This is one thing I never understood, especially when people try to use them for small purchases. At my workplace, the store owner has disallowed us from accepting $50 and $100 bills in order to avoid having to check for counterfeits. People get very upset at this policy.
One time, a customer came up to the counter with the items they had picked out. I scanned them all up and then provided her with the total. She then tossed a $50 bill on the counter. I politely explained that due to store policy, I would be unable to accept it, so she’d have to either break the bill elsewhere, or she’d have to provide a different payment method.
In response, she snatched the bill off the counter and angrily said, “Well, I’m never shopping here again.” She said this loudly enough that it took aback multiple nearby customers, who began to look on.
After digging in her purse, she tossed two smaller bills onto the counter, which turned out to not be enough to pay for the total (after the cash she still owed $7-8). I explained this to her, and then she snatched the cash off the counter and left. The next customer I interacted with, who had witnessed everything, told me that she’d “go easy on me”. Haha.
I understand it can be frustrating to not be able to pay with the money you have on you in the moment, but I wish customers would understand that the store owner sets the policies, not the people working for the owner. Retail workers don’t really have any power in that regard, we just work here. Also, I wish they’d understand we are not a bank; even if we did take larger bills, we don’t have a million dollars in the register to give you. Usually, we have just enough to get through the week. It’s just a nuisance.
I would walk out and never come back. The store owner is an idiot. I was the Buyer/back office manager/accountant for a chain of 3 high end bike shops for several years. This is a clown move to reject cash. If anything, reject credit cards. The fees from the processor and delays are a stupid nonsense scam. Cash saves the business ~4% in every case. This idiot doesn’t think about the big picture of margins and averages. If they are this dumb with retail, I would bail on that job ASAP.
Gas stations, convenience stores, and small businesses are common targets of scams and counterfeit currency. It’s important to take that into account too as it relates to possible losses. Also, the fact that we just generally have less change available in our registers compared to larger businesses. It’s not that uncommon to see locations like this refuse larger bills as a result. I fully understand being annoyed at this at big box / larger chain stores and businesses, of course.
It is currency and not very much money any more. If employees are incompetent, the job does not lay enough to attract qualified candidates. This is almost always the issue. Being cheap about labor is the real issue. Punishing the public for poor management is nonsense. This is why I would walk out. I instantly connect all the dots with my past experience. Stupid doesn’t exist on a lonely island all buy itself. Seeing something so obvious means every underlying aspect of the business will be equally incompetent. This means I can do better on my own online without the overhead of a commercial storefront. I know exactly what a brick and mortar store has to offer above and beyond anything available online, but this kind of nonsense tells me that the person managing the back end is an idiot and is unlikely to provide any potential value. The real potential value is in quality control, unique products, and relationships. Creating any resistance with valid funds is asinine stupidity that makes all potential values in physical retail irrelevant. It really means the person behind the curtain is unstable, unreliable, or just not very bright.
As I have previously mentioned, I totally understand that it can be frustrating to be unable to use large bills if you have them on you. Unfortunately, the world doesn’t revolve around you specifically. Smaller stores and businesses aren’t always able to take on the risk of counterfeits, nor are they able to constantly make bank runs every other day to refill the tills. Are you saying, in 2023, you’d rather walk out of a store than use the plethora of other payment options at your fingertips? Contactless, smartphones, debit/credit cards, smaller bills, gift cards?
Yes. I will walk out of a store because there are many places I simply don’t want to be tracked by digital purchases. Also with larger purchases, I will often use cash as leverage for that extra markup the business does not have to pay for cards. I keep my digital footprint small intentionally. There are many times I will only carry cash quite intentionally. I have walked out of businesses for this kind of nonsense and will do so in the future.
My primary reason for shopping in a retail store is the privacy it affords along with the potential value added. Inconvenience either of these and I will no longer have a reason to visit.
I ran a chain of stores that handled some of the largest cash transactions possible. I know the risk well. While it was not a cash purchase, the most expensive bike I moved through my stores was $14,900. Which is ridiculous for a bicycle, but I can’t judge. It was a hot new model at the time. I routinely handled transactions in the $2k-$6k range and often in cash. I hired all manner of ages, even teenagers, but I put in place ways of verifying competence and I paid well above average. Above average pay gets above average people, who do above average sales. Being cheap and micromanaging is the mistake, not customers using cash. A few pens and a light are not hard to use to verify cash, and keeping enough change on hand is a fundamental part of running a business.
