Wow, it really DOES happen.

[AmbrosiaWriter]

Okay, the first story will pertain to the title, then there will just be a few other stories.

So, this guy was buying scratch tickets, scratching them, coming back to buy more/cash out-buy more. Then, when he is about to leave, this gem turns up.

Me:
SC: An old fart

Edit for explanation: You can cash out a scratch ticket at any store that does lottery, as long as it is in the same state and the store will accept it. The store may refuse if they don't have the money in their tills to pay the ticket without completely emptying the till. Basically, you don't have to cash out the ticket at the same store you bought it from.

SC: You know it's really annoying that I'll hit 400 or 500 here but I can't cash it out here, ever.
Me: I'm sorry, but we're not supposed to keep that much money in our tills. We're supposed to drop it into the safe.
SC: I understand that, but you never have enough for my ticket. It's always locked up and no one will go back to get it.
Me: None of us have a key to that safe. It's to keep people from robbing us because we have signs posted that we don't keep much in our till.
SC: I could understand that at night, but during the day that's ridiculous!
Me: Robberies happen during the day as well. If they knew we kept high amounts of cash during the day, and not at night, they'd just hit during the day. So we keep our cash amounts--
SC: It's against the law.
Me: (OMG. THEY REALLY DO SAY THAT!!) What is?
SC: If I hit a ticket here, you not cashing it.
Me: It's not illegal.
SC: Yes it is.
Me: ....

He continued on about how it's illegal that we can't (he kept saying "won't" but it's really a "can't") cash it if it's a big winner. As he left I just barely resisted saying, "Yes, because all of us would love putting our personal safety on the line to keep high dollar amounts in the till to pay off your winners. I hope when you do cash that winner out you get mugged." Barely. Just barely.

Story the Second, or YOU DIDN'T EVEN LOOK

Another old fart, strangely enough. He comes in and asks for Kent Cigarettes. I know for a fact we don't sell them, as I know all the brands we have on the shelves.

Me: I'm sorry we don't have those.
SC: YOU DIDN'T EVEN LOOK!
Me: *Lifts eyebrow.*
SC: Look behind those little advertisement things!
Me: (The only cigs behind those are overstock or specially ordered brands that particular regulars like; Lucky Strike/No Filters Camel in soft pack, etc. I decide to appease him and pull them down - they are on hinges so I can easily - just to prove to him that I was right all along.)
SC: Well you should carry them!
Me: They are not popular enough, sorry. Can I get you something else?
SC: *While bitching and moaning, proceeds to get lottery.*

**LATER ON**

Me: So yeah this guy came in and complained that I didn't even look when he asked for cigarettes.
Manager: What brand?
Me: Kent?
Manager: We haven't carried those in years.


~~The weird things I notice~~

Apparently in my local area, the men's biological need to pee/use the bathroom are all completely synced. At specific times, a bunch of guys (who don't know each other, they'll come in a couple minutes apart) will come in to use the bathroom. It's just a weird phenomenon.

[blas]

I don't miss working at a gas station at all.

[NorthernZel]

He continued on about how it's illegal that we can't (he kept saying "won't" but it's really a "can't") cash it if it's a big winner. As he left I just barely resisted saying, "Yes, because all of us would love putting our personal safety on the line to keep high dollar amounts in the till to pay off your winners. I hope when you do cash that winner out you get mugged." Barely. Just barely.

Just wondering - over here, the law clearly states that if a ticket (scratch, lottery, soccer pools, whatever) wins over a certain amount, one MUST cash it at a bank instead. The store itself doesn't know what the precise amount of the prize is, the reader the store uses can only see that it exceeds the "cash in store" limit. Don't similar rules apply in your area?

[Draco]

I've never heard of a lottery ticket being cashed at a bank here in the US.

[Jester]

In Florida, lottery tickets can be cashed at participating vendors OR through the lottery administration if the winning ticket is over a certain amount.

SC: YOU DIDN'T EVEN LOOK!

I am waiting, just WAITING, for some jackhole to try this with me and rum. We often have people coming in asking if we have this or that rum. And, being the Rum Guy, I know without looking or even turning around if we carry that rum or not. I know our rum stock better than anyone--I have had managers, including the GM, and even the OWNER, asking me if we carry a certain rum. Why do they ask me this? Well, I am the Rum Guy, and I know our stock better than anyone. I picture it like this....

