Last week I went to the supermarket, and paid for my stuff with a twenty. I got change for a ten back, so I told the woman I’d given her a twenty. I did, right? I thought, ‘Damn, I have to break a twenty.’ But on the way home I started second-guessing myself. What if I did give the cashier a ten, thinking it was a twenty? When I got home, I called the market and told the manager what happened, and asked that he call me if their till came up ten dollars short. He said he would, and he never called back.
So I’m at the store yesterday, and asked to speak to him. We met by the meat counter. I reminded him who I was, and he said they were indeed a sawbuck short. I reached for my wallet, and he told me not to worry about it. But it wasn’t my money, so I pulled out a $10 bill (the same one I’d received last week) and gave it to him, telling him it was entirely my fault.
The kid at the meat counter was impressed that I was honest enough to come in, seek out the manager, and pay back the money I mistakenly took. Now, I shouldn’t accept a reward for making a mistake and then making it right, but the kid offered me bacon. So I got about half a pound or so, gratis.
Anyway, this incident will teach me to use my credit card like a normal person, instead of paying with cash.
that happens to me occasionaly at fast food places … most of the time if they don’t notice they game me too many burgers or whatnot and I go back up to give the extra back … they say don’t bother …
Although one tme there was some spite involved …
in the late 90s we had this huge fast food war here in the av… I mean owners were dropping the prices down to 99c on 2 and 3 dollar burgers
Well mc donalds came up with 29c cheese burgers and 19c hamburgers on sundays but they had a limit of 20 each I was feeding a crew so I got 20 of each… poor girl just out of junior high at her first job was overwhelmed and assistant manager was being a dick yelling at her …well she gave me 4 bags (100 burgers) and I walked over to the other guy who came in to help her and he said " keep em the sob has to pay for them at the end of the day "
couple of weeks he was the new asst manager because sob had state labor complaints filed against him …
This just demonstrates that the art of cashiering has gone to shit.
A properly trained cashier will NEVER put the money into the cash drawer until AFTER the change has been counted out and handed to, and accepted by, the customer. Cashiers are supposed to put the tendered money on top of the drawer, or some other convenient place, until the customer has received change.
Pay attention when you go shopping, whenever you pay cash (or observe anyone else paying cash). How many cashier do this?
But on a serious note. I’ve been running a register (luckily a lot less now than a I used to) and training people for 25 years. While it’s a good practice to do that and the idea is sound. In reality, it becomes so automatic it almost doesn’t matter. Putting the money the customer gave you in one spot is helpful if your mistake is caught while you’re still counting the change or as you hand it to the customer. But as soon as you turn back to the register, put the bill in the slot and close the drawer, it doesn’t matter, and once you’ve been working a register for more than a few weeks you get to be able to do all of that fairly quickly (and you also want to be keeping the drawer open as little as possible).
I can’t imagine why you think one (very common) mistake made by one cashier, which actually turned out to be the customers fault, somehow means the art of cashiering has gone to shit.
This is to remind you that one of our few bright line rules is that quotes from posters in a quote box should not be changed. Obviously your intent was not malicious so this is a note to remind you rather than a warning.
Because I’m old enough to remember when cashiers ALWAYS did this, or nearly so, and in more recent years I hardly ever see it done that way. I think the turning point was when cash registers began computing the change that should be given, so that skill went by the wayside.
Yesterday I left a bag of produce at the grocery store. Everything was by weight (tomatoes carrots and bananas) and because I had paid by debit card I dreaded the whole process of credit and re-buying. So I tried really hard to get the same quantity and size of items.
When they reconciled it at the cash, I ended up being 3 cents under. Because of the “no penny rounding” I got a nickle back. (But not Nickleback, because that would be unfortunate.)
There’s a Wendy’s I go to occasionally where one day, after exiting the drive-thru, I did not see the chicken nuggets I’d ordered. They’d already messed something else up on the order, so I was frustrated. I parked, went in, and complained about the missing nuggets. They promptly fixed the order, and I continued home…
…at which point, I discovered that the original nuggets were, in fact, buried at the bottom of the bag. Yes, under a pile of napkins and other food, but I still should have seen them. I called to apologize to the manager and offered to come back and pay for the extra order, but he kindly refused. The next time I saw him in person, I made the same offer, and was again refused.
I have found a lot of great ideas on Pinterest, but that is certainly in the top ten; our BLTs are changed forever! I buy bacon in bulk and lattice about half of it for sandwiches before freezing
We actually prefer BLOATs (bacon, lettuce, onion, avocado, tomato), but I need a new name for them