Customers wanting grocery store to break a large bill early in the morning

[snugglegirl05]

This post and reply is from another forum I am a member of..

Post:

Depends on the time of day and whether that till has just been started out. Starting funds for tills generally are not large enough to be able to break large bills for small purchases, it takes time to build enough cash to do that.

Reply:

What is the customer service desk for?

Why can't the cashier call over and have the manager bring change over to the till? Too much effort?

Cash registers are not the only places in the store with money.

Isn't there a safe in the store, normally in the office?

I refuse to believe that a supermarket cannot break a 100 dollar bill just because it's 6 a.m.

My questions:

For the members of this site have you worked at a store that would do this for a customer early in the morning?

What would a business usually do in this situation?

[Seanette]

And has it dawned on some of these geniuses that stores only keep a limited change fund in that magical office "in the back"? Money gets conveyed to the safety of the bank ASAP.

[Pixelated]

"If it's that easy to break this bill, why haven't you already done it?"

Yeah, I know -- can't say that, much as one would like to.

I'm pretty sure that my business would simply keep repeating, "I'm sorry, but we don't have enough to cover that much change this early." To the rest of the questions, "No, I'm sorry we can't do that. Store policy."

It's the "broken record" technique. If you repeat yourself often enough (hopefully there isn't a huge lineup forming behind the idiot) they will eventually go away. Yeah, they'll be pissed off, but TFB for them for being that stupid in the first place.

We've had people give us $100 bills for stuff, but it's usually well into the business day and we don't have trouble giving change.

[notalwaysright]

For the members of this site have you worked at a store that would do this for a customer early in the morning?

What would a business usually do in this situation?

At my work one register has more cash than the others, and is unofficially the customer service register. We also have a change fund locked up near the customer service register, to buy rolled coin and such. If someone had a $100 first thing, and I couldn't break it at a normal register I would suspend the transaction and go to the customer service register. Regardless, we could absolutely break a $100 at any time of the day.

I would expect a large grocery store to have enough funds. I would NOT expect a small store to be able to break a large bill early in the morning. So I guess it would depend. I hardly ever carry cash myself, though, and have no idea what amount of cash a grocery store register keeps as float.

[EricKei]

Aside from the "This isn't a bank, dammit" and "The ATM is right there" arguments, I think of it this way:

Giving someone change for a hundred when they only owe ten bucks (for example), or they just want change, usually means wiping out the bulk of the change the cashier needs. This means no change to give the next five or ten customers, just to please one. The needs of the one vs the needs of the many, anyone...? Also, in my personal experience, and those of many others I've read about, the overwhelming majority of the customers who try this have enough small bills already; many just seem to think they're impressing someone (aside from that pickpocket who's been following them around that they have yet to notice...)

On the "why can't they just get change from the desk?" -- Good question. Why can't you (the customer) do that? It's faster for everyone else, and the desk might not have the small bills to spare yet, either, especially if THEY just opened. Also, safes in most such places have time locks on them.

As for "refusing to believe" (said with nose held in the air) --- At many stores, the opening till amount might not even BE a hundred bucks. At many, $75 in coin and bills is the standard, plus they have to drop extra cash once their total passes $200. I've only ever worked at one (game store) where $150 was normal, and that's because the place HAD no CS desk, the safe was on a 10-minute timer, and there WAS no spare change fund first thing in the morning; just the starter tills, which were sacrosanct, and hidden in the safe anyway. If we broke a hundy first thing, that would drop me down to nothing but coins and maybe ten ones; we would be --screwed-- until we had, say, ten customers all come in paying with ones and fives who only needed coin change. At a video game store. Good luck on that one.

[Android Kaeli]

For the members of this site have you worked at a store that would do this for a customer early in the morning?

What would a business usually do in this situation?

Prior to me leaving the front end for other places in the Warehouse, I'd tell customers that I could do it HOWEVER they would have to wait for me to get a supervisor, them to put in a request to the office, have the office come out, verify that the bill was not counterfeit, take the bill into the office, get the change, come back out, and hand ME the change. Usually the wait time was upwards of twenty to thirty minutes, depending on how long it took me to get a supervisor flagged down.

Not too many customers wanted to listen to a long line of people tell them that they were idiots for holding up the line, especially when it's a holiday.

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

My questions:

For the members of this site have you worked at a store that would do this for a customer early in the morning?

