Question on payment etiquette in a checkout line

[Bettie Page Turner]

Prompted by a comment in the anti-cell phone thread, I'd like to ask a question of my fellow polite, thinking snopesters regarding the exchange of cash/change in a checkout situation.

My otherwise polite DH consistently puts money down on the counter when paying for items, whether bills or coins. He does not hand it directly to the cashier. I have told him a number of times that this is rude. What say you?

Also, when receiving coins as change, he will hold out his coin purse, open, for the clerk to put the coins directly into. Would you consider that to be rude?

[snopes]

I consider it rude when cashiers put my change down on the counter instead of handing it to me; I consider it only slightly less rude for customers to do the same to cashiers. I'll do it once in a while if, say, I have to fish around in my pocket for more change and need a free hand, but otherwise not.

[JoeBentley]

My rule of thumb for all retail transaction, do whatever will keep the line moving faster.

[Roadie]

Originally Posted by JoeBentley

My rule of thumb for all retail transaction, do whatever will keep the line moving faster.

I agree with this. I've been a cashier, and I don't ever remember having a preference of being handed money or having it placed on the counter. Now, as a customer, I think I run about 50/50 when I am actually paying cash rather than swiping a card. For me, I file this under "there are so many other things to worry about, I don't have room in my brain for this one". It will be interesting to find out if/why this bothers people.

ETA: I would say that it is strange about the coin purse thing, though. I wouldn't expect someone to put bills in my wallet, why would I let them put it in my change purse?

[Sylvanz]

Originally Posted by Bettie Page Turner

Prompted by a comment in the anti-cell phone thread, I'd like to ask a question of my fellow polite, thinking snopesters regarding the exchange of cash/change in a checkout situation.

My otherwise polite DH consistently puts money down on the counter when paying for items, whether bills or coins. He does not hand it directly to the cashier. I have told him a number of times that this is rude. What say you?

Also, when receiving coins as change, he will hold out his coin purse, open, for the clerk to put the coins directly into. Would you consider that to be rude?

I do this for a living...at least in a convenience store. Laying the money on the counter does not bother me. The change purse thing is a little weird, but wouldn't bother me either. The only thing along these lines that tends to irritate me is when I tell them the total, but am still obviously occupied with some register function, bagging, tearing off a lottery ticket, etc. and the customer is standing there holding the bill under my nose (so to speak).

I will often announce the total asap so that if they need to fish for check book, credit card, or change they have time to do so while I'm finishing up. If my hands are full doing other tasks to serve you I cannot take your money. (All yous G there.)

I don't put the money on the counter top unless to count large amounts back to the customer then I pick the money up and hand it to the customer.

Does your DH have a problem with touching strangers? If so I can understand his hesitance.

P&LL, Syl

[niner]

Originally Posted by JoeBentley

My rule of thumb for all retail transaction, do whatever will keep the line moving faster.

I don't now that either way is particularly faster. Direct hand-to-hand transfer is the least work overall, but by putting the money on the counter you make the transaction asynchronous, which means it may pipeline better into other tasks the clerk or customer may have.

As either the person behind you or the person taking money, I wouldn't care either way, and would probably not notice it unless someone said something. Unless you made a big deal about it, sanitized your hands afterwards, etc, and right now with the whole H1N1, I wouldn't even take too much offense.

Henry

[JoeBentley]

Originally Posted by niner

I don't now that either way is particularly faster. Direct hand-to-hand transfer is the least work overall, but by putting the money on the counter you make the transaction asynchronous, which means it may pipeline better into other tasks the clerk or customer may have.

Which is why I didn't give a direct answer. I figure in most places handing the money to the cashier is fastest, but some places have weird counter setups or something.

[Roadie]

Originally Posted by niner

Unless you made a big deal about it, sanitized your hands afterwards, etc, and right now with the whole H1N1, I wouldn't even take too much offense.

