Yeah, but you’re young and strong and don’t have arthritis or mobility issues and are still able to drive, so hauling a big-ass bucket of change over to the bank is nothing to you. For elderly people, it’s different. Change in any significant quantity is pretty darn heavy–I’ve taken a couple pounds just out of the bottom of my purse before. A quart Mason jar not quite full weighs 8.3# according to my kitchen scale. For you and me, taking that out to the car is nothing.
But for someone with reduced muscle mass and arthritis who uses a cane, like either of my remaining grandparents, taking that thing just into the next room would be rather an ordeal. If either of them still drove, they’d either have to move it in slow, painful stages to the car or ask someone to carry it out for them. And then ask at the bank if someone could carry it in for them. As it is, they already have to bum rides, so they would have to ask someone to not only drive them to the bank, but to fetch and tote their money for them, too.
It’s much easier all around to just get rid of the stuff as you go along.
In the spirit of age-related fiduciary peeves, I’ve been behind a few younger folks who realize they can’t afford all the groceries they’ve purchased. So they mull over everything, and return the generic laundry detergent, only to get the new total and still be over. So they look over everything, and remove the dozen eggs. Still over.
I try to use exact change if there are pennies involved. It seems like the cashier will never open the new roll of pennies until needed and then I’m sitting waiting for her to do all that. I won’t dig through my purse though, I’ll have a handful of change ready just in case.
The thing about old ladies is they do stuff that will annoy the hell out of you and they don’t have that much control over it If you’re lucky some day your mom will be an old lady and then you’ll understand, they can’t help it.
I’m under 50 years old and I pay with exact change once in a while – when I’ve built up a stash of coins in my pocket and when there’s nobody behind me waiting for the cashier.
That way I get to spend my coins at a reasonable rate so that I don’t stockpile them, and I don’t inconvenience anyone.
Those new self-service checkout stations at supermarkets are great for this, by the way. Nobody ever looks over your shoulder to see what you’re doing, and they take pennies in the coin slot. If you wanted to, you could pay for your whole grocery trip in pennies and nobody would be annoyed.
I think it’s kinda cute, really. Even if they do, so what? You’ve probably got more time left on this green Earth than they do, so if they’re not in some huge hurry… what’s yours?
Every time I start to get annoyed with an old lady taking too long in line or walking too slow at the grocery store, etc., etc., I remember my Mom in her last years when she was failing mentally and physically, and how scared and frustrated she was, and I want to run over and hug her.
Okay, speaking of old people being cute even though they’re annoying, my dad is an extreme goofball who will sometimes carry checks under his hat. I mean, wtf, what a silly place to store your funds. He has pockets and carries around a billfold, so I really don’t get why he’s storing checks under his hat, but here we are. So anyway, if he goes to a new store (yes, he’s one of those people who goes to the same stores at the same times and has a “gal” at each of them), the WTF look on people’s faces when he takes his hat off and then writes a check is priceless. Gods bless him, he’s sweet, but very strange and very old.
I work at a small local coffee shop that doesn’t accept plastic. In my experience, teenagers are the ones who pay with change. As many pennies as possible.
I mostly pay with plastic but I when I get a chance to go to self serve check out I love dumping all my change in the machine to pay for the groceries if there isn’t a line. It makes my purse light. Or collect them and use coinstar.
Just happened to me. Two women in front of me in the lunch line. Both waited until the total was stated before they reached for their purses. Dig, dig, dig, look in wallet, dig, dig, count change, double check total, dig, dig, count some more change. And somehow the second woman didn’t figure out that the cashier would be asking for money today. Huh, what? You want money for my salad?
Amen. Seriously, how long does it take for a little old lady to count out some change? Two minutes, max? Assume you’re behind one in line once a week (which is stretching credulity, because I’m at the grocery store just about every goddamn day and I can count on one hand the number of times I’ve run into this this year), that’s a grand total of 104 minutes per year.
I know that’s time most of us could use to cure cancer or write the great American novel or look at cute kittehs on the internet, but Christ, it seems like those of you that have a huge issue with this spend more time complaining about it than actually enduring it.
Yeah, I don’t get this either, but in the interest of full disclosure, my wife does it, and she’s in her 40s.
Whenever we buy anything requiring cash, which, thank goodness, is infrequent, and I hand the bills to the cashier, my wife will say “Wait, I have change” at which time I begin to look around for something to garrote myself.
I’m in my 80’s and always pay with exact change. I have it out in my hand while the cashier is getting things totalized, andit takes me about 2 seconds to do the transaction. If that slows down you young shippersnappers too much, tough.
What bugs me is getting behind somebody trying to make their credit card work in the card reader and it never does and they have to go thru six or seven cards trying to find one that still has a usable balance on it. They’re as bad as lane campers in the fast lane.
That’s my biggest peeve with Christmas shopping. It seems to happen a lot more then. You wait 5-8 people deep in a line and them some shithead pulls this. What, you waited that long and you had NO CLUE that they were going to ask you for money? :dubious:
I would think it has less to do with being AR about change than being more and more oblivious of others as old people are prone to do.
Never had to wait at the bakery for your stuff when the elderly lady in front of the line babbles about her life to the cashier? I’m not even sure they realize there are other people behind.