I pit STUPID PEOPLE

The BBQ Pit
61

Well, I’ve seen others say it, and I guess it’s true - rather than think that -gasp- people are occasionally just stupid, Dopers have to grasp at straws to take in to every possible situation and permuation, no matter how irrational or unlikely, so people can latch on to the most far-fetched rational.

Believe it or not, I assumed (before reading the responses in this thread) that most people are pretty reasonable and intelligent, and learn from experience. After three-plus years of working at the same location, in the same environment, I would assume the guy has a pretty good handle of how much change he needs (even if his bosses don’t - also pretty far-fetched).

It’s a lot easier to assume the guy was just hoarding change - since it seems others have had the same experience - than assume some mass organizational ignorance.

For the record, the guy has no problem leaving the truck - he locks up and heads over to one of the delis for lunch. I know 'cause I’ve seen him on a pretty regular basis.

Expecting change from a $20 on a $7-and-change transaction should not be considered such an out-of-the-ordinary situation, anywhere in the US, let alone on wall street.

He had enough change on hand. He handles my transaction, and if he is still worried, he asks the next couple customers if they can pay in small bills or break a $20. My, and probably everybody elses’s experience has been that they usually have a mix of big and small bills.

And for the record, the whole ‘sales vs profits’ thing is just completely missing the whole fucking point.

62

Sure. Other customers who might have nothing more than a 20.

63

Or should I say less than a 20.

64

Who is to say he won’t turn them down also if they are buying $7 worth of goods?

Hell, I’ve started a register with 4 x $5, and a handful of $1 and $2 coins. Thank god for EFTPOS. I wouldn’t turn someone down if they were going to deplete half my change, but that is because I don’t notice how much money is actually in the till. If however, this guy is prone to running out of change, I imagine he would watch the amount he had very carefully.

65

Yeah, and they take your taxes too.

Right?

66

So? What the fuck does that have to do with anything?

Just because he leaves the truck doesn’t mean he can make change. When I worked as a bank teller, I too was allowed to take lunch. That doesn’t mean that I was allowed to take the bank’s money with me. Doing so would have resulted in my getting an inside tour of our nation’s fine prison system. The bank and the Feds take a really dim view of taking federally insured funds offsite.

67

I should also point out that people on both sides of this are arguing about profits. The guy cares about profits, right?

Wrong. He doesn’t give a fuck. He’s a low-level government employee trying to make just barely above minimum wage as painlessly as possible. He doesn’t give a flying fuck about profits. It’s not like that money is going into his pockets.

If he withheld a sale because he didn’t have enough change, then it’s because he’d rather piss off one customer thana whole bunch.

68

By your argument (and I agree, by the way, that he probably doesn’t care much), he wouldn’t care about pissing off later customers, either. He’d just make change like an automaton, then tell people he’s out of change if he runs out.

69

Actually, I take that back - I don’t agree that he doesn’t care. He is probably a contracted employee who makes the profits from his truck. This fits better with his actions.

70

So, this morning I stopped at the local kiosk on the corner near my house to get a bagel and coffee. There are three other people in line. While I’m playing around with my ipod, I realize the guy in front of me pays with a $20 for a $1.50 small coffee and donut.

I let the guy behind me go first, wait until I have a little time, and ask him some questions.

People pay with $20s a lot?
Pretty common. Maybe because people hit the ATMs on their way to work?

Average transaction for you is pretty low, right?
Yep, less than $2.

Don’t you ever run out of change?
shakes head

Ever get low on change?
No, not really.

If you don’t mind me asking, what kind of bankroll do you start out with?
$100 each in singles, five, and tens.

How long you been doing this?
Since he first came to the US, eight months ago.

Cool, where you from?
Kenya

Been working at this same corner the whole time?
No, third location.

No difference in whether you run out of change or not?
Not really

Also FYI, the US Postal Service is a federal agency. Directly or indirectly, our taxes support the business. The USPS doesn’t pay taxes, remember.

Further, the guy in the truck could give a flying fuck about profits. Why? Because the USPS is federally mandated to break even.

71

Not necessarily. He probably wants to get through his day as painlessly as possible. Pissed off customers are a pain. If he ends up pissing off only one instead of many, that’s a win for him.

72

That conversation sure does prove that some folks get to start the day with an adequate change bank, especially when they’re their own bosses!

Daniel

73

As a wise man once said, a coffee kiosk is not the USPS. Just because the coffee guy started with a drawer of $300 doesn’t mean the USPS guy did. As I said earlier, when I worked at a movie theatre, my starting bank was $20-25.

So the USPS guy should start with more, you might argue. What makes you think he has any control over that?

74

What makes you think he doesn’t? You’re saying that a guy who’s been in the US only eight months–who probably is making minimum wage–is more on the ball than a federal employee with an average salary of over $50,000?

Besides, this is a completely moot fucking point. Regardless of how much he had or didn’t have to start out with, he had enough change in his drawer to make change for me. He wasn’t out of change. I’m the customer in front of him, which makes me his most important customer. He handles my transaction, and if he is still illogically paranoid about running out of change, he asks the next few customers to break a $20.

And my overseas friends wonder why customer service in the US is so bad. It’s because of morons defending this guy because they see themselves in the same situation and realize they’d hoard change too, no matter how illogical or irrational it is to do so.

75

The problem, of course, is that you’d agree with his action if you asked him to break a $100 and he refused. It’s absurd to think it’s okay in one circumstance but not the other.

IF it makes you happier ot believe you’re the only smart person around, however, well, get your jollies how you can; I imagine they’re few enough for you in that case.

Daniel

76

As I said earlier, it would still be wrong, and he’d still be a SFM. It would just be a bit more understandable, because a $100 probably is a lot harder to break on the remote chance that he actually did run out of change.

I’m not the only smart person around (others in this thread have agreed with me, for example). Just smarter than the SFM in the truck, and the rest of you morons who can’t figure out why hoarding change is stupid.

77

Wow, you really don’t get it, do you? It’s not a matter of intelligence, or of citizenship, or of salary. It’s a matter of how much of a drawer his superiors allow him to have. If your boss is only going to give you $20 to start, it’s not like you can start with $300. Why this simple math is too hard for you, I don’t know.

78

Welp, I’m guessing the guy who drives the mail truck around for three years has a pretty good idea of how many future customers he’ll get in a certain day. You’re only looking at one location. You can’t base his entire business day out of what you saw at one location. Maybe the next stop teems with stamp buyers that are a lot more pleasant than one particularly uptight and judgmental customer.

The times you looked, you say you saw little activity. You probably prefer to forget the times he was busy in order to support your point. Besides, you weren’t CONSTANTLY looking at his truck, were you?

Just how broad is that brush you paint with? The one time somebody denies you change turns them into SFRs, even if they are Nobel Physicists.

I’m betting that next time you buy stamps from him, you’ll have plenty of singles.

79

As I say, your life sounds bitter enough, devoid enough of pleasures, that I don’t want to deny you your pleasure of thinking you’re smarter than me. Enjoy!

Daniel

80

So I forwarded this thread to three friends and some co-workers. The general consensus?

“This is on a site dedicated to fighting ignorance? Most of the posters are clueless. Who helped them log on?”

Thank god. I was fearing for my sanity.

Oh, and LHoD - you r life is obviously so much more enriching than mine. And I have no doubt you are happier than me - ignorance is bliss, as they say.