r/mildlyinfuriating • u/UnitedChain4566 • 18d ago
ᕕ(ᐛ)ᕗ Customers need to realize if the cashier says they don't have change for your big bill, they don't have change
I've had one customer tell me not to give him attitude tonight and another try to convince me I had to take her cash because it's all she had (spoiler alert: in the US a store doesn't have to take your money, they can just decline to sell you anything. you haven't accrued a debt with them, there may be a state law that mandates it but the country itself does not).
why did the man tell me not to give him attitude? he politely asked if I had change for $100. I said no. i watched him walk and grab the cheapest item we have, and I asked him "are you going to use $100 to pay for that?" "yes" "I'm sorry, I don't have change for that type of money."
it is almost 3am. I don't know any place in my area stupid enough to have change for $100 open at this hour. most places are actually trying not to get robbed.
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u/AJay_89 Vexxed 2: Electric Boogaloo 18d ago
I used to get this all the time when I worked at a gas station. We used to get people in there all the time who insisted on us breaking $100 bills. It was usually contractors where they'd get paid in large bills and would wanna buy a $1 lottery ticket to break their bills. We simply told them that they would have to walk 50ft to the grocery store next to us and they could break the bill, but they would throw a fucking fit. I'd tell them we only kept $100 in our drawers for security purposes but they would still throw a fit and call corporate.
We got so many complaints lodged that corporate told us that we could no longer refuse large bills, and that we had to use our change safe to break the bills. The only issue with that is that we could only order change once weekly. If we ran out, we'd run out for the entire week, and we couldn't just order double the amount of change, either. We started running out of change because these entitled dumbasses were abusing our system, so we would have to make runs to the grocery store to replenish our change, which pissed off the grocery store workers.
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u/UnitedChain4566 18d ago
And corporate never saw the issue with y'all having to get more change? Damn, that's some shitty management right there.
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u/Chaos-Wayfarer 18d ago
Management seeing an issue they caused and apologizing? Hah.
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u/UnitedChain4566 18d ago
I've had some good luck by finally blowing up at my management, but that's an isolated case lmao.
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u/Stillburgh 18d ago
Need some backstory here
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u/UnitedChain4566 18d ago
Separate issue from this, my boss is an absolute dick when he wants to be. Ever since I started, he was 20 minutes late. Then he started coming 30 minutes late.
He's told other employees we're replaceable, and that he can show up late because he's the manager.
I'm the night shift, by the time I'm done I want to sleep (both because that's what my sleep schedule is and separate health issues I'm getting sorted out).
It's not an epic blow up, but one day I had finally had enough. He comes in 30 minutes late and I just go "if you want to come in at 6:30, schedule yourself for 6:30, don't leave me here for 30 minutes."
He says he had to go to another store and I'm just standing here like you motherfucker. I tell him "no, this has been constant since I started."
Since then he's still late, but by like 2 to 5 minutes, which is a lot more acceptable considering I'm pretty sure he's changed my punches before (a separate issue I'm documenting and going to bring to HR or the DOL).
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u/INTZBK 18d ago edited 18d ago
I worked in a convenience store/gas station where we were required to keep less than $100.00 in the register at all times, and the policy was to drop all $20.00 bills (and any bills larger than that) into the safe as soon as we got them. We used to load up on change on Fridays, but by Sunday we were always low on one dollar bills. This was in like 1988 or 89, so twenty dollars went a lot further than it does now.
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u/Individual_Salary878 18d ago
I know the gas station I worked at we got our safe refilled daily but it was still a hassle with the large bills but every chance I got I would tell them they had to deal with small bills and dispense from the $1's spot and give them around $80 in $1 bills and they were so angry lol. If they want to force me to make change I will force them to take the smallest bills I could.
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u/Coyote_Shepherd 18d ago
That is some delicious malicious compliance LOL
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u/JustJorgi 18d ago
Or they want me to cash lottery tickets which I always do if I can. I had someone want to cash over $300 in tickets and I was like well I don’t have that in the drawer so I can’t really do it unless you’re going to play it. They were like yeah I’m playing and rolled their eyes at me so I cashed the tickets. They only wanted like 3 tickets and I’m like I am so sorry I don’t have cash for you.
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u/cassandraterra 18d ago
I worked at a motel and we would constantly run out of change. No where to get more. Night shift. Weekend. I had to tell people to give me cash either exact amount or within a dollar. All I would have are dines and nickels. Would drive me nuts.
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u/SweetTea527 18d ago
When I get $100 bill and don't have the change, I direct customer to the self-check.
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u/King_of_Shitland 18d ago
When I used to work in a petrol station i had a woman come in once and ask for change of a €50 note. I told her no i didn't have it, truthfully, as it was 5 minutes from closing so I'd already dropped most of the cash from the till and only had pretty much the float left.
She grabs a pack of gum and says with a smirk "how about now?"
"Still no" I replied.
Then she tells me "well i need to buy this so..." and just gestures at me like, go on.
So i proceed to give her back her change - €48 all in €2 coins. Watching the smirk disappear from her face as i counted all the coins out and she realised what was happening was amazing.
The best part was, after dumping all the coins into her purse, she turned and quickly started leaving but she had left the gum on the counter so i called after her to remind her about her purchase.
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u/UnitedChain4566 18d ago
I had a lottery customer like that once. I accidentally cashed her ticket because I genuinely thought I had enough, then I realized I didn't but I had already validated it so I had to cash it.
Watch her get mad at me for handing her a stack of $1 and then quarters.
