Sorry, DragonAsh, but the numbers are against you. Let’s use Left Hand’s numbers and assume the average customer is buying three dollars worth of stamps and wants two dollars worth of change. He wasn’t worried about a future lack of change; he was worried about a future lack of sales that would result if he didn’t have change. By denying you, he lost seven dollars worth of sales. But if he had given you the thirteen dollars worth of change, he would have to deny sales to over six future customers and lost eightteen dollars worth of sales. The only question is whether or not he was going to have six future customers and I presume he had a pretty good idea how many customers he gets in a day.
Feh. I don’t think an additional $100 is going to light up any neon signs over this guy. Besides, he’s in an official vehicle, isn’t he? Are there no armored cars, cabbies, couriers, or folks walking around with a few hundred cash in their pockets? $100 is no big deal.
Well I guess I am failing to grasp a simple concept… How is turning away a customer that you have now better than turning away a customer later? Either way you have pissed off a customer. In other words, I question the value of his solution - why not try to find a way to avoid any pissed off customers?
Again, it’s not one customer now for one later. It’s one or two now so that you don’t have to turn away many later. The goal of managing your change is to maximize your ability to serve.
ARGGGGG! I didn’t expect to meet SFMs here on the SD boards.
Let’s suppose that the guy only has $100 on hand to make change. I personally think that’s too low; he probably starts off with more, but anyway. Let’s then suppose that I am his first customer of the day, and pay for a $7.50 purchase with a $20.50, cause that’s all I have on hand. He gives me $12, leaving him with $88 in change.
What are the odds that the very next 7 customers he gets all have nothing but $20s, all have no credit/debit cards, and all want more than $10 in change? How often do you have nothing in your wallet but twenty-dollar bills? Pretty friggen’ rare - about the only time it happens is when you’ve completely run out of money and stopped at an ATM.
I’ve worked in retail. Sure, once in a very blue moon you may run low if you do get a run of nothing but big bills. Shit happens. Fifteen minutes later after asking people if they can make change etc. you’re fine. An hour after that you’re probably dropping $100 bundles of one-dollar bills into the safe because your register is full of singles.
The once-every-six-months occurance didn’t traumatize me and turn me into a fucking change whore, turning away business and hoarding change like a junkie holding on to his last fix.
If he only gives you $12 change, I wouldn’t go back there.
Wait a minute! This is a Post Office? So what was the problem?
He serves customers until he runs out of money. Then he hangs up the sign that says “Please Use Next Window”. Even if there are no other windows, there are still rules and regulations to be followed.
When I was in management I always worked closely with my cashiers. For example:
- Always make sure they have a sufficient starting bank. Nothing pisses of a cashier more than having to hassle with customers over petty shit.
- Be available for their calls for more change. I didn’t want a wad of twenties in their register anymore then they did. Make more pick-ups when it’s busy, giving small bills and change in exchange.
- Keep plenty of small bills and change in the safe. NOTHING is worse for a manager than running out of change say, on a Saturday of a three-day weekend.
The cashiers are your first and sometime the only contact with your customers. Keep them happy and well paid.
You make the world you live in!
Sure: if he had $100, then he acted foolishly. Did he have $100 to make change?
If he did not–if he had, say, $20 in ones, because his manager’s an idiot, or because this was a last-minute service they were providing and they’d divvied up all the post office’s change between dozens of people providing this unexpected service–then he acted correctly (although dickishly: he shoulda given you an explanation).
Daniel
Maybe he did start off with more. Maybe the customers who came before you wanted a lot of change and he used up his supply. And maybe he was thinking about the customers that would come after you and whether he would have change for all of them if he gave too much to you.
It seems to me you’re mad at the guy because he failed to recognize you were a special customer and you were more important than all the other customers he had that day.
One point that hasn’t been touched on yet - I don’t know about the ATMs where you all are, but here they only give out twenties. If you’re in the cash business in any way and you sell stuff for under $20, you have to assume that a whole bunch of your customers will be paying with twenties. In other words, I agree with the OP - this guy was clueless.
As for saving change for later - unh unh. You give out change as needed, then you go to the bank and get more if you have to. It’s surprising how seldom that happens, actually, if you have a proper float to start with.
Was this mobile office thing something special they did for this occasion or a regular service in NYC? On rereading the OP, I’m thinking it’s a regular service. In that case, then yeah: they should definitely be prepared to deal with people paying with a $20. However, it still seems likely to me that it was this guy’s boss’s fault. (If he had plenty of change, then yeah, he was an idiot).
Daniel
OK, so I mis-typed - my example should have been $13 in change. Moving along.
