I am clearly not to be trusted with money.

[draftermatt]

Regarding the $100 bill thing.

When I was 16 I went to a store with a few $100's because I knew I would be making a big purchase, and as I was 16 I had no checks or credit cards to speak of.

My total comes to something like $125 or so, so I hand the guy (2) $100's since I had like 3 $100's and a $20 or something. He gives me a look and says "Did you just hand me (2) $100 dollar bills?" with this look of shock and bewilderment.

Never understood that one.

[Cyphr]

I like to consider a $100 accpetable for anythign over $30 ish don't give me a $100 for a single item at the dollar store (sighting not personal expereince)

[SpyOne]

Trying to trick me into thinking you're rich because you pay with a $100 note doesn't work because I can see your car. The real rich people pay with Amex.

(I once encountered an Amex Obsidian... dark black and heavier than standard credit cards. You don't apply for it, you don't get offered it, it just appears.)

I've seen one of those too. Only once, though.
The card is made out of metal.
Seen that customer a lot (he lives just up the street), but he's only used that card with me once. (One of my co-workers said he had also seen that card.)

But, I would have known he was "someone special" from the 300+ pound wall-that-walks-like-a-man that drives him (they seemed like friends, but obviously the kind of friends where one works for the other) and the cars he drives. (Navigator, Bentley, that new corvette-looking Ferarri. I've only seen his Enzo in magazines.)


I'm not trying to be coy, but I'm not trying to name-drop. Pharrell Willams. He's the biggest celeb among our regular customers unless you're a big fan of the NFL, because a lot of current and former Redskins live in the area too.

I do this, too, only I say it as verification to the customer. "That'll be $11.92." They hand me a 20, I say, "Out of $20?" and I also leave the original payment (the 20 or 50 or whatever), laying across the coin portion of the till until I have counted back the change, said the amount of the change to the customer "$8.08 is your change," they take the change, *then * I put the original bill in its proper slot and close the drawer. There's no physical way for customers to reach my drawer (very high counter, very low till), unless they physically climb the desk- I have long arms, and I've tried just to see if I could. This way, if someone contests what they gave me, I still have the original bill separated from the rest of the till. It's saved me from a lot of drawer countdowns.

Yeah, they taught me that at my first cashier job, and I still do it. But I do it from the other side, too.

Regarding the $100 bill thing.

My total comes to something like $125 or so, so I hand the guy (2) $100's since I had like 3 $100's and a $20 or something. He gives me a look and says "Did you just hand me (2) $100 dollar bills?" with this look of shock and bewilderment.

Never understood that one.

When I was 16, hundred dollar bills were pretty rare. My stepfather worked in a band, and they got paid cash at the end of the night by whatever bar they'd played in, and since the bar owner usually paid in large bills, my stepfather usually carried large bills, and often had problems making change.

Then again, when I was 16 a week's pay (before taxes) at a minimum-wage job was ... $134. So even if you got paid bi-weekly, the bank would pay you in all $20s. Nowadays pay is nearly twice what it was, and $50s are nearly as common as $20s were then.

So I guess the question is: how old are you now? Because when I was 16, a 16 year old with a $100 bill was just plain freaky. But now, it's probably their allowance or something. Birthday money, I suppose (like the $10 I'd get from my grandfather). But 20 years ago there were a lot of adults who'd never seen a $100 bill, much less held one.

I like to consider a $100 accpetable for anythign over $30 ish don't give me a $100 for a single item at the dollar store (sighting not personal expereince)

(Convenience store):
Big sign on the door says "less than $30 in the register". That's actually supposed to mean both registers combined.
Why do you seem surprised that it will be a wait for change when you want to buy a pack of gum with a $100?
And don't ask why it will take so long when I just answered that question before you asked it. "I'm sorry, but it will be 4 to 6 minutes to get change for this. The safe will only give me $30 every 2 minutes."

[draftermatt]

So I guess the question is: how old are you now? Because when I was 16, a 16 year old with a $100 bill was just plain freaky. But now, it's probably their allowance or something. Birthday money, I suppose (like the $10 I'd get from my grandfather). But 20 years ago there were a lot of adults who'd never seen a $100 bill, much less held one.

I am now 23, so it was close to 7-8 years ago when this happened.

[edible_hat]

I've seen one of those too. Only once, though.
The card is made out of metal.
Seen that customer a lot (he lives just up the street), but he's only used that card with me once. (One of my co-workers said he had also seen that card.)