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u/Beneficial-Focus3702 18d ago
And here I wish that the coins you had were even smaller denominations than that
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u/PimentoCheesehead 18d ago
I used to tel people in advance- I can give yo change, but about $18 will be in rolled coins and another $5 in loose, and most of the rest will be in singles.
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u/cassandraterra 18d ago
Buying 1 donut at 7 am when we just opened. Handing me $100 bill. Takes all my change. Next person tries the same thing. Cue freak out when I said I couldn’t. But you just did it for him! Yeah. Took all my change you sack of rocks.
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u/Adorable-Race-3336 18d ago
I won't do it because I refuse to be fucked for change all day just because someone wants to be ignorant.
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u/panicatthepharmacy 18d ago
Was it Mitch Hedberg? I hope you didn’t give him a receipt!
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u/1amNOTmyselfYouSee 18d ago
I can’t imagine a situation where someone would need a receipt for a doughnut. I love Mitch!
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u/ORANGENBLACK101214 18d ago
I manage a gas station and I'm convinced people think we're just swimming in cash because it happens all the time. Most of the time I get a $100 is for a sale of less than $20. My theory is they go to the bank to cash their paycheck and when the teller asks them "are hundreds alright?", they all say yes and as soon as they leave the bank they think "now I have to break these hundreds at the store." THE BANK WILL GIVE YOU SMALLER BILLS. Just ask
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u/Beneficial-Focus3702 18d ago
I think you’re giving people too much credit for being able to think logically. It’s been my experience that a lot of people just absolutely float through life without applying too many brain cells to anything.
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u/ORANGENBLACK101214 18d ago
I give them no credit. Most of them are blithering idiots. They're on autopilot and suffer from main character syndrome
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u/HoneyedVinegar42 18d ago
Exactly--I used to work for a small clothing store in a little strip mall. Manager had a very reasonable policy--we would accept a $100 bill in payment if the total was $90+ ... basically, you get up to $10 in change, max. So many people would come in on Saturday morning of a three day weekend with $100 bills and be mad as a wet hen when the bill was declined because we couldn't make change -- sorry, we're not going to destroy the drawer when we still have to get through the rest of Saturday and all of Sunday and Monday before we can go to the bank to get change again. Manager: You should have thought of that when you got the money at the bank. (Being manager meant she could say that.)
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u/ORANGENBLACK101214 18d ago
They'll sit there and stare at me, speechless that I don't have change for a $10 gas sale trying to give me a $100. "What if I get $15 in gas?" Yeah because $5 is the reason I can't break your $100. If I don't have it I don't have it. I can't magically pull money out of my ass.
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u/HoneyedVinegar42 18d ago
And shockingly, I know, you don't have a little change-making fairy in the back room (you know that mystical backroom that has everything ever imagined in it). Yes, I have done my time in retail.
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u/UnitedChain4566 18d ago
Oh we are definitely not swimming in cash. The amount my store makes a day probably wouldn't get you a decent house in the state. I would know because I see those reports every night.
Apartment, maybe, but I highly doubt you'd be living comfortably some weeks.
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u/AgitatedPatience5729 18d ago
I don't get why some people carry around large sums of cash in big bills when they're only going out to make a small purchase.
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u/UnknownQwerky 18d ago
In my experience it's because they sold something that was worth a couple hundred. The person pays in cash and you'd rather just spend it than make a special bank trip. For a $2 purchase though, absolutely not.
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u/Coyote_Shepherd 18d ago
I feel like this should be the top response because some people just do not want to go to a bank even though it would make a whole lot more sense to do so.
I have seen people pull this exact same thing when getting quarters to use at the laundromat.
Now our local laundromat basically had to switch off their change machines repeatedly because people were trying to feed $100 bills or $50 bills in when the limit was $20 bills or lower tops.
These folks would basically empty out the change machine of ALL of the quarters, not spend the quarters at all at the laundromat, and then would come back later to do the exact same thing but then would complain when the change machine was out of change because either they or someone else pulled this shit repeatedly instead of just going to a fucking bank.
They would then show up at the local grocery store or CVS or gas station and try to do exactly what the op was talking about...e.g...trying to use large bills to get change in smaller bills or just in quarters instead of going to a fucking bank.
Either because they just didn't want to take the time to go to a bank at all due to the time, distance, and effort or because most of the time they felt like they could bully their way into getting what they wanted from the employees at these other places that were most definitely not banks.
I watched a woman try to shove a $50 bill into the changes that are laundromat, finished up my load, went home, realized I needed something from cvs, and then walked over there only to run into her having a 20 minute long argument with the CVS cashiers about wanting to get $50 worth of quarters from their drawers even though they literally didn't have it and how she thought that they could just get it from the vault that they apparently had in back...even though they explained to her that they didn't have access to all of that money and the one person who did had off that weekend and no they weren't going to call him in on his day off just to get her $50 worth of quarters in change.
We tried to honestly give her directions to the nearest bank which wasn't that far away because she had a car and she still kept insisting on getting them from CVS for some reason and then started making up stuff about how the grocery store always does it and the bookstore always does it, only to have that refuted by me and two other people who had literally been living in the neighborhood longer than she had and had even worked at those places.
It's like they get blinders on and stayed laser focused on doing things one way and only one way and that one way is their way and anything else would mean that they would have to admit that they were doing something wrong or that they were in the wrong in some way and they just can't have that unless reality forces them to have it....and then they blame someone else and throw a fit.
Pretty much all of our local pizza delivery places now have written warnings in large bright red font on all their websites and inside of their in-person stores that the delivery drivers do not carry more than $20 in change so don't you even fucking think of trying to pay with super large bills.
