Petty rant about being short a penny at the store

The BBQ Pit
1

I’m really getting more and more pissed at the anal store clerks who refuse to let me off for a penny, insisting that I must pay every last cent of the cost (quite literally).

I’m talking about those times, and there are many, when my bill totals something like $9.11 and I have a $10 bill and a dime but no penny, or when the bill is $15.01 and I have no change in my pocket, just a $20 bill in my wallet.

So, instead of making things convenient for everyone by taking a one cent loss and accepting my $20 and then giving me a 5-dollar bill change, NOOOOOO. The goddam clerk is gonna sit there and count out $4.99 in change and hand me a pile of coins (this is even more of a problem in Canada where there are no bills smaller than a five). I mean WTF? You’re saying that you can’t give me a penny? How about a loan then? Until next time? (and there may not be a ‘next time’ unless you do).

In fact, what I do in this situation is say “give me a minute while I look around the floor. I’m sure I’ll find a penny”. I then proceed to do just that. Often this embarrasses the clerk to the point where she/he gives me the penny, or a kind soul waiting in line gives me one.

This seems to happen to me on an almost daily basis. In the past, it was almost certain that there’d be no problem letting me off for the penny (and, please note that I always decline any pennies given to me in change. “Keep’m for someone who’s short a cent or two”, I’ll say). Recently, though, more and more of the cash register [del]je[/del]clerks are refusing my request to “front me a penny” and are demanding every last cent. They insist that the “cash must balance” or their manager will be pissed!!

Am I alone in finding this STOOPID?! Why antagonize a customer over one cent? At worst, why not have one of those “need a penny, give a penny” trays by the cash? Or, heaven forbid, have the store eat the loss? It’s ONE goddam cent for chrissakes! OK, how about this: if you see that I, the customer, am pissed about being given $4.99 in coins, then why not use one of your own fucking pennies. You know, one of the seven you have in your pocket right now? What’s that? You’re worried that if you did that it would add up over the days and cause you a loss, effectively subsidizing the store. OK, why not ask your manager in advance if he/she will authorize either having the store take the one cent loss or keeping track of all the pennies “lost” in this way and he/she will personally make up the loss at the end of the day in order to balance the books. I don’t care how you do it, just give me the fucking penny!!

2

If only there were a way to pay without using cash, perhaps using a trusted third party to guarantee future payment!

3

Yet another argument for the elimination of the penny. Good rant.

4

When I worked cash, we got a small bonus if our till balanced within 10 cents at the end of the night. If it was one person a day who didn’t have a penny, no big deal, but more than 10, and it was costing me money.

Perhaps if you stopped declining all the pennies you got in change, you’d have one when you needed one.

5

Being from Canada you’ll understand this:

I went to the gas station and didn’t want to use my credit card. It’s a Canadian Tire, so I count up all the cash on my person and all my Canadian Tire money, and it comes to $19.41. $19.31 of that is legal tender cash, and $0.10 is Canadian Tire money. So I fill up exactly $19.41, walk into the booth, and put it all down on the counter.

Clerk: “We don’t take Canadian Tire money here.”
Me: “Uh… this is Canadian Tire, right?”
Clerk: “It’s only valid in the store.”
Me: “This is the store. There’s Canadian Tire logo. You sell stuff. And you share a parking lot with the other part of the store.”
Clerk: “I’m going to need ten more cents.”
Me: “I don’t have ten more cents.”
Clerk: “Then you have to leave some collateral behind while you go and get it.”

At this point I just gave the clerk the dirtiest look I have ever given a person. After about thirty seconds of incredulity I pull out my credit card and tell him, “Fine. Take the cash and run the last ten cents on this.”

He finally gives in at this and says, in a disgusted tone of voice, “Fine, I’ll take the Canadian Tire money, but just this once.”

All that for ten fucking cents? I used to fill up there every two weeks; I certainly won’t be back now.

6

Fair enough. So, instead, why not have a “need a penny / leave a penny” tray or get the manager to authorize everyone to give customers a penny when asked without penalty to the cashier (say up to a 25 penny per day limit).

7

I dunno, if I’m a penny short of a nice round change amount, I see that as my fault and my problem. I don’t expect the store to eat the difference just because I want a crisp bill or quarter back. If they round the change up, they’re doing me a favor. It’s certainly not expected, and I wouldn’t consider it antagonistic if they didn’t do it.

I think it’s pretty rude of you to expect the store to eat the cost, to embarrass clerks to make them give you change, to expect clerks to ignore their job responsibility that the cash register balances, and to expect clerks to cough up the penny themselves if the till doesn’t have one to spare. You don’t have a penny. That’s your problem, IMO, and it’s unfair of you to expect someone else to deal with it.

8

Why the fucking hell should a minimum wage clerk be expected to give you a goddamn penny? Why don’t you carry four fucking pennies in your own fucking pocket so you can pay what the fuck you owe? Fucking hell, the entitlement mentality just keeps getting more brazen and more outfuckingrageous. Damn.

9

Because the customer’s perfect happiness isn’t worth catching hell from the manager when your tray doesn’t balance?

