Just so you know, Doc, the compulsive need to give exact change is a sure sign that you’re getting old. One of the most lasting memories I have from my time spent as a grocery store cashier is of old men opening their little changepurses with their long, pointy, yellowed fingernails. ::shudder:: Don’t be like that.
I can get onboard with that. Certainly I don’t feel that the store is obligated to give me a penny, but it severely annoys me when a store isn’t accomodating on the point. It’s definitely an important attribute of their entire customer service ability.
Indeed. I’m a little embarrassed on your behalf.
Sorry, these promises to bring your business (truly staggering dollar amounts aside) elsewhere will be cheerfully ignored, if not downright welcomed. I realize it gives you tremendous satisfaction to imagine the board of directors of your local Kwik-Mart fretting, “What happened to that guy who used to stop in once a week and buy a candy bar? You know, Mr. Gauss? Did the cashier piss him off and drive him to the competition? Damn, how are we ever going to make a profit now?” But while “the customer is always right” is a good rule of thumb, I don’t think there are many corporations willing to change their business model so they can preserve your overinflated sense of entitlement.
Now this is rather good. “Fostering an atmosphere of paranoia?” Could be, I suppose, I dunno. That or perhaps the local merchants have begun noticing that you’re the guy who’s always [del]borrow[/del]stiffing them? C’mon, which is more likely, really? Be honest.
Here nowadays prices below 10c just don’t seem to matter much. If someone is paying €4.90 for something and hand me a fiver they often refuse/laugh off the 10c change. If I’ve run out of pennies, or 2cs or even 5c coins they aren’t too bothered. I’m not too bothered if they’re short a few cents either, mentally or fiscally.
That’s fine if they own the place. You understand what stealing is, right?
No, no, no, it’s not the old men–it’s the middle-aged women, the ones with purses the size of small suitcases, who INSIST on rummaging around in the bottom of said purse, amongst flotsam and jetsam that’s apparently been accumulating for 40 years, for three cents “so I can give you the correct change”. This while the line behind her slowly grows…
And I stand there thinking at her, “Yanno, honey, when a cashier gives me my change, I put it in this thingie they call a ‘coin purse’. Because that way I can, like, find it again when I want it, without having to excavate the bottom of my entire purse every time I make a purchase.”
No, no, the old men with their coin purses are a mercy. Because they’ve got the coins right there, ya see. We don’t all have to stand there and wait while they drag a series of wallets, checkbooks and cell phones out of the bottom of a purse.
And then, of course–IT ALL HAS TO GO BACK AGAIN. While we all stand there and wait.
And the only time I’m ever seriously tempted to reach across and whack a customer with my duster is when one of these females THEN announces, as she’s gathering up her purchases and turning to go, “Oh, wait–I need to get cigarettes”.
I think you need to review Duck Duck Goose’s math above, and consider that YOU are not the only customer in the world.
Agreed with the others: Keep a penny once in a while, and you might have one when you need one. Otherwise, suck it up.
Just a comment on the “Tip Jar” thing - I think the poster was trying to make a joke. I’m not sure. But when I was a bartender if you reached into one of my tip jars you would pull back a bloody stump. Once the money went into that jar it became my money. Not the bar’s. Mine. I do not take kindly to anyone trying to steal from me.
As for the penny thing - the OP needs to just grow up and carry a couple of pennies if he doesn’t want a whole pocketfull of change. Privately owned stores here still have the "give a penny’ trays but in corporate stores they have gone the way of the carrier pidgeon. Getting mad at a sales clerk for trying to keep their job because you feel the world owes you a penny is dumb.
That’s wacky. I wouldn’t want to by your pants dry-cleaner.
Honestly, given your annual income, you still chose to play the drama queen and peck about on store floors for pennies?
Look, you are in Canada where debit card touchpads are ubiquitous in retail outlets. There is no need to carry cash other than as a back-up in the event of a system failure. If, given that there is no need to use cash, you still prefer to use cash, then don’t go making an ass of yourself when clerks try to give the correct change.
Or to put it another way, yes, it may be dumb for a clerk to insist on carrying transactions to the penny, but it is far dumber to carry on hunting for pennies on the floor like a chicken pecking for pebbles because the clerk is standing on the transaction price.
Perspective, dude, perspective.
The irony of it all is that sometimes independent gas stations accept Canadian Tire money.
I think that actually getting into a stand-off about it is ridiculous, but I do understand that there is a certain frustration when you think you should be comped something and you aren’t–it’s a principle thing, like there are certain understood social conventions that it’s slightly irksome to have violated. I can think of two examples from the last few years:
One time I was with a group at Denny’s. We’d ordered maybe $10 worth of stuff. We were playing cards and the power went out. We stayed for a good 45 minutes, playing by cell-phone light, until we decided it wasn’t worth it. We went to leave, and all we had were debit cards, which couldn’t be used because of the power outage. They started to look for the manual reader, but it annoyed me: in my mind, they should have comped us. I mean, there was hardly anyone in the place (it was after 10), so it wasn’t like they’d have to comp even four or five tables, we had been seriously inconvenienced, and paying quickly turned into this huge pain-in-the-ass as they struggled to remember how to use the card reader. I didn’t feel entitled to a free check, and I was totally civil about it, but I was a little annoyed. Enough to remember it.