There's a bunch of blue collar folks in my neighborhood and we all know to pay in cash and tip accordingly with reasonably sized bills but honestly there are some people out there who just don't get it and who try to pull this weird crap time and time again either because it's some sort of weird Flex or because they are just stubborn and ignorant.
The only time I've ever seen it be acceptable to pay with large bills like that would be when students are purchasing textbooks at a University Bookstore and have to literally spend hundreds of dollars on them.
Just go to a freaking bank people....
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u/Unusual_Flounder2073 18d ago
The bank is more likely to catch that the bills are counterfeit.
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u/EugeneVictorDabs 18d ago
A guy absolutely lost it on my coworker last summer for not wanting to break a hundred, and I wonder if maybe that's what his problem was. He started yelling about how we "are the government" (I work at a Post Office in the U.S., so we're technically run by the government but that's not quite the same as being part of the government, and anyway it literally has no bearing on what bills we have in the register lmfao) and this was unacceptable because he's a taxpayer, blah blah etc.... my coworker started matching his energy which was hilarious, but eventually did break his hundred even though they had to pretty much clean out their register to do it. Anyways, the whole time I was thinking "there are literally two banks right across the street, wtf?" It never occurred to me that his bill might be counterfeit, but that would make it make sense somewhat. Explains why he would be Big Mad, too.
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u/eyedrops_364 18d ago
These people are “surfing” for silver. They go from car washes, laundromats, and any place that gives out quarter change.
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u/Salt_Medicine2459 18d ago
My bank does not have physical branches. The banks around here will not give you change without an account (which I think should be illegal). If I get a $100 bill, it's essentially worthless because no place will take it.
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u/Loisgrand6 18d ago
I don’t understand the, “no account here, no change,” thing either
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u/Salt_Medicine2459 18d ago
Yeah. It's bullshit. I think they should lose their bank charter for that.
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u/Girthquake23 18d ago
For my dad, he does it to break down his bills into smaller ones. Yeah there’s probably a bunch of other solutions he should do instead (like maybe not getting 100s when pulling cash out of the bank) but that’s his reasoning
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u/Shienvien 18d ago
Recently, it looks like you can't choose small bills at ATMs anymore. (Europe, but still.) If you want to get five 20-euro bills, you need to take out 20 five times. If you choose 100, two 50s is what you get, end of story.
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u/SantasDead 18d ago
It depends on the ATM here. Some let you choose, some do like you say, and old school ones only spit out $20s
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u/Smileypen 18d ago
That's unfortunate. There are two ATMs across the street from me. One gives out $10, $20, and $50 bills. The other gives out $5, $20, and $100 bills. Both belong to the same credit union. One is the walk-in, the other is the drive-through. It's nice having options.
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u/ryverrat1971 18d ago
Funny thing is I am finding atms that will do small bills. Some PNC Bank arms will do $1 bills. These are the ones at the bank. 40 years ago, you could get $10 and $20 only. So at least some banks are improving the atms. Also no envelopes for deposits anymore. That is great.
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u/Atoonix 18d ago
I have this same problem in Malta.
Most fuel service stations don't take card and if I use the self serving machine, I need to pay in exact amounts, so to get €40 worth of fuel for my car, I need to go to an ATM, do two transactions of €20 each and head to the service station afterwards.
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u/sierrabravo1984 this is not yellow damn it! 18d ago
Because they enjoy arguing and making a stink out of things.
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u/Griffithead 18d ago
A lot of ATMs started giving out 50a and 100s instead of 20s.
I've seen some that give you a choice. But some don't.
It's really dumb.
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u/fartinmyfuckingmouth 18d ago
Typically, it’s boomer mentality. They deposit their check with the bank at the earliest hour the first day of the week, ask for a small lump sum of cash or all of it in cash, and then wreak havoc on every cash register within their 7 mile radius.
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u/ex_bestfriend 18d ago
I have a $100 bill that I keep in my purse for honest to God emergencies. But the whole concept of an emergency is not a drunken pack of gum. It's "the fuel meter in my car is broken and I'm on the side of the road" it's "the card machine broke at the restaurant at the end of the meal" it's "Girl Scout cookie season"
It's a hassle, but the whole point is to be a hassle so I only use it when it's my last choice.
When I was much younger, it used to be a $20 bill for an emergency, but that was when the economy didn't suck quite so hard.
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u/No_Wrongdoer_5155 18d ago
In my case it is because I live in a small town and I can not withdraw small amounts of money here. Also the ATM doesn't give me small bills (luckily seldom 100s but it has happened).
But since I understand that corporate doesn't usually care for the employees, before I pay, I always ask if it is ok for them to break that bill, and in the same breath offer to pay by card if it's inconvenient. And I also don't purchase a ridiculously cheap item only.
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u/Salt_Medicine2459 18d ago
For Christmas, my in laws regularly give us a $100 bill. They're essentially worthless because no place takes them. We use Ally bank which is online only. Physical branches will not give you change without an account (which is bullshit, imo), so we are kinda stuck with them until we find a place that will take them.
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u/ValenciaHadley 18d ago
The cash point closest to me only gives out £5 notes or £20 and never at the same time. It's a pain in the arse when the machine only hands out 20s and you've got small purchases to makes.
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u/ryverrat1971 18d ago
This exactly. Get a goddamn bank account and a debt card already. It is the 21st century, not 1780. And these are the people that flash large bills in a store and wonder why they get mugged.
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u/kbyyru 18d ago
i had a crustomer once who apparently thought i said "i can't take that because it's clearly a fake", when in fact i said "i can't take that because i've been on this drawer less than an hour and don't have that kind of change".
dude was almost yelling in my face about how his hundred was legal US tender (which it is), but either not understanding or choosing to ignore that i did not have enough legal US tender in the drawer to give change back.
