Petty rant about being short a penny at the store

The BBQ Pit
61

Purchase non-petroleum based fuel http://www.lilith-ezine.com/articles/canada/2006/Canadian-Tire-Money.html :smiley:

Actually, I have accepted payment a few times in Canadian Tire money. I just write it up in the books as cash, and draw it out to my self as cash, so as to keep Revenue Canada and the Law Society from getting their backs up. I did have to draw the line once at chickens (a client from Nolalu – they’re, well, let’s just say that they’re different up there in Nolalu). Bank transfer, money order, cash, cheque, or Canadian Tire money, but no chickens. Muffin does not accept chickens.

62

The ground around Automatic Toll Booths are a good source of coins.

63

That’s because CTM cannot be used for gas.

64

Well, I am originally from Huntsville, so I don’t think there can be much regional difference.

We probably do agree substantially. The only thing that bothered me about the OP was the remark about shaming the clerk/hassleing others in line. That’s over the top. Without that, and if it had been posted in a mini-rant thread, I don’t think the attitude would have seemed remarkable.

65

The confusion is probably because customers could once use CTM at the gas bars, and on gasoline. The CTM notes actually said, “Redeemable in Canadian Tire stores and gas bars” on their face.

Now, CT won’t accept them at its own gas bars, and IMHO, Canadian Tire has done a lousy job of letting people know this. It’s usually left to the poor guy behind the gas bar counter to tell people. This, coupled with the fact that the CT gas bar gives out CTM, just like the store does, leads people to believe that the gas bar will take it, just like the store does.

66

Well, if the owner of the place gives you a penny, it is his to give. If a clerk gives you a penny, it is NOT his to give. (Why does this need explaining?)

67

When I read the title I was all set to sympathize, thinking that somebody was “a penny short at the store.” Having read through, it seems this thread should actually be titled “Petty rant about having plenty of money at the store but wanting to get a penny discount because the clerk just doesn’t understand: I don’t do change!”

68

How many times a day does that happen in a given store- a customer being short one penny for a transaction? Twice a day on the worst day? I agree a store should cover that for customer care. Giving one back instead of 99 cents is nice, but not mandatory. Hell, why can’t the cashiers be given a nickel extra per a shift to cover this? I used to give them away from my own pocket to customers when I made 3.35 an hour and 70 dollars a week.

69

On an average evening shift at my Walgreens, I can count on at least three people asking me, “Don’t you have a penny?” and when I say, “Sorry, not at the moment”, looking around on the ground, usually futilely.

…and THEN (and this is what really chaps my hide)–they pull out…ANOTHER FRIGGIN’ DOLLAR BILL.

It’s not that they’re short, see–it’s that they’re Karl Gauss, and they think they should be given free money.

And, FWIW, aside from the occasional little kid who just doesn’t “get” how money works and only has a dollar for his $1 snack which will require $1.01, it’s overwhemingly a twenty/thirty/forty-something guy thing, too.

So if Walgreens gives away 3 cents a night, times 365 nights, times 6000 stores, that’s $65,700 a year. Explain to me, please, why Walgreens, a profit-making arm of capitalism, should donate $66,000 a year to people who think the world should give them free money. “Customer care”? Is it “customer care” to hand free money to people? We already have an array of IMO truly astonishing loss-leader coupons every week; “Loss-leader” means we lose money on them, every time someone comes in and buys, for example, ONLY the 3 oz. Turtles for 99 cents-with-coupon. Isn’t that enough? You want us to GIVE him a free penny, too, after we already lost $1.50 on the Turtles? So his purchase will cost us $1.51, instead of only $1.50? Multiply that by 6,000 stores.

Plus, you think I and all nine other Service Clerks at my store ought to have a raise of 5 cents an hour? Fine with me–except that, once again, we’re back to why Walgreens Corporate should dip into its own pocketbook in order to fund Karl Gauss. We’re not talking about “Giving to charity” here; we’re not talking the United Way or the Salvation Army. We’re talking about simply giving money to people at random. You might as well ask a businessman to grab fistfuls of cash from his till and walk around in the street outside his place of business, handing it out. The question is “why should he?” Giving people money isn’t going to make them patronize his business any more than they already were going to. By and large, they’ll just take the money and run, congratulating themselves on having been on hand the day some poor charitable sap decided to share the wealth.

70

It’s perfectly plausible that the owner of a given store has made it clear that he’s fine with people rounding up or down, or that the given clerk puts a quarter in at the end of the night to even things up because he doesn’t want to deal with pennies, or that the clerk has a “little pile of excess change” (as described in this thread) behind the counter that he is pulling from. All these things could very easily be true, so when a clerk comps you a penny, there is every chance in the world he’s behaving morally and I don’t think you carry any moral burden to refuse in case he isn’t–it’d be like saying that if you ever buy anything used you are a thief because there is a non-negligible chance that it is stolen.

If a clerk says “Hey, give me $1 and I’ll let you walk off with your coke and your candy bar and your bag of chips”, that’s almost certainly theft and you have to refuse–like if someone is selling used car stereos out of the back of a van. But there is nowhere near that certainty with a comped penny.

71

Right, embarrass a low-wage clerk for a penny. You think YOU’RE embarrassing the CLERK? Guess again.

50-50 chance that “kind soul” is really thinking, “Sheesh, here’s a penny. Take it and get lost, asshole!” I know I would be. Actually, I just might say it.

72

Yeah. The one where a customer goes into The Anal Store and is told exactly where to swipe that Visa card. :wink:

Okay. Am I the only Doper who actually takes some time to go digging for correct change as he shops? I do it ALL the time. If my bill is 16. 52, I will try to hand over $ 21.52 because the ones tend to come in handy at the till. It takes a split second to do the math and frequently results in a smile from the cashier.

Which IMHO is priceless. I will reach for a penny from a tray and if I’m trying to make correct change many cashiers will have a pile around the register somewhere but most of the time I try to present correct change.

As for the OP and others here who are outraged that they cannot be fronted a penny, I think that’s a remarkably selfish attitude. This is real money and as DDG ably calculated for us all, it piles up. You want someone taking over $ 500,000.00 out of YOUR bank account every year?

Cartooniverse

73

Nope. I never have much change on me, because I always use it up making purchases. I’m trying to use my loonies and toonies to save up for something, but I’m not getting very far because I’m so effective at buying things.

I’m on the fence about this rant. On the one hand, yeah, it is a pain in the ass to get $4.99 in change because the cashier won’t toss a penny your way (that’s a pound of change in Canada). On the other hand, the price is what it is, not a penny more or less. I always take my pennies when they’re given to me as change; I live my life by the rule, " Look after your pennies, and the dollars will look after themselves." I think, like others have said before me, if this is happening often enough to get bent out of shape about, invest in a change purse and start working your change properly.

74

DDG, why don’t you just throw some pennys in your smock, throw one out every now and then, keep the customers happy, and quit sounding like a corporate shill.

You are a fucking cashier, not the chief accountant.

In 2006, Walgreens sales were 47 fucking billion dollars from over 5000 stores and profited over a billion and a half, so who gives a fuck. You? Are you bucking for assistant manager? :rolleyes:

ETA: And if those figures are off a bit, it’s not enough to justify your “Fuck You Customer” attitude. Close enough.

75

Shit, and Whoa! Who’d athunk a little issue of a simple cent would foment such bile and vitriol??? I guess this is the Straight Dope, where things can get pretty heated. In other words,

Wait for it

Pennies ensues…
Lala!

76

Oh damn you. I’m trying to be self-pitying on a horrible Thanksgiving day and there you go making me laugh.

77

What are you, new?

:smiley:

(Good one.)

78

Well, when people whine about pennys cutting into profit of a mega-billion corporation, WTF?

eta pennies I guess, but I was in love with Penny from Lost in Space.

79

I paid for a ten dollar purchase with a ten dollar note yesterday. The cashier took it from me, stared at it and said, “What’s this?” followed by “Oh my god, this is that stuff they call cash!” Whereupon I said, “Yes, I had some, so I thought I’d better get rid of it.”

Plastic. It’s the future.

80

Some people just plain have no cents…