Yep. I used to work for 7-Eleven many moons ago. Given the right circumstances, upon occasion I couldn’t make change for a 20, either. It was usually after all my small bills had been all given out.
However, these days most places seem to have the cash machines where the clerk can not only drop excess cash, they can get cash out once every 10 minutes or so.
Ah, Petro-Canada. They probably do have a policy in place that keeps less than $10 on hand. Jerks.
I’m not trying to be antagonistic, I’m just curious - what’s wrong with putting small things on your credit card?
I understand the store’s side, but I also understand the customer’s side, money is money and it’s “Legal Tender.” They need to come up with a way to allow transactions like a $2 soda on a $50 bill.
By the way, quit buying $2 sodas! 
I was a convenience store clerk. We were forbidden to have more than $50 in the drawer, total, at any given time. $20 bills had to be dropped into the safe, and we were chastized for large drops because they meant we had allowed an accumulation of cash. It was a middle class neighborhood, but theives don’t only knock off stores near their houses. The place had been robbed a few years before.
I worked alone. I was instructed to call a manager if I ran out of small bills and they’d come open the safe.
One Sunday afternoon I had a change emergency, both in small bills and coinage. The manager wasn’t home. The assistant manager wasn’t home. I finally reached one of the non-manager employees, a long timer who knew the safe code. We were in the process of straightening things out when a customer came in. He looked vaguely familiar, but I was preoccupied. Fortunately he paid with exact change.
It turned out that he was the guy I had been flirting with at a picnic the previous weekend. He showed up at the store to ask me out, but chickened out when he saw the trouble I was having and that a “manger” was there.
We didn’t end up going out for another five months, but I married him so I guess it worked out.
sigh
The concept of “legal tender” applies to debts, not purchases. A purchase is not a debt. If a merchant will accept payment for a purchase only in pieces of eight or socks full of pennies, that’s their right. They do NOT have to accept a $100 bill to pay for a pack of gum.
I’m with Magiver: don’t accept bills for purchases that would clean out your change. A few times when I was selling my handmade jewelry, someone would want to buy a $5 item with a $100 early in the day. Nope, sorry, I’m not a bank and I’m not emptying my till for you. Go break the bill someplace else and come back, or else I’ll gladly forgo this sale so that I can make other sales to people with an ounce of sense.
I like to keep my credit card available for large purchases I don’t make every day. Thus I know approximately how much is owing at any given time, and using it constantly for small things will throw off my knowledge of what’s owing–and in my experience, leaving me with a nasty surprise when the bill arrives.
Besides, I don’t like using it for things I’ll consume quickly. In stores such as this one, candy, newspapers, snacks–yes, and Cokes–are, to me, cash transactions. That way, I won’t have finished and forgotten my purchase when the bill arrives.
Now, my question, which arises from some of the comments here: what’s wrong with a $2 Coke? The price for a 591 ml Coke (about 20 oz) at this place is (IIRC) $1.79 plus tax plus bottle deposit. Total = $2. It’s the going rate around here for that size bottle of soda pop. What’s wrong with that?
What’s wrong with that is you can get a 2-liter bottle of Coke for 99 cents. Your cost per liter on the 20oz is SO much higher.
Yes, but the 2-liter won’t fit in the cupholder of my car. Remember what I mentioned in the OP: I was getting a Coke for the long car trip.
That just takes a little planning ahead then. 
There are people who do occasionally have legitimate reason to carry large bills. For instance, I knew someone who worked on large construction projects. On many projects, all of the tradespeople/laborers would immediately cash their paychecks at the issuing bank rather than depositing the checks into their personal accounts, because construction companies (some more than others) have an unfortunate habit of working their cash flow so tightly that the paycheck account sometimes runs out, and the two days while the check goes from your bank to the company’s bank might be the difference between getting paid and having your paycheck bounce (if it bounced you’d probably get paid… eventually… but bankruptcies do happen regularly in construction…).
When you’re cashing a full paycheck including big overtime hours, $100 bills are a lot more convenient than $20s.
Sounds like somebody needs to upgrade their cupholder!
Hey, I may be notorious for always having coffee or Coke while I drive long distances, but even I have to balk at trying to quaff a two-liter soft drink while I drive. For one, it would get warm; and two, it would necessitate a lot of … well, otherwise unnecessary breaks, if you get my drift.
I pulled into a gas station to buy a soda and they guy said they wouldn’t take any plastic for under a $5 purchase.
How about a cooler with ice sitting on the passenger floor? Sit the 2-liter in it and drink with a long straw or section of tubing. On second thought, that wouldn’t look good if you picked up a hot female hitchhiker.
I’ve seen the odd sign here and there that said they would charge the customer a surcharge for using a debit card for under a certain small dollar amount (again, Canadian debit card, not the American version).
Technically, that’s against most (if not all) credit card merchant agreements here in the US (along with requiring ID for credit card purchase), but good luck trying to enforce it.
Sounds like somebody needs to upgrade their bladder!
Good thing I wasn’t talking about credit cards, then (or American debit cards). Canadian debit cards are hooked up only to your bank account (chequing or savings) - they have nothing to do with any credit accounts.
Right. I work in a convenience store and we can’t have more than $70 in the till ($50 on 3rd shift). For a long time this wasn’t enforced (though I always dropped big bills), but 2 stores (including my own) were robbed in recent weeks and it’s now strictly enforced. We can’t save up cash either (not even for lottery winners). I usually refuse at least 2 or 3 sales per shift because people want to pay with 50s or 100s. I’ll also write off coffee/grill items and throw them away instead of letting people have them for free (I’d be fired if I did). The only exception is if they have gas in their tank (despite our protests corporate still wants to let people post-pay in daytime:rolleyes:). In that case (& only that case) we can open the bag with spare 1s & 5s. I once had to give a guy $87 in 1s and rolls of quarters. In case anyone wondering we do have signs up (& on each pump) saying “Our cash reserves are very low; we may not be able to accept 50 or 100 bills.”.