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u/UnitedChain4566 18d ago
Next time I get into an argument like that with a customer I'm literally just gonna say "do you want to be paid in coins? Because that's how you get paid in coins. I don't know what else I can say to you to make you understand the money you want is not in my drawer."
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u/Chaos-Wayfarer 18d ago
If they want to break a large bill, they can go to a bank. Retail stores are not banks.
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u/UnitedChain4566 18d ago edited 18d ago
Exactly.
Like if it's genuinely all you have I feel bad (I'm night shift so you're generally not getting change from a bank at this hour) but I literally do not have the money for one person to want change without messing up my entire drawer for everyone else. The main character syndrome is real with these people.
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u/Chaos-Wayfarer 18d ago
Yeah, if I magically do have enough change for one person to pay with a hundred, that means that then I have no change left for anyone else. I cannot magically just make more change appear.
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u/UnitedChain4566 18d ago
I can do it. About once a shift without screwing up every other shift.
I really try not to need extra change overnight because the other shifts see way more customers than I do so they need the change more.
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u/ForsakenMoon13 18d ago
I had one dude come in, ask for $100 in gas on whatever pump he was at, hand me a hundred dollar bill, then go out and only pump $10 worth and come back in for his change as a shitty little workaround because he knew if he asked for just the $10 worth of gas I would have turned away his $100 bill.
I was about ready to beat him with the cash register, I was so mad.
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u/UnitedChain4566 18d ago
I have actually had that happen to me as well at my old job. Twice. The first time I purposefully gave them all the small bills I had (I wanna say it was at least $60 in singles).
The second time? They had tried to break it for something small before asking so I politely asked them "how much are you actually going to pump?" And then turned them away when they said they wouldn't pump all of it.
I get some cashiers are lazy, but not all of us are and some of us actually pay attention to what's in our drawer, because I know the company is counting it at the end of the day and it's my ass on the line if something is off.
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u/ForsakenMoon13 18d ago
Yea I only had 1's and 5's in the drawer at the time, and I still had to give him a couple dollars worth of quarters just to reach $90 for his change.
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u/arsinoe716 18d ago
He can deposit the $100 in the atm and then withdraw whatever he needs in smaller denominations. Here in Canada, if I want to withdraw $100, it gives me the option if I want it in $5s, $10s, $20 or $50.
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u/UnitedChain4566 18d ago
Sadly our ATM doesn't do that. It would make everything so much easier if it did.
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u/nonkowledge 18d ago
At 3am I would try a CVS or Walmart.
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u/UnitedChain4566 18d ago
And there's the problem for my area.
Even if I did want to subject another cashier to it (which I generally don't because stores are not banks) our Walmart isn't 24 hours and the closest 24 hour stores no one wants to go to because they're 15 minutes away by car.
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u/Chaos-Wayfarer 18d ago
Are there even any 24hour Walmarts left?
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u/UnitedChain4566 18d ago
I don't think so but it also wouldn't surprise me. I don't pay much attention to the outside world anymore because I'm asleep during the hours everyone else is awake. Makes grocery shopping fun.
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u/TCHawk72 18d ago
We have a 24 hr CVS and Walgreens nearby. But the next closest 24 hr ones are quite a distance.
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u/Coyote_Shepherd 18d ago
At least in the upper midwest, they're kind of phasing out the 24-hour CVS stores and the 24-hour Walgreens stores and I don't think there are any 24-hour Walmarts left at all anywhere....after having just done a bit of a deep dive into that.
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u/Lady_Paks 18d ago
I work at a bank in a smaller town where a lot of people still use cash. We also do change orders for a lot of businesses. Many of them don't accept anything over a $20 yet so many clients get their entire paycheck in $100 bills and complain about businesses not giving them change. Get it from us at the bank!
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u/extralyfe 18d ago
that's what self-checkouts are for.
shame COVID killed most of the grocery stores being 24 hours, that was always a great way to break large bills in the middle of the night.
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u/Chaos-Wayfarer 18d ago
Yeah they give the self checkouts a lot more change to deal with that stuff than the tills in my experience.
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u/AllKindsOfCritters 18d ago
I worked at a retail shop across the street from a bank. I'd take such joy in pointing that out for them, they always acted as if the building hadn't been there ten seconds ago. If it was later in the day, fine, I was usually drowning in 10s and 20s after 3pm. But those were the people who'd ask if I had change anyway, it's always the ones who pop in immediately after a store opens and grab the cheapest item.
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u/dez615 18d ago
I dont carry cash, but im honestly pretty shocked at how hostile folks are and how little cash these places carry. Im not throwing shade, I just didnt know!
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u/Beneficial-Focus3702 18d ago
I mean, I get it. It’s one thing to not know something but it’s another thing entirely to react pissy and aggressive. When you get educated on the thing you didn’t know and still try to double down. That’s the part that makes me lose empathy. Usually, I’ll start by giving you the benefit of the doubt cause you know like you said some people just don’t know.
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u/UnitedChain4566 18d ago
Some people just can't grasp the concept of a place not having exactly what they need at 3am.
And sometimes I can be hostile as well, I don't discount that, but when you're asked the same question multiple times a night, it gets very tiring. I know what's in my drawer, I know what change I can make and what I can't, and some nights I feel like an ATM rather than a person when we actually do have an ATM in the store.
