Giving change back... a lost art

[keysersosay#1]

I was gonna put this in the pet peeves thread but I thought it deserved its own.. I long ago noticed( Not sure exactly WHEN this started) something that really has always bugged me...the way clerks etc give you back change at a store.

In the OLD days ,yeah I am dating myself , but say pre 1980s?? maybe earlier or later not sure ,but if you went to a store.... grocery drug etc and at that time almost always paid in cash and lets say the total with tax came to $16. 52

and you paid with a$20 the clerk would give you change this way...COUNT the coin change to make it add up to $17 and then count individually each additional bill 18 19 and 20


NOW and for the last I dont know how long NO ONE does that

INSTEAD, they just lump everything together ...coins bills etc and dump the whole thing in your hands. Coins fall all over the place you. THINK they have it right but have to count it your self

Really it is a SMALL service thing but I think it is a failure of MANAGEMENT to INSTRUCT people HOW to do it the old fashioned way A lost art IMO and will probably never return.

 

[WhatTheHeel?]

I've not had it quite that bad. It's almost always lumped change but they do count the bills, except maybe at drive-thrus. The biggest pain (and small by comparison to other world issues) is that they plop the change on top of the bills and if you have your wallet in the other hand, you have to slide the change off somewhere to get the bills in.

 

[lovetheHeels!]

What's a $20?

I always pay in plastic.

 

[gunslingerdick]

Some places have even cut the human employee out of it all together by having the coin machine spit your coin change out and the human employee just hand over the bills. It's almost like the stores are saying, "We realize that our employees are such dumbasses that they can't be trusted to give change correctly so we'll just have this machine do it for you."

 

[ElizabethtownHeel]

What about when you go to a fast food joint and your bill is 4.07 and you give them 5.25 because you don't want a pocket full of change and they act confused trying to return your change. They end up giving you a dollar 1.16 back because the math is just too difficult !

 

[Tru Blu Tar Heel]

Originally posted by keysersosay#1:

I was gonna put this in the pet peeves thread but I thought it deserved its own.. I long ago noticed( Not sure exactly WHEN this started) something that really has always bugged me...the way clerks etc give you back change at a store.

In the OLD days ,yeah I am dating myself , but say pre 1980s?? maybe earlier or later not sure ,but if you went to a store.... grocery drug etc and at that time almost always paid in cash and lets say the total with tax came to $16. 52

and you paid with a$20 the clerk would give you change this way...COUNT the coin change to make it add up to $17 and then count individually each additional bill 18 19 and 20


NOW and for the last I dont know how long NO ONE does that

INSTEAD, they just lump everything together ...coins bills etc and dump the whole thing in your hands. Coins fall all over the place you. THINK they have it right but have to count it your self

Really it is a SMALL service thing but I think it is a failure of MANAGEMENT to INSTRUCT people HOW to do it the old fashioned way A lost art IMO and will probably never return.

My pet peeve about this is not only when they lump it back to you, but also when they count it back to you in such a way that you have to totally reorganize it to put it in your wallet in ascending order.

 

[bleeduncblue]

This is one reason why I feel that the 'self checkout' is one of the top retail inventions ever. No chit chat, no one asking for a donation to some charity and no change return issues. I'll stand in line twice as long to get one of those.

 

[Tru Blu Tar Heel]

Originally posted by bleeduncblue:
This is one reason why I feel that the 'self checkout' is one of the top retail inventions ever. No chit chat, no one asking for a donation to some charity and no change return issues. I'll stand in line twice as long to get one of those.

I'm with on that one bleed. The only time I don't use the self checkout when it's available is when I have an entire cart full of groceries.

 

[mikeirbyusa]

True story...........................................

Our order at Subway comes to $14.46.
I give the young lady $14.51.

She hands me back the penny and then gives me 4c change!

I hand her the 5 pennies and tell her, "I'd like to have a nickle back".

What does she say?

"Why didn't you say so to start with."

 

[BillyL]

Originally posted by mikeirbyusa:

True story...........................................

Our order at Subway comes to $14.46.
I give the young lady $14.51.

She hands me back the penny and then gives me 4c change!

I hand her the 5 pennies and tell her, "I'd like to have a nickle back".

What does she say?

"Why didn't you say so to start with."

. . . . . unreal isn't it . . ?

 

[Tru Blu Tar Heel]

Originally posted by BillyL:

Originally posted by mikeirbyusa:

True story...........................................

Our order at Subway comes to $14.46.
I give the young lady $14.51.

She hands me back the penny and then gives me 4c change!

I hand her the 5 pennies and tell her, "I'd like to have a nickle back".

What does she say?

"Why didn't you say so to start with."

. . . . . unreal isn't it . . ?

Taking off of that, I love when my total comes to like $6.58 and I hand the cashier a ten and two ones (not having a $5 bill on me) and they look at me like I'm crazy.