer, and as a cashier.
Sometimes I try to finagle hand gestures which force the cashier to give change back the proper way, but sometimes I just grin and bear it, and in certain situations, like drive throughs, it’s impossible to contort both arms up and to the side towards the window (occasionally I try to snatch my hand away with the bills before they can throw down the change, but that’s kind of awkward too).
I don’t think there’s a reason for it other than
Cashiers don’t think about the relative benefits to you the customer of the method by which they hand you things, even if they themselves might prefer it a certain way when they are the customer.
They themselves don’t care how they are handed change.
There’s one particular lady at my local Wendy’s who I have nicknamed the “bad change giver” due to the way she hands me my change.
Probably the best method is to give coins in one hand and bills in the other. This lets you quickly and efficiently place the bills in your wallet and the coins in your pocket.
Secondary to that is coins first, then bills in the same hand. This at least lets you hold onto the change while you take the bills off with the other hand.
Bills with coins on top in one fell swoop is just awful. Then you have to complete a delicate balancing act to prevent the coins from sliding off the bills while you attempt to transfer them to the other hand, it’s hard to pick them all up at the same time, and hard to manage the wallet simultaneously.
Change on the counter is awkward too - you either have to methodically pick the coins up one at a time, or slide your hand along the counter, pushing them off the edge.
Don’t get me started on people who don’t have their wallets out before the time of purchase, especially those with wallets buried deep in labyrinthine purses, or on places that don’t have prominently displayed prices.
I just want them to chill. When I am up there, I have my wallet in my hand and my change purse open and ready. If they would hand me the money and wait one second while I stuff it into my wallet, I take the coins right away and slide them into my change purse. I promise I won’t take any time! And I have no problem saying “receipt in the bag, please”.
But they are always in such a hurry - even when there is not a line.
No one ever trained us in how to give people their change. I put the coins on top to weight down the notes. Also, I like piles that go from largest to smallest and receipt > notes > coins does that (if I had the time to fiddle with stuff, I’d stack the coins from largest to smallest).
I agree that people can’t do sums in their heads anymore for figuring out stuff like change. One part of my job requires working out 20% of a value and some of my coworkers treat me like I’m blessed with mystical powers for being able to do it without a calculator.
Yesterday another of my coworkers was upset at being told to “use your brain” by a customer with no clue that she’d been the idiot and the customer was justified. The transaction came to, say, $10.50 and the customer paid with a $20 note. Coworker keys in the amount of cash given (not the denominations, just that it was $20 total), the register spits out the receipt and the cash drawer pops open. Customer then says “Oh, I have the 50 cents”, clearly wanting a $10 note as change instead of $9.50 in mostly coins, and my coworker refused to take it because it would “throw the register out”. That’s when the customer told her to use her brain but she point-blank refused the 50 cents and made the lady take her change as small change. Next shift I’m going to ask one of the managers to take her aside and explain that a register that doesn’t ask what denominations you’ve been paid with can’t possibly track what the current count is of all coins and notes in the drawer, just the total.
Well, cashiers always have both hands free, customers almost always have something in one of their hands (the bag with whatever they just bought). So, not really the same thing.
If I have both my hands free, they can give the change however they want and it won’t make any difference. But when I’m holding three bags of groceries and a cup of coffee - I’d prefer it come coins, then bills, and no receipt unless I ask for one.
But the world isn’t perfect - if it comes in another manner, I just jam it all in my pocket and deal with it later. If the coins fall on the floor, then it’s free money for someone with the time and energy to scoop 'em up.
The only reason that it’s annoying is, as the OP indicated, it seems like it used to be the case that the stuff came in the order that I preferred, and now it doesn’t. Stupid downgrades :mad:
