Stop Throwing Change at Me

The BBQ Pit
1

When cashiers started dousing themselves with Purell, I said nothing.

When they started wearing surgical gloves, or those goofy little mittens that look like they’re made out of Saran Wrap, I said nothing.

Not even when cashiers started balancing the coins from my change on top of the paper money and tentatively holidng it out toward me did I say a shitting thing.

But now I’m afraid it’s time to say something.

You may not throw my change at me, as if physical contact with my hands will automatically give you the plague. You may not flick it at me, hoping to cover the distance between our two hands, and act surprised when I’m not expecting a toss and change ends up bouncing all over the floor.

Yes, I am aware that coming into physical contact with hundreds of human beings during the course of the day may put you at an increased risk of getting a cold or something along those lines. It’s called an “occupational hazard,” and many cashiers have simply dealt with it over the years. There are plenty of alternatives to physical contact, from wearing rubber gloves to placing my change and receipt on the counter. I resent, however, the notion that throwing something at me is preferable to making actual physical contact with me.

I believe I look presentable enough. I have to shake hands with countless business associates during the course of the day. None of them has ended up with Space Herpes, flesh-eating fungus or so much as a cold. Nor have I been recently coughing, picking my nose or dipping my hands in biohazardous waste. So there’s no excuse for throwing my change at me. Either put some gloves on, go the Purell route, or suck it up.

I’m really starting to tire of this unreasonable germophobia that seems to be permeating our culture. People get colds. Germs fucking happen. Get over it.

I’m perfectly willing to let it slide if people who have regular physical contact with other people as a part of their job duties want to wear gloves or use antibacterial products. But evidently, that’s not good enough for some people. I’m guessing that the passive-aggressive continual Purell soakings haven’t adequately made the point, so cashiers have resorted to flicking change at people to avoid any physical contact whatsoever and continually remind folks that they’re all walking Petri dishes.

Next time somebody flicks change at me, I’m flicking it back (somewhat more forcefully) at the center of his forehead.

2

Yikes, that’s pretty bad. I dole out money all day, every day, and I’ve never flicked changed at someone. If they are so dirty they leave a trail, I’ll place the money on the counter quickly, smile and that’s it. If there’s no counter, just drop the change into their hand.

3

It’s like none of these people are aware they have an immune system. Take some vitamins and get the fuck over it already.

4

Well, the next time someone comes up to your register and takes a half-unwrapped, well-chewed, slobbered-over Snickers bar out of a toddler’s mouth and hands it to you, or takes a slobbered-over unopened toy away from a kid and says, “We don’t want this”, so you have to take it and drop it in your reshop basket, let’s see how long it takes you to zip around to the front of your Speed Rack as soon as they’ve left and grab an 8 ounce bottle of Walgreens hand sanitizer “For Store Use”. :wink:

It is a statistical fact that money is dirty. Cite. Cite. And from the Kindergarten Unit, Cite.

If you have a problem with cashiers using hand sanitizer, then I think you’re the one with the problem. :wink: Are you interpreting it as some kind of personal insult, if as soon as you walk away from the register, the cashier gets out her bottle of Purell? Need to get over that, I’m thinking. When car horns honk in traffic, do you also assume they’re honking at you?

One of our other cashiers is a delightful little old lady who has eczema all over her hands. Trust me, you’d prefer she wore her little gloves.

Here’s a thought: maybe they’re not flicking change at you out of new-fashioned germophobia–maybe it’s just old-fashioned laziness. Why not summon a manager and complain? “She threw, literally threw my change at me!” Bet you 10 to 1 she’s not supposed to be doing that.

5

This is when I lost it. Now, it’s all I ever get, and I fucking hate it.

Let’s summarize:

  • Paper money goes in my wallet.
  • Change goes in a pocket.

Notice these aren’t the same place? So, you do that, and the first thing I have to do is transfer one thing another hand, into the pocket then deal with the crumpled bills getting into my wallet.

  1. Hand me my change. Change goes in pocket.
  2. Hand me the bills. Into wallet.

Oh, and at the grocery store where they print 14 linear feet of coupons along with your receipt? I DO NOT want all that in one pig pile with the bills from my change.

6

You drop it into their hand. Isn’t that standard technique?

7

Change and bills both go in the same pocket for me, so which one of us should they cater to? Back in the dark ages when I was a cashier, using an abacus, I was taught to count the change back to the customer. I miss that.

