With any luck, they'll try again

[Pixelated]

I work as grocery store cashier. If a cashier has no customers, they are expected to find something to do -- often this means going to bag groceries at a different register. I was doing that tonight for a small group of male customers, and when I was finished, one customer held out a $5 bill. I was dumbfounded for a moment, before realizing he planned to tip me (the cashier said he was holding two bills, so it seems likely he was planning to tip us both). I thanked him but said we are not allowed to accept tips. He seemed a bit puzzled but nodded and put the cash away.

Later on I told a supervisor about it.

Supervisor: "What are you, nuts?! TAKE THE MONEY."

Me:

I passed the info on to the cashier. So if those guys ever come back and try again -- fingers crossed -- we will definitely accept the gratuity!

I should add that there is absolutely nothing in the building or at any register to indicate we expect tips --no tip jars or anything like that. That's a big reason why this seemed to come right out of left field.

The only time this has happened before was during the COVID lockdowns. One customer made it a point to go from cashier to cashier over a period of days, handing out either $50 VISA gift cards or $50 in cash, to thank us for being on the job. That time I asked a supervisor (probably the same one ) if I could accept the gift card and she said sure. But I figured that was a special case, unlike today's offering.

[EricKei]

I used to work at a place that explicitly forbade accepting tips (the 'boutique' grocery). They said it was because workers (at an unrelated store) where those managers had worked in the past caused incidents when they badgered customers for tips for bringing groceries out to their cars, etc.