This mobile P.O. truck has been at the same spot, for the same time frame, every day Monday through Friday (hell maybe on Saturdays too for all I know) for the entire three years I’ve been at this company, and as far as I can remember it’s always been the same guy. I’m pretty sure he has a pretty good handle of what his cash flow is going to be like during the day. And as I said, he had just opened up. I saw him open up, got coffee at the deli near by and went over to the truck. I didn’t notice anyone there in the interim, so I was one of his first - if not the first - customers of the day.
As the customer currently right in front of him, and with available cash for change in his drawer, I’m damn fucking right more important than any future theoretical customer he might really not have change for.
Who’s he saving the change for? The last customer of the day who wants $13 in change? Why should that customer get it six hours later instead of me, standing in front of him right now? If he really did run out of change, he certainly could run to any of the delis and stores near by and make change, if necessary - lord knows he has enough time on his 90-minute lunch breaks.
And yeah, ATMs in New York only give out cash in multiples of $20. Only having twenties might be pretty rare, but paying with a $20 definitely isn’t.
I notice that taxi drivers here in NY always seem to have enough bills on hand to make change, and I almost always pay with a twenty, since the meter’s usually around $12-13 for my normal route. I would think they would feel a bit more unsafe with cash compared to some guy locked inside a truck with only a small teller window (probably bullet-proof).
Look, I’ve worked in retail, and have nothing but sympathy for people who do and have to deal with Joe-Blow Jerk all day. I’m definitely never the guy going ballistic at the airline counter, for example. But when people act like stupidfuckingmorons, then are rude to boot - in other words, like this guy - then, I let them know the error of their ways.
Reminds me of a MAS*H episode where Hawkeye and Trapper are trying to track down an incubater. They *finally *find some supply sergeant who has not one, but three.
“Oh great, we’ll take one! We’re doctors and we desperately need this.”
Nope. Can’t let you have it.
“Why not??! You’ve got three!”
Because if I gave you one, I’d only have two.
“What’s wrong with two???”
Two, is not as good, as three.
He certainlly should have made change for you. I mean, you’re his customer and you’re standing right there. By not serving you, he is *creating * a problem. 100% chance. I agree that he *may * run into a problem later (less than 100% chance), but it’s better for him to deal with that once he is forced to. Who knows? It might not even come to that.
I had the same thought when I first read the OP.
I agree that if you work retail in the US you absolutely must anticipate that people will want to pay with twenties.
This reminds me of a story that my Russian history teacher had. He was getting on the bus and the person ahead of him did not have correct change. The driver and a number of passengers got in to a discussion about in a communist society whos duty was it to have the correct change. He said that people stayed on the bus to hear the discussion. I am not sure what the lesson from that was probably that Russian TV wasn’t that entertaining in the early 80s.
I don’t like when cashiers press me to dig out a dime, nickel, and three pennies so they don’t have to compute the diff on their own, especially when I know there’s a safe on the premises with unlimited change. You’re the cashier, I’m the customer. It’s your job to cash, my job to custom, make with the small bills.
But a guy working out of a truck… If the guy’s working out of a truck, something tells me he doesn’t want to be carrying around either a safe or a lot of large bills. If he gives all his small bills to one person then he might miss selling to a lot of people who have closer change or smaller purchases. It does work that way sometimes.
No, but maybe the next 6 customers who only need $3 in change.
Let’s say he has only 20 dollars in singles, is selling a $7 product. If he gives you $13 then he makes $7 and he’s done for the day. If he risks refusing you, he has enough change to serve the next 6 people who bring in $10’s, making him $42 dollars. Assuming he has enough traffic to pick and choose like this, then earning $42 over $7 is really the obvious choice.
Gar. slight error. If he breaks your $20 then he could potentially make 2 more sales. So, the value proposition is $42 vs. $21, but still the $42 is the obvious choice.
Gar. <sixth sense> I see stupid people </sixth sense>
OK, we’ll ignore the obvious stupidity of starting out with only $20 in small bills on hand.
Suppose I’m his only customer of the day. In which case it’s $7 vs $0.
How do you know the next six people are all going to pay in $10s? The next six people may all pay in singles. In which case it’s $49 vs $42.
Worst case scenario, he goes next door or whatever and gets change for a couple of $20s. And it’s still $49 vs $42.
I can’t believe people are still thinking there’s a need to hoard change.
Second point: This is the fucking POST OFFICE. As in, FEDERAL EMPLOYEES drawing salary from MY TAX MONEY. This is a big-ass truck, and a FEDERAL VEHICLE. No punk with a gun is going to be able to hold up this place, it’s definitely a lot safer than some mom & pop deli on the average New York City street corner. Taxi drivers always have change on hand, and they have to feel a bit more vulnerable than this guy.
It’s caled STUPIDFUCKINGRETARD-itis. Be careful, I think some of you coming down with it…