As for not wanting to touch, I can understand. You never know when the next person in line will have drug-resistant tuberculosis and not give an airborne rodents buttocks about anyone else. I think it is smart for someone to protect themselves. Sure, the human race survived without the gloves, and would continue to do so, but when you get paid by the hour, the less sick leave the better off you are.

8

DDG, please re-read the OP. I have no problem with people using hand sanitizer if they feel they’re legitimately threatened by germs, disease, Stellar Tongue Rot or whatever.

The whole point of the post is that some people aren’t satisfied with the clearly effective means to avoid germs (gloves, sanitizer) and are now tossing change. It makes me wonder if their motivations for this whole germophobia thing aren’t more aligned with self-righteous attention whoring than with a real fear of germs.

9

Drop change, then bills, into hand. It’s when it’s bills, then change, that it’s a pain to deal with.

It they’re that germophobic they probably don’t. Their white blood cells are likely all hanging out in some dirty little capillary getting high since they don’t have any work to do.

10

I keep small bills and change in my pocket, and I hate this, too. The change slides around all over the surface of the bills, and gets caught when I fold them.

It’s very true that money is dirty, but a cashier has to touch the money either way.

11

In that case, maybe the cashier can refrain from licking her hand periodically while counting out cash. Maybe I’m “germophobic”, but I don’t appreciate your slobber on my paper dough.

Use the handy moisturizer dispenser if your hands are so desert-dry, scaly and reptile-like.

12

What if the cashier fills her mouth with change and smacks her inflated cheeks like John Belushi’s popped zit, festooning your face and forehead with sticky nickels?

13

I’m NOT pulling a Glomfuster here. I’m quite sure that the majority of germophobic cashiers are just overly paranoid, and there’s still no excuse for throwing change. It’s just an anecdote.

I had a professor (keyboard technique/theory) who was a raging germophobe. It was a running joke for years, both undergraduate and graduate. The slightest sniffle would get you out of class. A gentle cough would cause her to send you to the omnipresent Purell. We always laughed about it. We shook our heads in bewilderment when she ended up in a coma from West Nile virus, the only person we had ever heard of who had even the slightest trace of it. When she came out of that, we chuckled and said “only Sona, the most germophobic of all, could get West Nile.”

Then she contracted a mild infection and died, which was when we all found out that she’d been battling leukemia for ten years. We all still feel a little bad about that one.

14

I suspect the change-on-top-of-bills technique is preferred because it saves the cashier a bit of time with each transaction. Change first means s/he hands over the change, then has to pick up the bills (or transfer them from one hand to the other) and tender them. Change-on-bills can be tendered in one swoop.

A tiny savings with each transaction, yes, but over the course of the day, especially in a busy store, it can add up to significance.

Disclaimer: I’ve never worked as a cashier, so this is mere hypothesis.

15

Oh, you must be one of those crazy people I encountered from time to time when working at the drugstore. Tip: I am not throwing anything at you. You are perceiving everyone else in the world as aggressive, probably because you were victimized at an early age in some way. Please understand that your perceptions are not reality and you should probably seek help for this condition instead of making scenes in retail establishments in order to project your illness outwards.

16

The noobs are sheer gold these days. :smiley:

17

Well, that’s a novel take on QG’s schtick, at least.

18

I’d never heard of Space Herpes but it sure triggered this visual.

19

It seems to me that you’re actually helping make the OP’s point for him.

The money that cashiers handle in every transaction is probably considerably dirtier than the hands of the customers. So there’s absolutely no reason for a cashier to throw money at a customer in order to avoid getting near the customer’s hands.

Like others, i get a little annoyed by the hysterical germaphobia in today’s society. It really does get ridiculous at times.

20

I did work behind the counter for many years (10 or so) - during rush hours we could easily process a customer in 30 seconds while still smiling, counting out change without relying on the magic box, placing the bills in their proper slots (and all facing the same direction) and try to sell a car wash, hardly ever did we throw anything at anyone. This I was taught by my first boss and I later passed on to my employees.

I don’t believe that the generation behind the counter today is any dumber/stoned-er/drunker/apathetic-er than we were back then, I place the blame for crappy customer service directly at the feet of their boss. Someone has to teach them how to do things efficiently and inoffensively but no one bothers.

Maybe if enough people complained things might change. But I doubt it, and I’m not really interested in running a business again. Unless… maybe I could tour the country giving seminars on how to count change! I could get a retired sports figure, to add a little respectability.