My former roommate and I were dead broke once, seriously all we had was our penny jar. We were hungry, so we counted up pennies and headed for McDonald’s. We did the polite thing and had them rolled and counted before even getting in the drive through lane. We still joke about how we aren’t ashamed to use our last pennies. The really sad part was that we promised the cashier that they were counted right, and when she broke them open later she would have found random bits of stuff, to fill out the penny roll. I still feel kind of bad about that.
I once had a rental deal where the tenants paid the entire $4985 with a Hefty bag full of unbundled five dollar bills. They counted it out, I counted it out and bundled it into packages of one hundred dollars each, the Big Boss counted it and took it home.
Helluva way to waste an afternoon.
If you have those self-scan lanes at the grocery store, that’s a great place to unload change. The machine counts it, and (around here, anyway), there’s one line for four scanners, so no one’s stuck behind you.
20s are never a problem even for small purchases. Bigger bills are. Where I work we’re forbidden from keeping more that $70 in the till and don’t have access to either safe (unless the store manager is present). We do have an emergency bag with 1s & 5s and rolls of coins. Fortunatly we’re allowed to simply refuse a transaction if someone want’s to pay for a small order with a big bill.
Unwrapped small change depends on; the denomination, whether or not the customers counts it out in dollar increments, and how big the line is. We’re allowed to refuse to take large amounts of wrapped change (especially pennies). BTW we never deposit change at the bank; it stays in registers.
Giving out change without a purchase is entirely at our discretion, but we do need to wait for a cash sale to open the register. We’re also across the street from a laundromat and a few blocks away from a hospital that doesn’t have free parking.
Off topic but stuff like this reminds me of when I worked drive thru at KFC from 92-94.
“Thank you for choosing today’s KFC. My name is Jeff, how may I help you?”
“Yes, I’d like 2 20 piece meals, all white meat.”
“Hey asshole, how about coming inside for that. Or are you absolutely certain you are the only customer we’ll have in the drive thru for 5-10 minutes it will take to prepare that?”
or
“Yes, I’d like a 3 piece chicken and biscuit. Can I get that made fresh?”
“Hey asshole, it takes 20 minutes to cook the chicken so get your fat lazy ass inside.”
Another gripe…Please, please don’t ask to place drive thru orders on more than one check. If you and your friends can’t handle splitting up your shares of 8 bucks, come inside, kthxbye.
Back on topic…if you are going to pay with change there better not be any more than 5 pennies. And please have it nice and tidy.
For those working a register…if someone gives you, say, nickels and dimes to make up 75 cents it’s easy enough to eyeball it to see that there is the proper change. Don’t then take 2 minutes divvying it up into the right change spots in your drawer. Most drawers have an extra change slot. Dump it all in there and sort it out when there are no customers. Also, don’t sort out bills to make sure they are all facing the same way during lunch rush, Angie, you obnoxious cu…oops, I kinda lost my mind there for a little bit. That one was a Burger King flashback.
When I worked a register I didn’t mind it. You’d be surprised how quickly you can go through change, and if someone wants to give me eight quarters or ten dimes I’m okay it. It doesn’t take that long to count.
I don’t care, it doesn’t bother me.
As far as I’m concerned, the note on the denomination that states it is legal currency for public and private use means that if I wasn’t supposed to use it, I wouldn’t have it.
Since I have it, apparently it is going to be put to use.
I have also noticed a strong correlation. My tendancy to pay with low denomination increases with the level of irritation I have with the sales clerk / cashier / establishment. Go figure.
I see it all the time, but I’m a cashier in a gas station. People pay in change all the time. It doesn’t really bother me if they count it out. It only bothers me if they give me a handful of change and say “I need this in gas”.
So, whenever I pay in change, I try to have it counted out, so I’m not one of the people I hate.
I appreciate the customer making the EFFORT of trying to count it out. But, invariably, I get tired of waiting for them to fumble through the addition, and tell them to just drop it and let me do it. I’m no fricking superman, but I can do it MUCH faster.
My irritation level is less if you TRY to count, but let me take over.
If you dump a load of pocket-mess on my counter and just say “pump 4,” I will take my sweeeeeeeet time counting it.
Same as your crusty-ass, wadded-up dollar bills. You hand me that shit, I WILL straighten and flatten them before ringing you up. You make an effort to make it resemble paper and not a ball of tinfoil, I’ll just do a quick count and ring you up.
Joe
Yea, I can do it faster than the customer, too. I just don’t car if they take forever. It’s not like I have the most exciting job ever.
At least put forth an effort, man. You don’t have to be a clown to actually do your job well. And if you really don’t care at all, just quit. It’ll save you, your boss, and your customers a lot of hassle.
Joe
Huh? Did I miss something? All he/she said was they don’t have the most exciting job ever.