I work in retail and I have no problem with people walking away from the register in mid-transaction. I can just cancel their sale with the press of two buttons and take care of the next customer until they get back. Although it always seems like they are looking for something else to buy when they walk away. I’ve never seen or heard of anyone leaving the register for any other reason.
I’ve never noticed the money thing, but one of my coworkers keeps complaining about it.
Working at a gas station, I have a different version of #1: hand me exact change for a gas pre-pay and walk away immediately. Not a problem if there’s no one behind you. Also not a problem if the person behind you either isn’t paying with exact change or has items for me to ring up. But if the next person is also paying exact change for a gas pre-pay, there’s a good chance they will put their exact change on the counter and also walk away immediately… while I’m still waiting for my slow-ass register to finish the first transaction.
Some of the people who throw money might be germophobes. A lot of people are irrationally paranoid about touching other people’s hands. It’s still rude, though.
Something that always strikes me as particularly obnoxious is when a customer is talking on a cell phone during the transaction. How hard is it to put down the phone and acknowledge another person’s existence for 45 seconds?
Disgust, not wanting to deal with them at that time, being so fed up with waiting
is bizarre.
is probably a cultural/geographical area thing. Here it seems to be indifferent whether you put the money on the counter or hand it to the person; it’s really whichever happens to be less awkward at the time. Always assuming that you don’t make a big production out of it (laying it gently on the counter and creeping away as though you are afraid of the clerk; flinging it on the counter; etc.)
I haven’t the foggiest idea what you just said to me.
People who do that oughta be beaten to death, buried, exhumed, and set on fire. How fucking rude can you be? What the hell is wrong with people like this?
The money-on-the-counter thing might be an occupational habit for some customers, too. As a cook, I’m always handling hot things that can spill. When I’m passing one of these things to another person, the most likely time for it to spill is that moment when the other person takes hold and I let go. I’ve learned that the safest way to pass something spillable is to simply set it down on a counter and let the other person pick it up themselves.
Since dropped coins register as “spillable” - i.e. they go all over the place if you drop them - I almost always set (not throw) them on the counter. I do this without even thinking about it. Bills, on the other hand, don’t register as “spillable”, so I always hand those directly to the clerk.
I’ve maybe been guilty of #1 a few times, but in a modified way. It’s more like: “Damn! I forgot to buy batteries.” And I say something like “Sorry, I just have to grab some batteries,” and my body language shows frenzied apologetic hurry.
For #2 I’ve NEVER, NEVER done it when I noticed someone’s hand was out but there have probably been a zillion times I’ve done it without noticing. Here’s why, in my case. I’m a severe Type A (at times) and I’m also extremely thought oriented. So when I’m standing on line at the drug store, I’ve got to be doing something useful. If I don’t have something to read I’ll be actively involved in some planning for work or something. Even a day dream. And I just don’t have any attention left for the poor person serving me. Sorry about that! I promise to monitor it in the future.
What she said. I frequently deal with Hasidic Jews. I know better. I place my cash on the table/counter top and wait. They pick it up. They make change and a receipt. They place it down. I wait. I pick it up. I have to respect the dynamic- it is their place of business and I am regarded in a certain light.
If that light offends me, well then I shouldn’t be in there ! 
So, I do as I know is expected. Perhaps this is what is happening in this case? Or, as pointed out, it’s the Euro way?
The other thing is just appallingly rude. Who does this? A cashier is doing rapid careful focused work and the other half of the human equation wanders off? Thats just plain awful.
Cartooniverse
p.s. People who throw money down at another person generally don’t deserve to share the oxygen I’m using. That’s just appalling.
The other thing I wouldn’t dream of doing - because it’s rude to the other customers - is to saunter up to the express checkout with a trolley half full. It happens all the time where I shop. I had no idea there were so many functionally illiterate people in this country.
people actually wander away?
I have had people order (when i worked at an ice cream place) pay and leave. HOw do you forget you ordered something. Most didn’t even come back…
Once at a Burger King in Fresno, back when I was probably around the ripe age of 13 or 14 at the most, I ordered a meal, got my cup and walked off to fill it up with Dr. Pepper, then started to walk towards the table I desired when I heard “Are you going to pay for that?” I felt like I had wet my pants on national TV. I went back to the counter, tried to work up the most self-ashamed look I could muster, paid for my meal, and sat down trying to block the nice cashieress and my social faux pas out of my mind, only comforted by my mother reminding me that I’d probably never see the poor girl again.