I told everyone, the reason I am the Buyer is because I spend like it is my money behind every purchase. If I get this wrong, I better be able to fix it with my money. I expect the same kind of prudence from you. If you accept cash, you better be willing to replace it if you screw up. It is not legal or ethical to do this in practice, and I made this clear. It is a mindset, and this is what you are getting paid to do. I had a way to track every purchase and transaction through a point of sale system with each person responsible for their own cash drawer. I didn’t hesitate to tell everyone, screwing up a large cash transaction will cost you your job. If in doubt come get me out of the back office or on the phone. Always have a coworker double check and verify if there is any doubt, at least it will only be half as bad if both of you are in the back office for screwing up.
I totally understand the desire to not want to be tracked by digital purchases. Is there a reason you can’t carry smaller bills on you for when you walk in to shop at gas stations, convenience stores, small businesses, etc? There are plenty of solutions to this dilemma. Expecting small businesses to be able to clear their registers of change for you because you can’t go to an ATM or another store capable of breaking your large bills is quite entitled.
I ran a chain of stores that handled some of the largest cash transactions possible.
That’s great, but not really relevant to small businesses which tend to have smaller transactions, and therefore less money in the tills for the week.
I understand the dilemma and initially battled the owners of the bike shops over this issue. My answer is the same reason I would never refuse credit cards over the fees; never inconvenience a customer for any reason that can be avoided. The most important factor in retail is to first get more people in the door. The second most important factor is converting everyone possible into repeat visitors. This is more important than sales, margin, or any other factor. Creating absolutely any easily preventable reason for someone to avoid returning is counter productive. Humans love to complain. It is our favorite past time activity. Word of mouth is the primary generator of new customers. Inconveniencing a customer over something easily avoidable like this is going to be memorable for the customer and anyone else present. Of those people present, you might have generated one or two word of mouth references that could have produced a new customer had everything gone flawlessly. By creating this negative thing to complain about, every person present is going to tell at least a few people about it, and it is much more memorable than any positive recommendation. Running a business is all about taking on the inconvenience and investment to provide value to the end customer. There will always be a small percentage of negative encounters in business. The trick is to do everything possible to limit them to circumstances that can’t be avoided. Those that can be avoided should.
Are you saying, in 2023, a business can’t afford to send a manager to a bank every day?
Retail is staffed super thin on purpose. They could afford to send someone but there’s not enough people to keep things running. In my retail days, I’d come in, look at the coverage on a clipboard, and my heart would sync because there was no help on the schedule. Store managers of national chains have their allotment of hours to schedule dictated to them from above.
“We either refuse to hire enough people or pay enough to be competitive and will weirdly use that as an excuse to not accept legal currency because spending 30 minutes going to the bank is too difficult. Also, we’re expanding to 125 new locations in the midwest region”.
Small businesses can’t really afford to do daily trips to the bank. We fill our tills once, maybe twice, a week. Plus, since we’re a secondhand store, most of our cash has to go to customers selling things to us. It’s just not as simple as just going to the bank each day.
Being cheap about labor is the real issue.
It’s not even that. I bought a currency pen at an office supply store for when I used to sell items on CraigsList. This has nothing to do with labor. It’s just a dumb policy by someone who isn’t directly affected by it.
Didn’t seem like this customer was thinking you had any power here. I’d probably do the same thing and just walk away and not return rather than go on another errand so that I can spend money at this specific store. Walking away rather than trying to argue it implies they didn’t think there was any point in arguing (or didn’t think it was their place even if they thought they could get something out of it).
I had a customer try to buy an iPod (gives you an idea how long ago this was) entirely with loose coins. Manager just told him no. I don’t remember the guy putting up much argument about it (but again, it’s been a while), but he did offer a bit. Who thinks a store is going to accept that as payment?
The worst (coin-related) I had to deal with was $5.00 in all dimes. It was first thing in the morning too 😒 I sat there and counted them one-by-one while the customer protested and insisted “I just counted it this morning” as if that mattered lol