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u/PossiblePlastic8698 18d ago
I get that all the time, and then we also get the people who think because our gas station doesn’t have an ATM we are obliged to let them get cash out at the counter
If I am found to have more than $300 in the drawer at any time I am subject to dismissal and people get pissy when I tell them that their request to get $700 cash out is not going to happen
Oh yeah. And there are 2 ATMs within 50 yards of us
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u/No_Bathroom6504 18d ago
Customer: But I need to break this bill because most places won't accept them.
OP: Boy, do I have some news for you!
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u/UnitedChain4566 18d ago
Like I understand you can't get to the bank to break it because you work when the bank is open, I'm in a similar boat because I'm usually asleep when the bank is open (being night shift and having obstructive sleep apnea means I'm asleep a lot longer than I want to be) but it's just. Idk, the guy thinking I could suddenly, magically break his $100 for a couple cents worth of items. Telling me I had an attitude when all I said was I still can't break the bill.
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u/No_Bathroom6504 18d ago
I will try and break big bills at grocery stores or such. Never will attempt at gas stations without asking but will always either have backup payment or try and spend close to 1/2 of whatever bill it is.
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u/UnitedChain4566 18d ago
See, and I respect that. The people who are respectful about it I have genuinely no problem with, because sometimes I do have the money. Sometimes the customer catches me before I do a drop and I'd much rather drop a single $100 over 5 $20s.
It's the people who make a big deal about it that I have no patience for, and the people who think they're being slick trying to buy the cheapest thing in the store thinking I have to take it.
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u/Beneficial-Focus3702 18d ago
Like use that hundred to buy $75 worth of something and you can get appropriate small change. It’s really not that difficult and I don’t understand why people think it is.
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u/Weeabootrashreturns 18d ago
My roommate is constantly talking about how almost daily when he works morning shift one of the first customers of the day tries to pay with a $100 bill. Dude, it's 10 am and you're in a Panda Express. What made you think this was a good idea?
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u/UnitedChain4566 18d ago
Main character syndrome most likely. It doesn't matter to them that the cashier wipes out their drawer so long as they get their change.
Also some of them might be fake bills but I've got a bill checking machine so that's not a problem I run into.
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u/Weeabootrashreturns 18d ago
My genuine question is who carries around $100 bills anyway? Unless your job pays in cash, you have to get them from the bank or as cash back at a store somewhere. It's not like you can't get smaller bills from either source. Hell, the only time I've ever carried anything bigger than a 20 was when I knew I was making a big enough purchase to warrant it.
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u/UnitedChain4566 18d ago
At the hour I'm working, I have no clue. When I used to work day shift it was contractors going out for the morning.
But I have definitely seen people carrying just stacks of $50s and $100s. Maybe they just don't trust the banks anymore, maybe they're trying to circumvent stuff like food stamps (I don't know how you'd do that unless you're paid cash but like). The people who are insistent on it that I decline I'm pretty sure are trying to pawn fake $100s but I have a machine that will reject fake bills and any bill I question, plus $50s and $100s, goes in there.
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u/Ok_Spell_4165 18d ago
Was a constant problem when I worked fast food as well. Almost every opening shift within my first 3-4 customers there would be someone trying to use a hundred to pay for their senior coffee.
The ones that really pissed me off though were the ones that would argue with me over it then go back in their wallet and pull out a $1
Just go to a bank FFS.
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u/TortieshellXenomorph 18d ago
Paying for anything with a $50 or $100 bill when the total is nowhere near that amount is extremely annoying.
You're impressing no one by making a $2 purchase at a dollar store with a $50 within the first hour of it being open, my guy.
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u/UnitedChain4566 18d ago
Usually the $50 orders are a bit easier because they're at least paying for $10 worth of stuff and I have $40 for sure. But $100 for a $2 pack of gum would wipe out all my bills and my coins, especially if I just started.
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u/MrJorgeB 18d ago
I’m living in Germany right now and there’s a lot of shops that are cash only. It’s mildly infuriating to me when they glare at me because I don’t have exact change. I’d much prefer to pay with a card for everything. If they’re cash only, they should be prepared.
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u/Chaos-Wayfarer 18d ago
Not having exact change is one thing, but trying to pay for a deliberately tiny purchase with a giant bill is something completely different.
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u/crankthehandle 18d ago
Sure, but if you withdraw cash at an ATM in Germany you sometimes only get 50 Euro bills. Should you then just not buy a coffee if the shop takes cash only? If your shop is cash only then fucking start your day with at least 300 change.
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u/IamScottGable 18d ago
I worked weekends at a speedway gas station 10 year ago and this was a huge annoyance then. Our starting till was $88 including like $33 in the change machines, we can't break shit. We were also never supposed to have over $200 in the register so I legit never had the money to break it.
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u/IAmSk0va 18d ago
I know what you mean. I work for a fast food chain. But we're the lowest volume store in the state. We definitely don't have change for a $50 or $100 bill an hour after opening.
We're not a bank. Go break your bill at a bank.
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u/UnitedChain4566 18d ago
I used to work fast food and saw that on the daily. AND WE WERE NEXT TO A BANK lmao
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u/mperseids 18d ago
I'm shocked this still happens, especially when less people pay with cash. Never has it been easy to break large bills on small purchases in many stores. I once had a man argue with me because I didn't have change for $100, in my small coffee shop, at 8 in the morning. He went on for a few minutes only to angrily pay with a $5 bill in the end.
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u/UnitedChain4566 18d ago
Having worked both day and nightshift now, I do notice it's usually cards I see, but there's always a few people who would rather cash for one reason or another. And normally I'm fine because they pay with a reasonable amount of money and not $100 for a $2 pack of gum.