What would a business usually do in this situation?

1. Nope, the swamp wouldn't do that. Not enough money in the till, huge hassle to get more, and it could be a prelude to a quick-change scam.

2. Say no, unless they are petrified of getting a complaint from that customer.

[Dreamstalker]

I used to be an opening cashier until I told a smug idjit paying for a muffin with a $100 that I couldn't break it the way he wanted, he ignored me...so I gave him what I had in my drawer which was two $10s and the rest in fives, ones and coins. Then shut my lane down and told the waiting line that I would open on another register as I had just run out of change. Apparently the lead that day (third time I'd done this) didn't like that I didn't "satisfy the customer" Nevermind she didn't have an alternate solution.

For your questions, I would say
1) No. I was always suspicious of big bills for tiny orders; a few times the SC's intent was a quick-change scam but it was shut down.
2) In the general sense, I would hope they'd say no and/or send them to the service desk (often has more cash on hand). Unless they're afraid of getting some petty complaint.

[wolfie]

Unless a store has a policy "We don't accept bills larger than $20", they should have no problem breaking a hundred for a REASONABLE customer at any time. What distinguishes a reasonable customer from an unreasonable customer? A reasonable customer tenders a $100 bill when buying $80 worth of groceries. An unreasonable customer tenders a $100 bill when buying a pack of gum.

[CyberLurch]

"I refuse to believe.... "

There's the beating heart of the problem right there. Those four words, completely and willfully ignoring reality simply because it's 'inconvenient' to them. This, and its sibling "I choose to believe" are THE two phrases I hate most. I see red every time I hear someone squawk those words.

One cannot choose or refuse to believe anything. You either believe it, or you don't. End of sentence. And whether you believe it or not has absolutely no effect on reality.

I despised the early-morning small-purchase high rollers, handing me a $100 bill to buy a pack of gum or something ridiculous like that. Sorry, dude, I never have more than $30 in the drawer at ANY time, and certainly not at this forsaken hour. Why? Well, just take a stroll outside and look around at the neighborhood.

Plus, dropping excess cash tended to limit the losses due to my thieving coworker.

On the plus side, it was always entertaining to see the look of befuddlement on customers' faces when told 'no'.

Okay, rant over now.

[eltf177]

When trying to buy a pack of gum with a $100 bill just tell them they get what change you have which ISN'T enough - take it or leave it.

Seriously, small stores are NOT banks. Don't treat them as such.

Many stores won't take $50 or $100 bills for small purchases. One large local grocery store has SCO's that will take 50's, which was good as for some reason I never understood my mom used to pay me in 50's which were not easy to break...

[Becks]

As a 3rd shifter, big bills are a safety issue for me.

I'm not supposed to keep 20, 50 and/or 100 dollar bills in my register at all, for any length of time or for any reason.*

There is a difference with me, though.

I have access to the safe.

That being said, I will, with malicious glee, give any asshat who pays for a small purchase with a 50 or 100 all the small bills I can.

Oh, the hatred I get in return.

"Don't you have any larger bills?"
"Sir" (it's almost always a man, btw) "It's 2:15 in the morning. It's a safety issue for me."

Unspoken thought...when I go to the bank and withdraw some cash, the tellers ALWAYS ask me how I want my bills. Do their bank(s) not do this?

*Actually, no matter what time of day, no one is supposed to keep those bills on hand.
Having truckers come in, though, needing advance on their pay, we try to keep some 20s available.

[icmedia]

Unspoken thought...when I go to the bank and withdraw some cash, the tellers ALWAYS ask me how I want my bills. Do their bank(s) not do this?

I'm positive that they do...and the customers ASK for big bills. I've stood behind plenty of "high rollers" at my bank who get their paychecks cashed just so they can flash a few hundreds around wherever they go.

[Lovecats]

When I used to work at a local bank years ago we had one of the local cops that would come in to cash his paycheck. And ALWAYS ask for 50s.

[workerbee222]

Why can't the cashier call over and have the manager bring change over to the till? Too much effort?

Well of course the cashier can do that. One hopes that On-the-ball-Patrick or Watching-Carefully-Debbie are the CSRs on that day, on your line, and not Couldn't-Give-A-Rip-Sheila, who sometimes responds to your blinking light, and sometimes just...doesn't.