I thought that initially too, but is there really a lesser chance of transmission utilizing the counter-method? The bills and change are still going (essentially) hand to hand.

[LadyLockeout]

I run a cash register, and while it doesn't bother me when people count their money out onto the counter and then push it to me, it bothers me ENORMOUSLY when they fling their card/money/change/whatever down onto the counter with the superior air of "scrabble for it, dog!"

[NayShel]

Pretty much ditto what snopes said. I may put my dollars down but only to fish change out of my pocket if I think I have it - and if I do that, I tend to lay them down close to me and comment that I'm looking for change so they know I'm not done. Then, if the cashier hasn't happened to pick up the dollars, I'll pick them up myself and hand them to the cashier with the change.

When I was a cashier I thought it was kind of rude when people didn't hand me their money - like it was beneath them to treat me like anyone else and they didn't want to risk touching me hand or something.

Slight hijack: Is it seen as rude if the customer happens not to notice the swiper and tries to hand their debit/credit card to the cashier? If they're not under my nose, as most are, I don't see them and assume the cashier must have to swipe.

ETA: I don't have a problem with the change purse thing. As long as the opening's big enough so that I'm not struggling to put the change in, it's no different than me dropping the change into hir hand.

ETA 2: If you really have a germ problem, you probably won't be using cash - do you realize how dirty money is? It's disgusting!

[Sylvanz]

Originally Posted by LadyLockeout

I run a cash register, and while it doesn't bother me when people count their money out onto the counter and then push it to me, it bothers me ENORMOUSLY when they fling their card/money/change/whatever down onto the counter with the superior air of "scrabble for it, dog!"

Yeah, not a fan of that either. I don't see much of it where I work right now. Years ago when I worked in a little bakery/coffee shop some of the old man regulars would pull that crap.

P&LL, Syl

[A Turtle Named Mack]

It feels rude to me for me to just lay money on the counter, unless I have had to count it out, and then just slide it across. At the least though, I need to push it close enough that the clerk is not having to stretch any more than I have to.

The coin purse thing seems odd, but it solves one of my big peeves, which is clerks insisting on handing the bills first and then laying the change right in the center of the bills, such that your either have to crumple the bills in a wad around the change or figure out a way to slide the change off somewhere so the bills can be put away.

[RCIAG]

Paying with cash? What's that?

[Tarquin Farquart]

I only ever lay cash on the counter if I'm paying with a lot of change.

[niner]

Originally Posted by Roadie

I thought that initially too, but is there really a lesser chance of transmission utilizing the counter-method? The bills and change are still going (essentially) hand to hand.

There's less chance of skin-to-skin contact with the counter method, which is probably a better transmission vector than money (but probably only slightly so, in this case).

Mostly, I'd be less aggravated by it now because I'd assume they're overreacting to H1N1 reports, and not insulting me by suggesting they don't want to risk touching me.

Henry

[Beejtronic]

When I first started at my current job, we had a really interesting orientation meeting that addressed this. Apparently, in some countries (I think China was mentioned), it's rude not to put the money down on the counter. Hand-to-hand exchange of money is considered rude. So, there's not much point in bothering about it.

The only thing that really bugs me about this method is when people put their money down on my belt. Something about the material of it makes it really hard to pick up, and a lot of times, people doing this will be blocking the people behind them from putting their items on the belt, which really does slow down the line. But, none of these things are really high on my list of pet peeves.

Originally Posted by Sylvanz

The only thing along these lines that tends to irritate me is when I tell them the total, but am still obviously occupied with some register function, bagging, tearing off a lottery ticket, etc. and the customer is standing there holding the bill under my nose (so to speak).

This, on the other hand, is most definitely on my list. I've had people stand, shoving their money in my face for the entire time I spent ringing through their items. I just want to smack their hand away, or wait till they're busy keying in their PIN and shove the debit back in their face.

*sigh* I have a rather long list of pet peeves, but I tend not to talk about them in public 'cause it makes me look like a d-bag.