(fade to dreamlike sequence)

SC: "Hey, do you have Butt Monkey Rum?"
JESTER: "Nope."
SC: "YOU DIDN'T EVEN LOOK!"
JESTER: "I don't need to look. We don't carry it."
SC: "How can you know you don't carry it if you don't even look?!?"
JESTER: "Because I'm the Rum Guy here. I've been here six years, and I've tried more of our almost 200 rums than anyone who has ever worked here, including the owner. I advise management and the owner on rum, and I have revised our rum book twice, and am working on the third time. I don't need to look because I know our rum stock. I AM the Rum Guy."
SC:

SC: Well you should carry them!

I get that a lot, but with beer far more often than rum.

CUSTOMER: "Do you carry Duck Fart beers?"
JESTER: "Nope."
CUSTOMER: "Well, you should."

Well, here's the deal, folks. We can only carry so much beer. And even if a beer is fantastic, we still have to sell it, or it is useless to us as a business. And if no one outside of the Midwest is familiar with Duck Fart, we are not likely to sell a lot of it here in Florida. We try to get good craft beers in, but as we are not a craft beer bar per se, we can only get so many in at one time. And we keep the ones that sell.

The above goes double for people who bitch about a beer we used to carry but don't anymore. "Why don't you carry Mossless Stone anymore? I LOVE that beer!" Yeah, you and about three other people. Which is why we don't carry it anymore.

[Miss Maple Leaf]

Just wondering - over here, the law clearly states that if a ticket (scratch, lottery, soccer pools, whatever) wins over a certain amount, one MUST cash it at a bank instead.

It's the same here in Canada. Up to a certain amount stores can cash tickets, but once the amount gets high enough (I don't know the amount off hand) then the owner of the ticket has to go to the bank to cash it.

And for really high amounts, I think the ticket owner has to redeem it directly with the region's lottery corp. (Though don't quote me on this part. It's been forever since I last bought a lottery ticket.)

Also, I don't know if it's the law per se, I just know that it's printed on the back of the ticket where you have to go to redeem specific cash amounts.

[Pixilated]

Okay, the first story will pertain to the title, then there will just be a few other stories.

So, this guy was buying scratch tickets, scratching them, coming back to buy more/cash out-buy more. Then, when he is about to leave, this gem turns up.

Me:
SC: An old fart

Edit for explanation: You can cash out a scratch ticket at any store that does lottery, as long as it is in the same state and the store will accept it. The store may refuse if they don't have the money in their tills to pay the ticket without completely emptying the till. Basically, you don't have to cash out the ticket at the same store you bought it from.

SC: You know it's really annoying that I'll hit 400 or 500 here but I can't cash it out here, ever.
Me: I'm sorry, but we're not supposed to keep that much money in our tills. We're supposed to drop it into the safe.
SC: I understand that, but you never have enough for my ticket. It's always locked up and no one will go back to get it.
Me: None of us have a key to that safe. It's to keep people from robbing us because we have signs posted that we don't keep much in our till.
SC: I could understand that at night, but during the day that's ridiculous!
Me: Robberies happen during the day as well. If they knew we kept high amounts of cash during the day, and not at night, they'd just hit during the day. So we keep our cash amounts--
SC: It's against the law.
Me: (OMG. THEY REALLY DO SAY THAT!!) What is?
SC: If I hit a ticket here, you not cashing it.
Me: It's not illegal.
SC: Yes it is.
Me: ....

He continued on about how it's illegal that we can't (he kept saying "won't" but it's really a "can't") cash it if it's a big winner. As he left I just barely resisted saying, "Yes, because all of us would love putting our personal safety on the line to keep high dollar amounts in the till to pay off your winners. I hope when you do cash that winner out you get mugged." Barely. Just barely.

*snip*

Any chance you could respond, "Well, tell you what, why don't you go hire yourself a lawyer ..."?

It's the same here in Canada. Up to a certain amount stores can cash tickets, but once the amount gets high enough (I don't know the amount off hand) then the owner of the ticket has to go to the bank to cash it.