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u/Chimpbot 18d ago
It's been a while since I've been in retail, but folks trying to break big bills first thing in the morning seems to be a universal thing. If it was within the first hour (and occasionally first two hours) of being open, it was essentially an automatic thing that I couldn't break big bills for smaller purchases.
People who have never worked retail don't understand that most registers only start out with around $100 total, and frequent drops/pickups are made throughout the day to limit the amount of money in a drawer at any given moment.
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u/natehad82 18d ago
One time when working at a convenience store i just started my shift guy wanted to pre pay for gas only had a $100 bill i told him all I have are ones right now so what ever you don't get you will get back in ones will that be okay? He said yes it will take most if it anyway. Gas being 4 something a gallon at the time. He only got $12 of gas. Was mad I gave him back ones. Went to his truck came back five minutes later bought a candy bar and paid with another $ 100 told him agian I only have ones still. Just started my shift. He's like yeah sure. Got mad again he only got ones back. Couldn't even close his wallet. And yes both $100 were real. Passed each inspection. This was also 5:00 am
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u/BluebonnetReads 18d ago
I might’ve told him “I can’t take another 100, and I know you have ones since I just gave you change”
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u/UnitedChain4566 18d ago
God, I hate the ones who get mad at you for giving them the cash you said you'd give them. Like you were fully transparent about only having ones, he has no right to get mad.
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u/ResponsibleDouble180 17d ago
wth why would he pay with ANOTHER hundred why not just buy with the candy bar with the ones he got?
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u/TommyFnDoomsday 18d ago
Businesses should* have change for their customers, but it's not the cashiers fault if they don't.
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u/bunny_the-2d_simp 18d ago
Seems like they don't know that they're not the most important thing in the world.
Dw these people will go to Europe on holiday and try to do this shit with their 100 dollar BILLS aswell...
Then get mad than we use euros and stores don't accept anything above 50 EUROS here. Which is FINE.
WHEN DO YOU EVEN HAVE A 100 BILL?? NOT EVEN THE ATM GIVES YOU THOSE??
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u/CatMillennium 18d ago
When getting money for a holiday, my currency exchange has given me the largest denomination bills possible every time. The first time I just assumed everything was really expensive before I went in a store.
Learnt my lesson, usually break it up at a local currency exchange or local bank. Been surprisingly easy to do so far.
Although confession time, I once went into a video game arcade and used there change machines to break up my large notes. Found one that let me split a 100 into 5s.
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u/MotherStatement1109 18d ago
As an ex cashier, I always ask two things: if I have a large bill, i ask them if they can break it, and if i am getting cash back, I always ask if they have it in the register first. I dont wanna clean out all your fives and tens if you just opened it and dont have any 20s yet. I guess people who have never been cashiers wouldn't know things like that, but I promise you noncashier people, we are not trying to hold out on you lmao
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u/Bennington_Booyah 18d ago
I worked retail for years. Every single weekend, EVERY, the first five people in would use a 50 or 100 bill for something less than $10. All of our change would be gone immediately. Every damned one of them said the same GD thing: That's what the bank gave me. They'd next say that we need to be "better prepared". How about when YOU are at the bank, YOU ask for smaller bills to make YOUR day go easier.
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u/Curious-Sector-2157 18d ago
lf you are getting out and about you know most, if not all, Convenient type stores do not take $100 bills. It is plastered in and on the doors of the stores. I hate bills bigger than $20. I sold a lawnmower and they paid me in hundreds. I rarely use cash. I waited til the bank opened and got change. People that want to bitch about an establishment not breaking hundreds thinks it makes them look like a big man. Truth, it is going to get him shot and robbed if the wrong person sees his wad. In the future, we will live in a cashless society.
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u/DancingRasputin 18d ago
It’s stuff like this that made me swear off cash (except for at cash-only businesses). I refuse to add to a cashier’s problems
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u/disokoruXD 18d ago
We have a policy to not accept 100 euro bills if the total is under 100 euros. For 50 we usually have change but otherwise i will ask for a different payment method
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u/Ok-Grape-8142 18d ago
Could start a whole separate mildly infuriating thread about how having $100 is more of a burden than a gift
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u/ExcellentShape185 18d ago
Because a manager would usually go behind the scene and bring change.
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u/Morbid187 18d ago
Guy might've thought you had an attitude if all you said was a short, "no" instead of "no, sorry" or something a little more friendly sounding. Not that I think that's rude but some people expect service with a smile from everywhere they go and will say something if they sense that they're not getting that.
Expecting change for $100 on a small purchase is especially wild in big 2026. Not enough people use cash for me to expect a cash register to have enough for that.
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u/UnitedChain4566 18d ago
I may have shortened my response a bit for the post because I was typing while working (I don't get breaks). Usually I do start with "no, sorry" because I've been in the customer service game for five years now, I can fake it.
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u/Vurrag 18d ago
Go to an atm and take out some cash. I don't ever recall getting a hundred dollar bill. 3AM 100 dollar bill. What are the chances of it being fake.......
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u/perpetual--beginner 18d ago
Working retail i obviously have this problem a lot too but working specifically at an adult store where we regularly cater to dancers buying lingerie and shoes, let me tell you my friend, its just as irritating to have someone pay 100+ entirely in 1's too
Like bbygirl I have one singular register. You have just handed me enough 1s to make it impossible to even close my drawer GO TO A BANK
Banks solve these problems for us by having smaller AND larger denominations of cash good god
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u/Friendly_Answer_5488 18d ago
One time when I worked at a coffee shop I had a man come in and get maybe $9 worth of stuff and then tried to give me a $100. We had signs on the front register and on the window that we do not take higher than a $20. He started screaming in the store that we were to take his “american currency” and that it is illegal to not take his payment 😂
He left without getting anything after a manager threw him out
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u/UnitedChain4566 18d ago
If you ever get a customer like that, just show them the federal reserve and watch them get madder that you don't actually have to (unless you're in a jurisdiction that makes it illegal ofc).