But, I would have known he was "someone special" from the 300+ pound wall-that-walks-like-a-man that drives him (they seemed like friends, but obviously the kind of friends where one works for the other) and the cars he drives. (Navigator, Bentley, that new corvette-looking Ferarri. I've only seen his Enzo in magazines.)

My Amex Obsidian customer was driving a B-double. He's the owner of a local trucking company which he built up from just himself and his rig to a fleet of about 30. He still has the original truck and still drives for the company on occasion.

[Nayeli_Sabia]

Sorry, we have no attention span

Anyone who's worked a repetitive customer service job, whether it's scanning groceries or taking food orders, can tell you that people just sort of blend together, particularly when it's busy. That's why we write down names, instead of trying to remember who had a #2 without onion and who had a #3 large sized.

This one happened when I was making food one day. A guy came, had a couple burritos without onions, then came back about 20 minutes later and ordered another burrito.

Well a mintue after his food went out he came storming up yelling at us that it had onions on it and goddammit he told the guy LAST time that he's ALLERGIC to onions and we must be trying to kill him and what is our PROBLEM.

Um...our problem is that we don't generally remember customers' specific orders once the food goes out, so if you're allergic to onions, probably you should say no onions every time you order, just in case the constantly stoned high-schooler taking your order does not remember you.

I tried to placate him by suggesting that maybe the cashier assumed he was taking it to someone else, since he'd already eaten once, but it didn't really work.

My mom is deathly allergic to mushrooms. She considers it her responsibility to always ask, check, and double check her food. Her life is HER responsibility, not the cook, waitress, or cashier's. HER and hers alone.

[Primer]

When we take orders, we ask for a name to call out when the order is ready. Most people just give their first name. Some people, generally older people, prefer to give us their last name. Some people, generally groups of younger people, think they're funny. Joke names are generally along the lines of Nacho, Pancho, Jackie Chan, or Finally. That kind of thing. We don't care, we'll call out whatever, although people who give fake names tend to get colder food cause they'll forget what they told us to call.

Back in the days of local BBS's (before the internet was widespread) we had a local group that would get together in person every Tuesday evening to socialize. When we placed orders, we'd use our screen names, or other common nicknames. We usually went to the same places, so they got used to us, but the first time anywhere, and the looks we would get...! The nick I used back then when ordering was "Fuzzy" because I used to give "big warm fuzzy hugs" to everyone in chat.

[Snowbird]

My mom is deathly allergic to mushrooms. She considers it her responsibility to always ask, check, and double check her food. Her life is HER responsibility, not the cook, waitress, or cashier's. HER and hers alone.

I agree wholeheartedly. I'm allergic to shellfish in the same way and it's no one's fault but my own if I don't ask every single time something is prepared for me. I'd bet his isn't the sort of allergy that would lead to a hospital or morgue visit, however. It could be a minor allergy (still annoying of course, but nothing to flip out about) but my guess would be that he simply doesn't like the taste. I've known more than a few people that thought it was perfectly fine to claim an allergy in that way so that they could avoid admitting that they were just picky about their food. Colossal sort of SC there.

And now I'm in the mood for tacos.

[Andara Bledin]

My mom is deathly allergic to mushrooms. She considers it her responsibility to always ask, check, and double check her food. Her life is HER responsibility, not the cook, waitress, or cashier's. HER and hers alone.

I agree on the "always ask" part of that, but for some things it's next to impossible to check.

But with a burrito? Oh, yeah. There's not a whole lot of problem checking one of those for onions.

I have a friend who is deathly allergic to mushrooms. He asked if a particular dish had mushrooms in the sauce. The waitress assured him it was mushroom free. She was wrong.

^-.-^

[Sableonblonde]

Anyone who's worked a repetitive customer service job, whether it's scanning groceries or taking food orders, can tell you that people just sort of blend together, particularly when it's busy.

Yeah, no kidding. When I was a cashier over the summer, I had a constant line of customers. Most of the items we sold were things that you, the cashier, just grabbed yourself, but we had one sandwich that was only made to order and took about 2-3 minutes. So people who ordered that were told to just stand off to the side and wait. Well, whenever I got too many people one after the other ordering a sandwich, I'd have no clue who ordered first since everyone just looked alike to me. Now add to that the fact that there were three other registers, and so customers from those other registers all blended with mine in one big circle. When a sandwich came up I'd turn and face this huge clusterfuck of people and have no earthly idea who the first sandwich should go to. We didn't have any kind of system at all to ensure that the sandwiches were handed out in the proper order. Chaos