A Customer Demanded Change for a $100 Bill on a $3 Order—Until the Cashier Checked His Register Drawer
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What a lot of customers don’t realize is that cashiers don’t have an endless amount of change in their drawers. It is possible that if you’re paying for a small purchase with a large bill, like a $100 bill, they may not have enough change.
In this story, one cashier is in this exact situation, but he tries to be polite and helpful on the outside. On the inside, he really wants to annoy the customer as much as the customer is annoying him. And he succeeds. He even gets to repeat back to the customer an annoying line he said.
Let’s read all about it.
‘It’s good US money……’
Years ago, working your basic convience store gig. Guy comes in, wanders the stacks, and comes to me with about $7.50 worth of stuff, and hands me a $100 bill.
‘Dude, please tell me you have something smaller. I just opened up about 45min ago. I don’t think I can break that.’ All true, I knew my till was on a razor’s edge for this one.
I see that look on his face, hear that tone, ‘No, it’s all I’ve got.’
Those in customer service know that voice, that, ‘I’m the customer, you’re the peasant,’ tone.
He tried to stay polite.
Right, okay then.
I knew the type, but I try begging off, giving him an out before I turn on my Gen X lack of cares. Still polite & professional, ‘Well, I can’t make any promises, and I can’t check while the sale is on the screen.’
‘Well, you have to take it. It’s good US money.’
Ah. That isn’t how this works. If I ain’t got the cash, I have every right to refuse service. But hey, you set the rules, so, malicious compliance it is. I will make you regret this.
Actually, it turns out he could break a $100.
Pop the drawer, and the gods smiled upon me. Three $20s, two $10s, and assorted $5 & $1 bills and coins later, he has his change.
‘What’s this?’
‘Your change. I wasn’t sure I could pull it off, but we got lucky. Enjoy your afternoon.’
He’s just standing there, unsure how to respond or act.
It was memorable.
‘Is everything okay? It’s good US money.’ All sweetness and charm.
Never saw anyone go from one to completely impotent 100 so fast. He wanted to chew me out, or complain to my boss, but knew I’d done nothing wrong. I gave him what he demanded- $90+ change from a $100 bill. What’s he gonna howl about? ‘Your clerk gave me exact change!’ The boss, ‘And you’re angry, why?’
I watched each and every thought run across his face, trying to make me look bad, and just couldn’t. So he tust turned around and sulked away out the door.
I’ve put in 40+yrs behind the counter, in four states & dozens of stores, and this is, by far, my single most favoritest customer exchange, ever..
Wow. The customer’s expression must have been pretty crazy for OP to remember it all these years.
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Let’s see how Reddit responded.
It must be even more annoying when you don’t take cash at all.
This is true.
Another person has questions.
If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a fast food employee who shuts down a customer angry about her change with a single word.
I completely agree.
Repeating the line back was my favorite part of the story, but it isn’t exactly clear why the change OP gave the customer is really malicious in some way. If it had all been in change or $1 bills, maybe that would have been extra annoying, but there were $10s and $20s. Surely, the change wasn’t that bad. It could have been much, much worse.
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