Take-a-penny/leave-a-penny trays are convenient, but their absence isn’t the fault of the cashier.

10

The worst part is that this happened at the One Cent store.

I’m one of those people who tends to toss their pennies in the “leave a penny/need a penny tray”.

11

Jesus Christ on a fucking crutch. The more I read your OP, the madder I get. Lib, bless you for beating me to it.

I can’t believe the arrogance here. You think the entire world revolves around you? You think I should short the till just for you? Yeah, it’s [air quotes] “Only a penny”, but by the time my shift is over and I add up all the other clueless mopes with an overdeveloped sense of entitlement like you who think I ought to short the till “Just for them”, that’s shorting the till to a highly significant extent as far as Management is concerned. And I’ve got Management literally looking over my shoulder–I’m on video, and I have a daily “Cashier report”, and the Assistant Managers come up front and do cash counts twice every shift, and you better believe they know pretty fast precisely who’s shorting the till.

And if I get busted for getting into the habit of shorting the till–and Management seriously does not give a good goddamn if it IS only a fucking penny, and they also do not give a good goddamn how piteously Karl Gauss may have begged me to “loan” him a penny–then I lose my job. Is it worth losing my job just so you won’t have to put 99 cents in your pocket? No way.

Suck it up.

Geez. Some people.

12

I’ve worked retail for almost a decade, including several mostly-cash businesses. I’d say 1 in 10 people will do as the OP and either tell the clerk to keep the pennies, or drop them in the “Take a Penny, Leave a Penny” tray. Usually, by the end of the night, you’d have close to a dollar of change people left.

This was especially true at gas stations- people would give me $30 prepaid on a pump. They’d fill up, top it off, but couldn’t get that last 50 cents into the tank without it overflowing. So they’d just drive off, being too lazy to walk 10 feet for 50 cents.

I’d mentally keep track of this, or take the extra change out of my drawer and drop it in the tray, so that poor sap who’s a penny or a dime short doesn’t have to forgo his bag of Cheetos or pack of Marlboros or whatever.

I think that’s the problem, here. Anyone who works in retail knows that there’s always extra money in the drawer- you found that quarter you were short last Friday when you moved some merchandise, you have several customers who leave the pennies on the counter, whatever.

I’d estimate that in any place I worked, the store ended up a couple hundred bucks richer at the end of the year because of stuff like this.

(This obviously only applies to businesses who handle a lot of cash- if 75% of your purchases are with plastic, you don’t get so much extra change)

13

Dumbest most baseless rant I’ve ever heard. You want free money. We all do. Get over it.

14

I disagree with this emphatically.

15

The other day, on my way to buy some booze, I passed a lady sitting on the sidewalk with a hat in front of her. There are a lot of these people in my neighbourhood, and normally I just walk on past, but for whatever reason that day I gave her all my change.
The booze came to $35.17, so I handed over a 50. The clerk asked if I had any change, and I said nope, gave it all away. She handed me a 10 and a 5 and told me to have a nice day.
I did.

16

Shit, now you’ve done it, Karl. You made me agree with Lib on something. What’s next? Rocks in trees, cats and dogs sleeping together, superglue coming unstuck?

17

Bravo Goose. My thoughts exactly.

As I was reading the OP, I was beginning to wonder if I was being whooshed?

18

I’ve worked in retail, and I’ve never had anyone pitch a fit over a penny. You do it, then the next person, then the next…by the end of the day, you could be off by quite a bit.

I used to forestall this, if a person’s check came up to $xx.01 or $x.06, I’d ask them if they had a penny. Partly to save them getting a bunch of pennies, and partly to save me having to fish four pennies out of the till.

A lot of times they had it, and when they didn’t, I’d say with a smile, “Well, you do now!” as I handed them their change. But either way, over the course of the day and several cashiers, skipping pennies can add up.

19

And why the hell should Walgreens Corporate “loan” you a penny out of their cash register? We’re not a lending institution. We’re not a bank. We’re a profit-oriented arm of capitalism, and if we start “loaning” pennies to customers who don’t wanna be burdened by the dreadful ordeal of having to deal with 99 cents in change, pretty soon we’re not going to be MAKING any profit. Helloooo?

As for antagonizing customers by refusing to “loan” them a penny: feel free to take your business elsewhere. I understand Wal-Mart not only will lend you up to $25 on your purchase, but will wash and wax your car for you while you shop, too. Free.

This is only true if your retail establishment has less-than-totally-anal cash-handling and bookkeeping procedures. It gives Walgreens Management conniption fits to have too much money in the drawer, so I’m actually not allowed to put the left-behind change into the drawer. It has to sit there on the counter, until somebody needs it. And then, yeah, I actually would give Karl a penny out of it, because I got no grudge against folks who can use a penny that’s already there. But I’m not gonna short the drawer for him.

And P.S. Corporate said the Penny Dish made the counter look cluttered, so we had to get rid of it. Enter the “little pile”.

20

You know, if you save that 99 cents change, then next time you go to the store, you’ll actually have a penny!