I was at the drive-thru a few days ago and a homeless man walked through and picked up the change on the ground in front of the window.
Couldn’t have been more than a couple dimes from what I saw…
GusnSpot nailed it. Dropped change most often occurs when the cashier lays the coins on top of the bills.
Can I ask where you’ve heard these stories? Because not one other person in this thread, including a few fast food workers (former), have ever heard of them happening. Ever. They defy common sense. Perhaps you could provide a link of some kind that tells a similar story?
The poll left out “I never heard of this.”
I never heard of this. 
(I voted for urban legend.)
I have a change throwing story. Back when I was HS Jack in the Box was a fairly new chain. They had an actual box with Jack popping out as the menu/speaker for the drive thru.
A buddy of mine was working the late shift on Sat night. A very drunk gentleman pulled up to the speaker and ordered a cup of coffee (less than $1).
My buddy repeated the order and gave him the total. As he went to turn the mike off he hears a pling pling noise. He sticks his head out the window and sees the drunk is throwing change at the speaker.
He clicks on his mike and says “if you don’t stop that and pick up all that change I’m going to climb out of this box and beat you up”
The drunk apologizes and gets out and picks up the change.
The more I think about this, how many people nowadays are going to try to scam 45 cents from McDonalds? There’s probably more profit to be made in going inside and taking a few packets of sugar and ketchup.
I’ve done both of these things my entire adult life, although admittedly I keep quarters if I’m going immediately back to the car. It’s amusing to think that anybody would suspect that I’m an urban legend.
You throw money in a trash bag and put it on the curb?!:eek:
You know you could give it to a panhandler or homeless person at least.
I didn’t buy candy bars in the mid 90s, but now I occasionally do, having eliminated Mountain Dew I now want sugar once in awhile.
Candy bars in the vending machines at work are exactly a dollar. And that’s after 20 years of inflation, in a vending machine.
Fuckin’ … People these days. Amirite?
At least once a year the news runs stories suggesting pennies be eliminated. They point out that they end up in jars, dropped on the ground, or even thrown out. I can’t find it now, but I’m sure one of those stories mentioned discarded coins at drive-thrus. It was such a WTF item that it stuck in my mind.
A new round of news stories claiming pennies are a waste will eventually circulate in 2015. They show up like clockwork every year.
They’re right. With inflation, pennies are now one of the least-valuable coins ever minted by any country.
In your OP and subsequent posts, you referred to people purposefully throwing/dropping change in the drivethru window. It is not until much, much later, when pressed for any sort of evidence that this behavior exists anywhere but inside your head that you backpedal to claims of people discarding pennies. That’s not quite the same thing.
I agree it’s dumb to just throw out change and all, but if you have bums or winos hanging out anywhere where you might possibly get change, you should probably move.
The move to eliminate pennies is really different from your initial OP about people routinely and purposely dropping change (of all kinds presumably) at drive thrus. Is there really all these stories of people doing that?
The poll was to gather opinions on this. I thought it was BS or very rarely done. I voted happens rarely.
I’m older and still remember collecting soda bottles for a nickle each. I walked along the highway collecting them. I’d come home with 20 bottles on a good day. I thought maybe younger people here do discard coins or have seen it done. Quite a few people have voted that it does happen occasionally.
Its not easy keeping up with what the younger generation does these days. Will never know if I don’t ask.
I understand how you voted, what I would like to know is what was the original source for you hearing/reading about such stories?
Canada got rid of pennies. No cataclysm was apparent.
Same as when we legalized abortion and gay marriage.