Big Bill Epidemic [Language]

[Krivak]

My hatred of large bills are mainly due to the fact that those large bills know exactly when i have dropped all of my cashiers 20's into the safe. Its happened almost (not every time, but pretty damn close) exclusively right after i've done that. Its at the point that after i take their 20's, ill hear a laugh 5 minutes later, with one of them coming to me with a smile and saying "Krrriiivaaaaak, you aren't going to like this...."

Had someone 2 days ago try to pay with a fifty about half an hour after open (thank god we had 2 20's), and after i asked him if he had any other cash, he opened his pocket, took a wad of cash (it had 2 other fifties, but i SAW twenties! I SAW it!!!!) and said "nup" and played dumb. Times like those i hate being nice >_> (or being watched by the store manager, either way)

[LadyAndreca]

Well, going back to the question of $50s...here's what we start out with in our tills at the beginning of our shift at work:

$5 - 10
$1 - 50
loose change - $20

That's $100 in bills. That's IT. A $50 for a purchase under $10 will use up 8 of those 10 $5s instantly (rendering me unable to break a $100, since we're not really supposed to give the big bills back as change). A $100 will wipe out all of my bills and get me bitched at for handing back 40+ singles. Two large bills in a row, and I could be waiting several minutes for a head cashier to bring me change, if I'm at one of the registers at either end of the store. Which they might not have in larger bills, since we run out of tens around late afternoon most days.

Most days, this doesn't happen, because $20s are common enough that you can build them up (sometimes to the point of my previous story), or you have enough breathing room between cash-using customers to replenish change. But I'd say it happens to me at least once every two weeks. I won't bitch at the customer about it (out loud), but after my encounter with the one guy TRYING to drain my till, I'm a little sour about people making small purchases with a large bill.

[Mongo Skruddgemire]

Ok, now this just happened to me tonight. I go into the 7-11 to get my nightly slurpee. Low and behold, the wife took all my singles and all I have is a $100 bill to pay for my 89 cent drink.

Damnit.

So before I pour myself a drink, I went to the cashier and explained the situation to him. I then asked "Before I fill my mug, do you have the ability to break a $100?"

Clerk said yes, that he indeed had enough $20's to cover. Even making the joke that a 10-wheel box truck had come in and bought $80 in diesel (paying in cash - 4 $20's) just minutes before I got there.

So...am I a douchebag for paying for an 89 cent refill with a $100 when it was all that I had on me and had asked the clerk to make sure that this was no problem for him before having non-returnable product poured into my 64-oz mug of doom?

[Krivak]

Answer: No. You went up before you got anything and asked, and made sure he had enough to cover

[Andara Bledin]

What Krivak said.

^-.-^

[Muses_nightmare]

In light of the abundance of $20 bills, why would a $50 "wipe out" a till? Is it so unreasonable to expect that a till might have a pair of $20's and a couple of quarters for my change?

At some gas stations $20's are safe dropped as soon as they get them. I know When I worked for a gas station we weren't allowed to have $20's, nor were we allowed to have more than $50 in the till at any one time.

Though I know a lot of gas stations simply don't accept anything over a $20.

Gas stations are the worst places to ask for change, since most of them do keep a minimal amount in the till to deter robbery and prevent losses. Yet people seem to equate them with a bank for some reason. Cab drivers were the worst for that, especially since they weren't buying anything. I used to get at least 3 a night (on graveyards), sometimes more. I told them all, "sorry this isn't a bank".

On the flipside I actually preferred big bills when I was a dealer at a casino, they were easier to count Though we did get to do a cool thing with the 20's when we got over 500 of them, it consisted of making a '5' out of piles of 20's.

[Geek King]

On the flipside I actually preferred big bills when I was a dealer at a casino, they were easier to count Though we did get to do a cool thing with the 20's when we got over 500 of them, it consisted of making a '5' out of piles of 20's.

When I worked in a money room, we called those "bricks." Everything got stacked in bundles of one hundred, and five stacks of the same denomination got banded together in a brick. On particularly busy nights, I got to stack bricks of ones all the way to the drop ceiling.

[draftermatt]

Went to the bank today, asked for $150 out of my paycheck, teller hands me a $100 and a $50!

She noticed my look and asked if I wanted smaller bills, so I got (2) $20's and (6) $10's instead.

That would have been nice, going into the grocery store and buying milk and having to break a $100.

[Flood]

The other day was especially bad for people buying less than $5 in drinks and paying with a $100. We even had someone pay with a $50, which I then handed out as change to the next person* who payed with a $100.

*Now I know that she was just a bitch that wanted to use me as a change machine because she got the catbut face and tried to get me to change it out for something smaller.

[Chromatix]

Interesting that some of you aren't allowed to give $50s as change when it would be appropriate. What's the reason for that?

[Gawdzillers]

I don't have a credit/debit card, and I often only have $20 bills.

[CaroPhoenix]

When I worked at Roy Rogers, it was the rule that we had to immediately drop $20s into the little locked dropbox right next to our drawers. We'd get people who would complain that we were "too slow" to get their change. We were told that if someone paid with either a $50 or $100 we had to call the manager and they'd give us the $20s or $50s others had given us to give the person back in change (did that even make sense?).

At the Gaming Store. We had no drop box. Everything was kept in the drawer. So if someone paid with a $100 we'd give them the large bills, if we had them. And a lot of the older gamers would buy a boatload of stuff and pay with $100s, but then again, their totals would be about $200-$300 at a go.

[C-130]

This has made me think of my shift from the other night. I was doing our one and only late evening shift and it is essentially a time to just get things done we have that few customers. I am never on my checkout for longer than 30 mins. Simply due to the lack of customers, as I am never on the main checkout. Anyway, that is irrespective in this.

On the evening I was asked to help a colleague lets call her Gill to do the change. I only mention Gill for tha sake of it. Anyway dealing with the change I was shocked by two things: a)the prep required for change (it also answered why no change can be gotten from safes when open) and b) the sheer ammount of change we as a company go through in one day. We are given £900 in change to last 12 checkouts from 8:30 to 6:00 generally. Saying maybe only 7 checkouts will be open. And each starts with a float of maybe £100. It has made me hate customers who make me get a superviser to get me change now because of them needing to break large notes. After seeing how much is required to be done with regards to getting prep done for change I have a new found respect.

[EricKei]

Interesting that some of you aren't allowed to give $50s as change when it would be appropriate. What's the reason for that?

It's (normally) not so much a matter of "not allowed to give them out in change" as "they never had them in the first place". A typical float is $100-150, 1/3 or more of which is usually in the form of coin change, and $50 or more of which is all in ones.

Also, many places require that big bills be Dropped (placed into the safe) immediately, so that there is that much less ready cash lying around to be stolen.

[dalesys]

How much do we want to bet that these "Big BWillie Schmucks" take all their small bills back to the bank to get 100's?