Coin shortage

[ex-khobar Andy]

I've read about the shortage of coins but as I almost never use cash (Discover Card, pay it off every month) I really had not seen it.

My elderly neighbor sometimes asks me to get her something online and she gives me dollars. So when I was in Walgreen's yesterday for a $6.99 plus $0.42 tax purchase, I handed over a $10 bill. Cashier (or whatever they call them these days - transaction engineer?) gave me three $1 bills.

I was staring at these not quite sure what to say - she had closed the drawer and obviously my purchase was at an end - and the $3 was clearly not going to be accompanied by $0.59 in coins, at which point I would have said something like 'You've given me a dollar too much" and returned said dollar while basking in my self-righteousness.

She looked at my puzzlement and said, shrugging her shoulders, "No coins" and passed on to the next customer.

So by using cash I got a 8% or thereabouts discount. My Discover card gives me a 1% rebate if it feels like it - I am never entirely clear on the rules - there's a savings opportunity here. Is this common? As I say, I very rarely use cash and maybe this happens all the time.

I remember my stint in retail when I was a student. (I had a steady job at a wine store for three years. UK drinking age was 18. Good times. If we'd had a good week the manager would, on Saturday afternoon, open a bottle of good Champagne or - my favorite - Chateauneuf-du-Pape, so that he could educate us cellar boys about wine. Great times.). The cash had to match the register records to the penny. Times have changed.

[Gob]

I ran an off license (wine store) for two years while at college, my "managers Saturdays" were ...an event...

But yes, tills had to be balanced to the penny each night.

[Crackpot]

It’s a bit different when you can’t get coins. That being said I haven’t heard of coin shortages since last year when banks and the mints were shut down.

[Long Run]

I recently saw a news story where a bank branch manager was interviewed about their willingness to take coins, even if they are unwrapped. We covered this before, but a major issue with the lack of coins is the unwillingness of banks to bring back the coin counting machines.

[Crackpot]

I have heard that coin shortages are broadly regional due do differing circumstances.

[Big RR]

Gob--we had to balance the register every night as well, and a significant shortage (or overage) could result in termination. We used to keep a secret stash hidden to make up small shortages (made by saving the overages in an envelope), but that was something also likely to result in termination if we were caught. Most days we were pretty much right on the money with the balance, or we could understand what caused the difference (like a $10 bill in the $20 slot), but sometimes I swear one of the cashiers was pilfering money; I fired a couple of people for a shortage in excess of $20 when I was manager.

No idea how you could do any blanacing if people just rounded down to the lower dollar amount and give change from that (unless the register/computer could account for it).