And for really high amounts, I think the ticket owner has to redeem it directly with the region's lottery corp. (Though don't quote me on this part. It's been forever since I last bought a lottery ticket.)

Also, I don't know if it's the law per se, I just know that it's printed on the back of the ticket where you have to go to redeem specific cash amounts.

Really? I'll make a note of that for when I win a few gazillion bucks on one of the lotteries.

Seriously, I didn't know you could cash them at banks. I thought you had to go to the Lottery Commission.

[AmbrosiaWriter]

Just wondering - over here, the law clearly states that if a ticket (scratch, lottery, soccer pools, whatever) wins over a certain amount, one MUST cash it at a bank instead. The store itself doesn't know what the precise amount of the prize is, the reader the store uses can only see that it exceeds the "cash in store" limit. Don't similar rules apply in your area?

If the ticket is $600 or more, the winner must go to the local lottery commission and present ID to to redeem the ticket.

However, he had $400-500 winner, which, yes he can go to the lottery commission, but it still technically within the realm of "Hey, you can go to the store and cash this out." Only it's really not, because we don't keep that much money in $20.00s in the till, because that's just asking to be robbed. We try to only pay tickets out with $20.00s, or 50/100s if someone paid with one and we haven't dropped it yet. No way are we going to clean out our $10s/$5s because some guy just HAD TO CASH HIS TICKET NAO!

I get that a lot, but with beer far more often than rum.

The funny thing is, for nice people, we'll special order certain brands of cigarettes. We carry Carlton 100's because two (maybe three?) people come in regularly to buy them. If someone makes a request and promises that "Hey I smoke like a pack a day/every two days and I will definitely be buying them" we'll order in a carton or two, see if the person holds up their promise and if so we'll order more.

Hell, we'll even order in a carton if the person goes "I'll just buy the carton off you" and calls us a couple days ahead of time so we can put the carton onto the order. We really like our regulars.

The owner hates anyone who tries to abuse his staff, and has instilled this same "I'mma eat your throat" reaction to those kinds of people in his two daughters who work there as managers. This is why I don't mind working there, I actually love it.

[Teskeria]

in most areas I've lived in, if it is over $400.00 they have to take it to a lottery office to cash it.

[Jester]

Unfortunately, what you do for cigarettes is not as feasible for us to do with beer, for a few reasons. (Not that I'm saying you were suggesting that, mind you.)

First, if it's draft, that means committing to at least a slim boy keg (half keg). That's still several gallons of beer. If that person doesn't live up to their promise, one of our 18 taps is taken up by something no one else may want.

Secondly, if it's bottles, we have space considerations, and the bare minimum for trying a new bottled beer is generally a case, i.e., 24 beers. Once again, if they don't live up to their promise, we're sitting on a case, and we've had to make room in our coolers for at least a six of that. If no one else buys it, we're kinda screwed.

Thirdly, this being a tourist town, a large portion of the people asking about this or that beer do not actually live here, and best case scenario, they may come here 3-4 times a year.

Finally, not all beers are available here due to distribution issues, either the brewery not having wide enough distribution channels, or their Florida distributor deciding not to distribute to the Keys. This last one happens more often than you might think, which is why I often stop at a lovely little liquor store in Miami when I go to the mainland, and stock up on beers I can't get here in Key West, a mere 150 miles away. (I would drink a lot more Weihenstephaner, Zywiec, and Wexford if they were available locally.)

So we have to order beer based not just on quality, but on what we are likely to sell, and what we can get. We stock some Dogfish Head because that is not only considered quality beer, but also because the brewery has some serious name recognition among beer drinkers who venture beyond the typical BuMiCo stuff. Goose Island and Great Lakes may be great breweries, but if we can't get it, or if people aren't as familiar with it as their fans, well, it just isn't going to happen.

[manybellsdown]

Please tell me "Duck Fart" is a real beer and not a euphemism.

*googles*

Well apparently it's a shot. I was gonna ask if it's a good as Moose Drool.

[pzychobitch]

The first SC? Yeah, I used to get those all the time at the gas station I work at (thank god for being put back on night shifts). Literally got cursed out a few weeks ago because I couldn't cash someone's 400 dollar winner. Oh well.