I went to the grocery store this morning, and stood in line behind a stranger.
She had a plastic bag full of change- she’d planned to use the change-sorter to convert it to bills, but it wasn’t working, so she was just going to take it home with her groceries.
The plastic bag broke, and suddenly lots and lots of coins were pouring out onto the floor in front of the cash register.
She started picking them up. I suggested that the store would probably lend her a broom that might get it faster. She liked that idea, and soon the coins were swept to the bagging area and she was on her knees picking up the coins (not, oddly, sweeping them into the paper bag she got to put them in.)
The apparently mentally retarded bagger started helping her, and they picked up coins together for perhaps a minute and a half.
She got impatient with the whole thing, and told the bagger, “I’ll tell you what. If you’ll pick this up, you can have it.” She left the bagger alone on his knees picking up pennies while she left with her groceries. I’d guess there were between three and six dollars in very small change (mostly pennies, some nickels) on the ground.
There was something about the sight of this man scrounging change from the floor that made me feel all icky. But she clearly thought she’d done a nice thing for the guy, like giving him a tip.
Did she do a nice thing? Or was it rather a nasty trick?
I wasn’t there, but to me, it doesn’t sound like she was doing something nice or mean. She was just saying, “It’s not worth it to me to spend the time picking up the rest of these coins. But if you think it’s worth it to you, hey, go right ahead.”
To be fair to her he probabley would have had to pick them up anyway if she had just left so it’s free money to him. It does seem a bit demeaning though, scrabbling about on the floor for a few bucks in pennies. Kinda 'minds me of Vern from ‘Stand by Me’.
At a certain point, it was no longer money as much as it was just a mess on the floor.
A clerk’s job at a supermarket (one of my very first jobs years ago) is to clean up the messes in the aisle. Mentally challenged or not, that is the job.
SO…patron made a mess, then kind of apologized and clerk had to clean it up - but at least this time there was some money it in for him. Not mean - he didn’t intentionally drop it, and trying to save face for making such a mess, he said “keep it”. Nice or mean? I’d say neither.
I had to clean spilled Clorex, broken pickle jars, leaky milk cartons, mud after the rainstorms, lots of broken ketchup bottles and multiple other messes in supermarkets in my day. At least this “mess” had some financial benefit.
I couldn’t help it. I know I advocate dollar coins, and complain about the ridiculously low purchasing power/ size-and-weight ratio of our coins here, ad infinitem and ad nauseum. But it was just this week that I realized that, when all the 50 State Commemorative Quarters become available, you will be able to have all fifty of the things, and it still wouldn’t be enough money to buy three combo meals at a fast food joint. Two you could do, barely. Fricking fifty of the most valuable coin that circulates here, and all you can get is a burger, fries and soda for two people. It’s absolutely ridiculous.
So here’s this woman with her bag of pennies and nickels, which she wanted to dump into the Coinstar machine; right there, by that fact, she’s saying that it’s only worth $.91 on the dollar to her; then the bag breaks and the coins spill, and now they’re not even worth that. Why we let this happen I’ll never understand.
Hm. It is a weird image, but I think because of stories we’ve all seen where Contemptuous Person throws something precious down, leaving Poor Victim scrabbling in the dust for it. That’s deliberate humiliation.
This was not. It was just an incident, and the woman got tired of it and left, telling the guy he could have the cash. If I was the guy, I’d clean it up with no ill feeling. (But then, if I was her, I’d have cleaned it up too.) So I say it was neither nice or mean.
I do this it raises a rather unpleasant image, but for wll we know the customer might have
An appointment so pressing she did not want to be delayed by this change
or be prone, for instance, to panic attacsk - e.g a quick trip to fetch groceries might be all right, but she might be able to know very well when it’s time to cut your loosses and get the heck out.
Or, a very urgent need caused, by, say, irritable bowel syndrome. (Yes, Celyn has had to rush at great speed out of a shop before. Eek.
Still, I like the sound of these coin-changin machnes: I don’t think we have them in the U.K.
While they can be quite useful, they keep about 7 to 9 cents (depending on locale of machine) of every 100 that you put in - quite a hefty price to pay for convenience if you ask me.
Look in ASDA, they often have them near the door. Depends whether you want to change your pennies with about a 7% loss or take them to the bank and get what they’re worth!
You mean that it was obvious that he was genuinely retarded, or that he was stupid for not sweeping the coins into a bag or something?
If he really was retarded, and if she said it nicely, then it was probably nice and, if I had to bet, I’d bet that it put a little sunshine in his day.
If he wasn’t retarded and she was nice about it, then it could go either way depending on the guy—it could be like Judge Smails tipping Danny Noonan 50¢ after eighteen holes of ignoring “winter rules.”
What would you do? I don’t know what I’d do. I’d be embarassed at having caused a mess. I’d want to sort it out. But quite likely, the bother really wouldn’t be worth it. And the store should employ people to clean up - I’d never deliberately cause a problem, but since it was a complete accident and they’re there anyway, I’d let them.
Who gets the money? Assuming it’s a few dollars, I would be inclined to say it wasn’t worth my while. In that case, if he wanted it, he’d be welcome, but I wouldn’t want to offend him. I know if I was working there I’d be embarassed to take it. Though OTOH, I’d rather have it than just donate it to the store. I might try to make light of it: say in a jokey way or something, to try to let the guy know he’s welcome to it as far as I’m concerned, but if there’s some kind of policy, or he just feels better like that, he can donate it to charity or something. But I feel I’d muck it up and sound insulting.
:smack: That should have finished: Well, some people just never spend pennies at all, so it’s worth it to them. And if you have, say £10 in coins, going to the bank and queing up is probably going to waste more than 90p of most people’s time, so it is worth it, from one point of view.