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I pay wish cash quite frequently, and it's sad but true, that some cashiers cannot make change. They don't know how or they don't have the patience to count it out. In some cases, they don't understand what the currency is, example: they don't understand that a nickel represents 5 cents, a quarter is 25 cents, etc. And even though the register tells you what amount to give back in change, cashier jobs still require basic math skills. However, that really shouldn't be the customer's problem if a cashier can't count change. It is an easy job, I worked as a cashier in high school and college.
Actually, that bullet point of mine was assuming cashiers know how to count change. Specifically, it was dealing with the hassle of making sure you always have change available.
I worked in a Kmart, and they would give you (going from memory here), a roll of quarters, nickels, dimes, and pennies. And then a 20, 10s, 5s, and 1s. That should be enough to get you started off. Even though it's the exception than the norm (only twice), I've already had 2 separate cases where somebody would try to buy a stick of gum with a 100 dollar bill If you don't work in the industry and don't have that sort of "common sense" that the tills don't start off with everything, and typically have to build their way up to having that much money, then I guess I could see that. However, I suspect those individuals have done that before.
Even during my shift, I'd have where I didn't have the appropriate change, so I'd need to bother a supervisor or somebody on the floor who could get break a bill into smaller bills, or bills into coins. When the register got too stuffed with certain denominations, then the reverse would have to be done... I'd have to consolidate the quarters in to a $10 bill, etc.
Ironically enough, credit card could be more of a hassle if I had to use that "rolling card press device" that imprints the credit card numbers onto a special sheet of paper (although usually, I could swipe).
Checks above $100 required a supervisor to sign off on, and over $300 a manager. I still remember a manager got in a pissy mode and said to just find a supervisor. I told him it's for $330, YOU need to approve this.
There is another problem. A lot of tills come up short for the day, especially if the sales are small and lots of them. Some is because the clerks are hitting the tills when more than one use the till it is impossible to find out who is hitting the till. And a lot of clerks, give out too much change. A few short tills, and the profits for the day are gone.
In places like an ice cream store, the clerks are not the ones that can do numbers in their head, and always be right. By going to no cash, this problem goes away.
Pretty sad if you can't trust your employees not to steal cash. And doesn't say much about the accounting skills at your office if there is a problem dealing with cash. I am glad not to be patient at your practice!
Don in Austin
Sad perhaps, but very realistic. Businesses lose far more from employee theft than they do from external theft. I'm not the doctor, just an auditor with a couple decades worth of seeing it.
Beyond the $30 copay of whatever it may be is the 3rd party evidence that someone external paid it so medical providers can collect most of their check from the insurance companies or Medicare. Medical billing is it's own specialized nightmare, and with so many fake providers giving insurance companies reason to not pay, providers undoubtedly are going to take steps to protect themselves such as requiring credit cards.
I had a retail store and yes employees steal all the time. It's BEYOND anything you could imagine.
Money AND merchandise.
Also some employees WILL NOT ring up correctly even if they try. OR they break the rules like popping open the drawer and making change when you EXPLICITLY have a policy not to do so.
I saw an employee lose fifty dollars from a scam artist buying a fifty cent pack of seeds. "making change".
I caught a Wawa employee not ringing up and secretly turned him in, and the manager said they did a surprise audit and found he had stashed eight hundred dollars in a box under the register within hours of his shift.
That being said, there are pens you simply write on the currency bills to see if they're counterfeit.
I use my debit card all the time and the owner probably feels the employee problem is not worth the aggravation. I can't blame him.
Ask any bar owner about theft and loss prevention. It's MASSIVE. Or watch Bar Rescue LOL. Love that guy.
There is another problem. A lot of tills come up short for the day, especially if the sales are small and lots of them. Some is because the clerks are hitting the tills when more than one use the till it is impossible to find out who is hitting the till. And a lot of clerks, give out too much change. A few short tills, and the profits for the day are gone.
Most employers solve that problem by requiring clerks to use one drawer only that they put their personal ID number into before using it. So no one else can use their drawer during their shift. Also firing clerks whose cash registers repeatedly come up short. You don't retain employees who can't make change correctly.
It's also important to note that cashiers can make big mistakes with gift cards, credit cards and checks.
Some of our gas stations now are credit card only but all our stores take cash, credit cards, checks, and gift cards and yes I have heard of it but it doesn't happen at our small stores!!!
Back in the 1980s, I did not own a credit card. I always thought the caption "This bill is legal tender for all debts, public and private" printed on all U.S. dollar bills, meant that merchants HAD to take it.
Then I went to FedEx / UPS / Western Union and was told that they did not accept cash ? ? I showed the clerk that statement written on my currency, and told him he legally had to accept my bill, and he still refused. I finally had to go out and get a money order to pay him.
Last edited by slowlane3; 09-12-2016 at 09:54 AM..
Not where i live. You can still pay with cash, debit or credit cards, even write a check... Money is money, no matter what.
Money is money, true, but couple observations from my town:
I know one brick and mortar that is cash-only. Strange, but that's how he runs it. He's Greek, his restaurant is hands-down best Greek in the area IMO. I'm assuming, from the characters hanging about the place, he's 1) in the finest Greek tradition, underreporting income to Uncle Sam 2) laundering money 3) may have "other" businesses related-to that don't really need scrutiny as far as he's concerned.
Or, 4) he just doesn't like paperwork or too many questions asked about his (cough) labor pool.
I find it amusing, personally. Some combo of 1) - 4) is probably the reality. I'll never know.
Now personally, I'd try and run a business that accepts NO cash, if I could, for the inverse of the above: would make accounting my books pretty straightforward, at least as far as income goes. Not worried about "counterfeit bills" much, personally, though I'm not aware if that's a growing problem these days either. Read on the news that sinister state actors like North Korea find it fun to counterfeit American currency and distribute it into the world's money supply, for their own nefarious purposes, but who really knows.
Pretty obviously cash will be on the decline next twenty years or so, as secure payment systems become 1) ubiquitous 2) transparent 3) fraud-resistant. Most of that is here already, it's getting people to accept it that is the problem (= change management). That will take as long as it does, 10-20 years I'd guess.
Cash really needs to go the way of the Dodo Bird for 99% of day-to-day transactions, but fiat and hard currency will obviously always be around to some extent. Forever.
Cash really needs to go the way of the Dodo Bird for 99% of day-to-day transactions, but fiat and hard currency will obviously always be around to some extent. Forever.
I pray this is not the case. The moment the govt- which is regulating banks...gets all your transactions, you are at their mercy.
If I give the lawn boy 5$, the government doesn't need to track that.
Yet that is the sole purpose of electronic transfers and money thru paperless....follow the money.
Cash in hand can do alot for some homeless folks..
I worked back in the day at a fast food place....I was accused of stealing...Yes I had an ID passcode on my register, but all it took was a co worker looking over my shoulder to get that ID login. From there it was a free for all. It took having cameras installed for them to get to the truth. By then though I had tired of their false accusations and constant desire to find fault...I re-signed. They never formally apologized...They simply brought me in to view the video and let me know that they "resolved" it and I could keep my job.....
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If you don't work in the industry and don't have that sort of "common sense" that the tills don't start off with everything, and typically have to build their way up to having that much money, then I guess I could see that. However, I suspect those individuals have done that before.