After having been back in my home town of San Diego for a few months, I saw her selling ice cream at a Padres game and froze. I thought, “Could it be her? Could it be the loving cashieress I shunned on that fateful day in Fresno? No, it can’t be!” Lo and behold, she turned to me and locked eyes and we exchanged horrified looks as we recognized each other.
Truth be told, I haven’t been quite the same since.
I work at a cash register, as well, and both of these happen to me ALL THE TIME.
I agree with you that it’s even more infuriating if they walk away when there’s no lineup and another customer is ready in the meantime. Luckily for me, there are two tills right beside each other, and I just start ringing up the ready customer on the free till while the other one waits for the Looksee Lulu to come back. If Lulu comes back while I’m ringing up Ready Randy, then Lulu’s going to have to wait. (More often than not, Lulu comes back, sees I’m helping someone else, and then wanders away again.)
I HATE the people who throw payment. Particularly if I am still ringing in their transaction, that is to say I’m still entering all the items, and they’ve been standing there with their arms extended with the money in their hand the whole time. Their money’s waving around inches from my face, and then eventually they get tired of holding it and drop it on the counter (from a height, I mean) so they can finally put their arms back into a resting position. WHY?!!?!??! What, did you think I was going to forget to ask for your money or something? You could have held it down by your side and given it to me when I was finished! Cashiers do generally let you know when they are ready for your money.
Haha! (Sorry, nothing productive to add, other than “Haha!”)
That’s what I do. Mainly because I don’t like when people balance the coins on the bills to give them to me.
Sometimes I do the first but I would always say something. A while ago I glanced in the trolley of the couple behind me at the supermarket and realised that I had forgotten a case of Diet Coke. I didn’t have to leave though, the woman made her husband go and get me one.
I nearly always pay with a debit card.
In the few cases where I don’t, I will hand the money to the cashier if I don’t already know the rough total in my head by the time he rings it up.
For instance, if I only have a $20 bill, I’m likely to take it out and set it on the counter because, well, that’s my only choice. When the cashier asks for money, if they don’t see (and pick up) the bill, I’m just as likely to pick it up myself and hand it over as the cashier is to get it.
When I have multiple small bills I wait for the total, count the bills, and hand it over.
Might not be the best possible juxtaposition, there…:dubious:
What’s with the waiting? Is it you doing the waiting both times, or are “they” waiting too?
Can you explain “that light”? Is it any different from dealing with Orthodox merchants? green bean didn’t mention all the waiting before picking up money.
Once or twice I have had a customer count out some bills and fling them on the counter but it’s usually a weird kind of macho gesture by the kind of rude, showoffy person who has so many obnoxious habits that you aren’t surprised when he flings his money on the counter. I never saw a normal person fling. People who fling money are making up their own rules in life. I have noticed that some people place their money on the counter and a lot of cashiers here do it. Flinging is a different matter.
As far as wandering away goes, I have seen it so much I don’t find it abnormal. It’s as if the 3 minutes it takes to ring up a sale is just too much downtime for some people. If they’re forced to stand still for that long, disturbing existential thoughts might creep into their heads and they might be confronted with their own mortality and the futility of all their petty human pursuits. That’s what I assume, anyway. It’s just an unbearable, interminable Sartrean hell to stand there with nothing to contemplate but me so they’re compelled to go look at something more interesting. To be honest, I never missed them while they were gone. I think sometimes in that situation I feel the urge to flee too, I just don’t do it because I’m not impulsive or hyper.
It’s generally considered rude in Europe to hand the money directly to the cashier. After living there for several years, I had to break the habit of laying the money on the counter when I returned to the states. On the other hand, I’ve had cashiers here in the states plunk the money down on the counter none too gently and abruptly turn their back on me.
I don’t know how I did it, but I’ve ordered, paid, and left. I stopped at a drive through on my way to work. When I got to the window, the attendant took my money, gave me my drink, then went away to assemble the rest of my order. I just drove away. I realized what I’d done before I left the driveway, but I didn’t have time to wait through the whole drive through line or park and go into the store.
I was really to pressed for time to have stopped at the drive through in the first place, and I was preoccupied with planning my work day. Plus I’m often somewhat absent minded. This is the only time I can recall walking (or driving) away from the register without at least saying something to the cashier first, however.