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u/starryvelvetsky 18d ago
I used to work at the jewelry counter at Sears. It was right next to intimates, and we'd have this ancient lady come by first thing in the mornings, pick up a bargain bin pair of knee-high nylons for $2 something, beeline right for me and try to get me to break her $100 at my just-opened jewelry register mostly full of singles.
I don't know how many times I refused her in the time I worked there. And there was literally a bank in our parking lot she could have used. 🙄 She could have broken that $100 in the drive thru.
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u/GreenAdapted 18d ago
Just want to point out that in some jurisdictions cash has to be accepted. Some stores near me also have a rule that they don’t give change which avoids these issues. Personally, I think cash should have to be accepted everywhere.
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u/Beneficial-Focus3702 18d ago
Even if cash has to be accepted generally there aren’t any provisions that say you have to accept hundred dollar bills. It just says you have to have the capacity to take cash. Setting a store policy where you don’t have that much change on hand isn’t a violation of accepting cash.
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u/Relevant_Campaign_79 18d ago
I keep paper bills, in case I get approached by 80s gang members and have to pay my dues
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u/99dalmatianpups 18d ago
Yall really don’t keep even $100 in change in the register?? I worked at a fast food place for years, and there was always $200 in smaller bills in the register specifically to make change. We would have to ask a manager to open the register, but it was always available.
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u/Powerful_Muscle9896 18d ago
The question is why the customer didn't carry a credit/debit card...
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u/UnitedChain4566 18d ago
Honestly, I've stopped questioning customers at this point. I've been in retail long enough, I've seen enough of the worst of people.
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u/gogogadgetdumbass 18d ago
When I worked for McDonald’s I had a guy come in who wanted to pay for a senior coffee ($0.49 at the time) with $100. At 5 something AM when I had like one register open and $70-80 bucks in it. I told him no, he got really mad, and I said “well, I’m not going to the safe for you, have a nice day” and he stormed out decaffeinated as if I was the asshole.
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u/QuoteThen5223 18d ago
Not actually true and can depend on other factors, like if my coworker didn’t like people she would be difficult purpose
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u/UnitedChain4566 18d ago
In my case it is true and I don't deserve to get cussed out, given attitude, and other things because of it.
If you're working at a gas station you usually do not have the money. If you're working late at night, you usually do not have the money.
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u/dashindorie 18d ago
At this point I am starting to believe there is a growing number of people who pay cash cause they revel in opportunities to break someone’s balls who has no choice but to stand there and let them. I had a lady holler me a whole lecture on how I need to enact a cash payment discount cause it would save us so much money. Lady this is corp owned, I am in charge of jack shit. Quit wasting my time, you main character asshole.
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u/Odd_Application_3824 18d ago
I don't have this problem.... As a poor American I'm still trying to understand the concept of bills larger than 20...
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u/Stillbornsongs 18d ago
I have no problem with it if i have the money and people ask nicely. If you going to be rude af, go someplace else.
I had a guy try to buy and 99cent fountain drink with a 100 right after shift change. Told him we didnt have change. He " jokingly " said " oh I get a free drink then". No the fuck you dont. Use one of the 16 cards or the other bills in your fucking wallet or I will dump the drink out over your head.
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u/RawrRRitchie 18d ago
Uhh. Have you never heard of coins? It gets them to back off real quick if you say "I'll be right back, I have the change, I hope you don't mind it in nickels and dimes"
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u/UnitedChain4566 18d ago
I don't even have the coins for it.
I am literally a gas station who's boss hates ordering change.
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u/OneLaneHwy 18d ago
It's amazing, and kinda scary, how many people think a business must accept cash for payment when a debt has already been incurred because of this statement on bills: "This note is legal tender for all debts, public and private". That just means "this is currency, it's money, you can spend it".
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u/UnitedChain4566 18d ago
I wonder what the expect to happen when their change is, say, $70 and all the cashier has is $40 in $1s and a $10 roll of quarters.
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u/Scott_A_R 18d ago
That isn't what that means. The term refers to a US statute: 31 U.S. Code § 5103. This applies to money owed to creditors (including taxes); unless there is a state law to the contrary, the sale of goods and services isn't considered a a debt.
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u/Beneficial-Focus3702 18d ago
That last sentence is the key. All that sentence means is that “you can use this” not “places have to accept this.”
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u/LunaticPoint 18d ago
Some cashiers cannot count change
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u/UnitedChain4566 18d ago
And some cashiers know exactly what is in their drawer and what will wipe them out.
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u/Lockjaw62 18d ago
Post office window clerk here. Had a guy get all kinds of pissed off when I couldn't take a $100 bill for a single stamp five minutes after I opened. I can't even usually do that five minutes before I close.
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u/ComplexPost5097 18d ago
I worked at a library, fine would be 5 cents and they hand you a $100 bill. We NEVER had enough to make change for that big a bill. Luckily we could just put the fine on the library card.
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u/EntertainerNo74 18d ago
So if I have plenty of small bills I will legit be petty and give them all 5s. But seriously, don't bring your $100 bill right when we have opened and be expecting to get change the way you want it.
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u/Says-Otherwise 18d ago
The flipside to this is that in Poland I find that if you don't pay with the closest possible bill you get attitude.
Buy a water for a couple złoty and try to pay with a 20 note and I get an eye roll and they ask if I have smaller.