Another time, I was buying like 200 bagels. I called several days in advance, arranged a pick -up time, all that. The manager was ringing me out and I said “Oh, and I need a cup of coffee too. Ring that up seperately, since the rest of this is on an expense account” And she did! I totally expected her to just hand me a cup. I’d just bought 200 bagels–that deserves a lagniappe! Again, I was perfectly civil, certainly didn’t argue or haggle or hesitate, but I was ever so slightly offended.
So I think one can be frustrated or disappointed without it being rampant entitlement running amok. But slowing down the transaction over it is completely beyond the pale.
I agree that it is frustrating to be short the penny and unable to pay properly but would rather get the pocket full of change. I do have to say, though, that it is annoying me to no end at Tim Hortons (Candian donut/coffee icon).
They had raised their prices by a few cents a cup (to cover costs, doncha know) and managed to calculate the amount of the increase to harmonize with the local taxes so that the coffees were 1.25, 1.35 and 1.40. Well that lasted a month until the federal gov’t decided to throw us a bone and reduce the federal tax by 1%. Instant trouble at the donut shop. Now the prices are 1.24, 1.34 and 1.39.
Not trouble you think? Well in that month, the employees got comfortable not having to provide any change since customers frequently had a $1 and a quarter and maybe a dime. When the tax reduction hit, they didn’t feel like fishing about for a single penny, especially at the drive-thru, so the prices are effectively the increased price.
I’m cheap and I grumble, but will pull away without my precious penny. BUT it really irks me when trying to pay exact change and the employee leans out the window and sneers “There’s only 1.23 here,” as we continue to search for the elusive penny. Apparently it’s our fault for giving her SOME of the money instead of the full amount. “Can you use one of the other 100 pennies we’ve been forced to leave behind?” I’m tempted to quip.
We now over pay to ensure that we get proper change at the drive-thru.
[reviews post] Wow, I’m petty too…[/review]
Muffin…I thought the irony was that they distribute the CTire money, but they won’t accept it…part of the point of paying cash is getting the CT money. Do you ever wonder what the independant gas stations do with the CT money they accept?
The safe bet is to never EXPEXCT somebody to give you something for nothing. It would not occur to me that simply because I ordered 200 bagels that I should get a free cup of coffee. When it happens I am pleasantly surprised. Nor would I expect free food simply because the power went out. It just baffles me the kind of expectations people have. So no, you can’t be frustrated or disapointed by the things you mentioned unless you have a completely overblown sense of entitlement and self-importance.
Things cost what they cost. You can either pay it or get arrested.
How is one being “completely overblown” if the total reaction is a slight internal shrug and a mental “that was sorta lame”? I didn’t express any displeasure, change my shopping habits, or relate the tale in real life. There are social conventions. I don’t think I am entitled to or deserve to have social conventions upheld—like people in front of you holding a door until you catch it, waiting for people to leave an elevator before you try to get in, starting a new pot of coffee when you take the last cup at work, occasionally buying a round at a bar–none of those things are things we are entitled to, but I think it’s ok to notice in a very small way when they are missing. There are social conventions of the same type that exist between retailers and customers. It’s why we HAVE the word “lagniappe”-- and of course there is no ethical or moral right to a little something extra, but the customs are there. That’s why many industries–including food service–give employees flexibility about comping things.
And for the record, I didn’t think the Denny’s should have comped us for the power going out. I think they should have comped us rather than ask us to stand around for 20 minutes while three people struggled to find the parts to and then use the old-fashioned carbon-imprint slidy-thing card reader. But again, it wasn’t a big thing and I was civil and cheerful and reassuring that it was no problem when they apologized. I tipped the same as ever (and put that in cash, as I had some, but not enough for check+ tip). I don’t think I was a meglomaniac for privately thinking “Can’t you just comp us and let us go home?”.
I guess we just have different ideas about social conventions. I don’t think lowering the price for some customers change preference is in the same category as common courtesies like holding a door for someone or any of the other things you mentioned. Price is price. As has been demonstrated already in this thread for large chains this policy would add up to serious money. For smaller chains many are operating on an incredibly tight margin.
Where do you live? This may be one of those regional things: I think it’s more common in the south, and certainly more common in non-chain establishments.
I thinks a lot of this discussion comes down to the amount of discretion the person behind the counter has in negotiating prices other than those stated on the items. I usually know who the clerks are and who the owners are at businesses that I frequent. Clerks are usually told how to do their job and setting new prices could be a quick ticket to getting fired. I would never quibble over price with them. I would be more inclined to expect a business owner to cut me a small break now and then. It is an investment in my future business.
Birningham, Alabama, originally. Presently California. I would put this complaint on the same level as I would that of a cashier complaining about assholes who do not keep enough change in their pockets to pay with exact change so they won’t have to make change. Actually I think this OP is worse because unlike the cashier who is just being lazy, the OP feels he is entitled to the reduced price solely for his own convenience. I suspect you and I are just miss communicating because you don’t seem like the self-centered prick that the OP seems like.
I do but I don’t quite get what you’re saying in this context.