Originally Posted by NayShel

Slight hijack: Is it seen as rude if the customer happens not to notice the swiper and tries to hand their debit/credit card to the cashier? If they're not under my nose, as most are, I don't see them and assume the cashier must have to swipe.

Personally, I don't mind. In fact, our debit machines are so picky that it's easier if I swipe it for you, because I've figured out how to do it exactly the right way and not get a "swipe error." I have a lot of people hand me their cards and then say, "Ooooh, I guess I could have done that!" and act all embarrassed, but I really don't care.

While we're talking about checkout etiquette, how does everyone feel about putting a full basket of groceries on the belt and forcing the cashier to dig all your stuff out for you? Because unless you're feeble or crippled, this annoys the hell out of me.

[Latiam]

A lot of times people would just assume that they could pay for cakes at the bakery. I never figured out why. It's only one section of the store.

So people would shove money under my nose. My personal favourite was somone who scrunched the twenty dollar bill into my hand as they took the cake from it. I said, "This is great, but you're still going to have to pay at the front."

I didn't get to keep it.

[Kahdra]

Originally Posted by Sylvanz

I will often announce the total asap so that if they need to fish for check book, credit card, or change they have time to do so while I'm finishing up. If my hands are full doing other tasks to serve you I cannot take your money. (All yous G there.)

This is the only situation in which I will put my check on the counter. If I finish writing before the cashier is ready to receive it, I will put it down on the counter while I put my checkbook away. I don't put cash or coins on the counter because I usually need change from the cash, so I can't put anything away while I wait, and coins seem hard to pick up sometime and I don't want to make extra work for the cashier.

[quink]

For me, it's all about speed. I didn't care how customers paid, as long as it didn't hold up the line. My store was in an office tower, so I did almost all my business between 12 - 1:00. Luckily, my customers were also in a hurry, so we were usually on the same page as far as efficiency

I'd occasionally have customers put the money on the counter, but that wasn't something that bothered me too much. The biggest pet peeve were the little old ladies who insisted on paying with exact change (usually doing so by dumping their entire change purse on the counter and trying to get rid of as many pennies as possible). I've said it before, but in the middle of lunch rush I can make change a lot faster than the customer can. If it's going to take you more than five seconds to get your money sorted out, don't do it. You're not 'helping' me (And that was always what they said "Oh, let me help you out with that" before the rummaging started.

Second to that, only because it was rare to the point of only happening once every year or two, were the customers who attemtped to pay with cheques.

When I'm paying, I'll hand the bill(s) or card directly to the cashier. I never pull out exact change although I might, if it's an item that costs around a dollar, pay with a twoonie. I pay cash for all my groceries, dump the change at the end of the day and then deposit it to my savings account once a month (you'd be surprised how fast that adds up with Canadian money).

Basically, my goal is to be done with it and out of there as fast as possible so I don't make the people in line behind me or the cashier waste any more time than they've already spent.

[NorthernLite]

Originally Posted by Sylvanz

Yeah, not a fan of that either. I don't see much of it where I work right now. Years ago when I worked in a little bakery/coffee shop some of the old man regulars would pull that crap.

P&LL, Syl

[hijack] When I first moved north I saw a lot of the old farmers and loggers pull that stuff. The cashier would ring up there purchase and the old guys would reach into their pockets, pull out their cheque books and toss them down on the counters for the cashiers to fill out. I found out a couple years later that it was because the old men couldn't read or write.

One of my adult literacy students told me that it was better if the cashiers though he was an ass than know that he was illiterate. I can remember watching him one afternoon as he very carefully wrote out his numbers on a piece of paper then fold it up and tuck it in his wallet. That evening he went to get groceries and rather than get the cashier to fill out his cheque, he dug out his paper and very carefully wrote out the cheque. He held up the line a bit but he got it done by himself. He was so proud when he came back to school and told us his story the next morning. [/hijack]