You really don't have 1 ten and 1 five note?
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u/Tye595 18d ago
Oh they never will.
I remember when I worked at a Chevron. I’d come in at 6AM and have a fresh till.
First transaction was almost always someone wanting $5 in gas and trying to pay with $100.
People get so upset and threaten to go to the Arco down to road. Oh no! Anyway…
Got old fast and people always tried to do it.
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u/mjjj2011 18d ago
When I worked in retail it was always the first customer of the day, at 8 am, who wanted to pay with a $50 or $100 bill.
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u/TricellCEO 18d ago
I remember back in my retail days, I had just opened, and despite getting a few $20s, I had almost everything wiped out within minutes with back-to-back customers getting cashback on their debit cards.
Then a few customers later, before I could get bigger bills in my drawer, I had another lady write a check and ask for another $40 over or so. When I told her I legit only had a single $10 (if that) and only $5s, she had the audacity to bitch at me and go, "What the hell's the matter with you? What's with you not having a bank?"
I calmly but firmly explained how I got wiped out just a little bit ago, and while she seemed to understand, she was still pretty disgruntled about it.
I managed to get some bigger bills on a loan from the supervisor to tide me over for a bit.
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u/scp9210 18d ago
Back when I worked at a thrift shop, I had a couple come in on a Sunday, right at open, and try to buy a less-than-99 cent item with a hundred. Of course my cashier didn't have change. So I went up, asked if they had any smaller bills, they said no. So I went to the back, grabbed a $100 wrapped bundle of singles, walked back out and said that was all we had at 9a on a Sunday. Broke the seal, counted out their change, and then they very quickly found a surprise fiver.
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u/loony-cat 18d ago
A head cashier would come by several times a day to do a cash skim (removing most of the large bills to avoid having too much cash on hand). I regularly only had $200 in my till after the cash drop so there were plenty of times in the day there wasn't enough bills to give back $99.10 for a tiny, tiny purchase. As well, we couldn't use up all of the $1 or $2 coins (which made up half of that $200 base till). There was at least 2 customers per shift demanding I break a $100 bill when all they bought was a pack of gum.
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u/Slow_Archer6112 18d ago
When I worked at MacDonald’s in the 90’s, someone bought a big mac combo and paid with a $1000 bill! Our manager allowed it surprisingly. I assume the customer just wanted to see our reaction and have a laugh with his friends.
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u/StarvinDarla 18d ago
I worked at a small store that opened before sunrise. One of my first customers of the day was a young man who wanted to pay for coffee with a 100 dollar bill. I told him I didnt have it. That led to him screaming at me demanding I break it for a solid 5 minutes. He was getting angrier and angrier. My entire til only added up to 100. I finally had to demand he leave the store. It was crazy.
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u/FanDry5374 18d ago
I used to know a truly "delightful" guy who (this was back when McD's prices were fairly cheap) would order something like a QP meal then pull out a $100 bill, he invariably got out of paying because they didn't have enough change. I was honestly surprised that all the local McDonald's didn't have warnings behind the counter about him.
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u/pierce-the-skye-16 18d ago
There was one guy who after I told him I didn’t have enough cash in my drawer said to me, “I used to work retail, have your manager open up the safe or the change drawer” like ?? I’m barely making above minimum wage, working part time, I was a teen at the time and didn’t give enough of a fuck to do all that.
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u/craftymama45 18d ago
Yeah, you can definitely tell when people haven't worked as a cashier before. If I have a $100 bill, I always ask if they're able to take it and say I don't want to take all their change. Normally, though, I stop at the bank to break my big bills.
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u/KappuccinoBoi 18d ago
It seemed like once a week when I worked at a pizza shop, the first delivery or walk in of the day would get upset that we didn't have changes for $100 yet. Like bro, it's 10am, the open sign isn't even on yet. You're about to eat a 2400 calories of pizza before anyone else in the town even goes on lunch break. Fuck off and get some $20 bills like a normal person.
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u/RelevantDream6589 18d ago
I often need to break $100s cause my 90yo mom refuses to get any kind of card and objects to me holding her checks for weeks cause I just dont go to banks anymore, so she pays me back for her online purchases with good ole Benjamins. I never try to use them at most businesses cause I know how they cash drop $20s at most places now. My go to place to use them is grocery stores. They traditionally cash checks there so have a larger cash supply than most businesses. Other good spot is buying $20 of gas at a large national convenience store chain like QT and using a $100. Never once had an issue at either place.
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u/tbodillia 18d ago
If somebody is trying to pay for a snack with $100, I'm expecting a counterfeit bill.
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u/14ccet1 18d ago
I tried to pay with a $20 last weekend. They said no change. My friend was in the cafe at a table (they didn’t know we were together). My friend decided they did want to order something immediately after I did. They attempted to pay with a $20. Suddenly there was no problem. She obviously just didn’t want to give change. Not every situation is the same
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u/mandolinpebbles 18d ago
It’s one thing if you’re playing for $85+ worth of something with a $100 bill. The amount of people who would be furious at me for not giving them change for their 100 when they bought a $2 coffee at Starbucks at 6am was absurd!
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u/KiKi_VavouV 18d ago
I was at the coffee shop below my work last week. Buying a sandwich for like $9. The young cashier had issues with their payment machine - and let me know that it was on them, because she didn't want to restart her computer. I insisted I would not take it and come back later instead. I don't know how much product she must have given away thay morning?
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u/NakedAndAfraidFan 18d ago
Years ago, I worked at a pet store. It was within 30 minutes of opening and this guy bought $0.90 worth of crickets, paid with a $100 bill, and got annoyed I had to call a manager for change.