Blecch Friday. SCRUNCH SCRUNCH SCRUNCH. [DP Store]

[digitalpress]

Last year, my Black Friday and Black Saturday were two of the biggest sales days of the year. This year, they were solid days but not nearly as exciting as last year. Even though the sales numbers are...

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[Frankie_Says_Relax]

Comment'ed!

[JerseyDevil65]

$350 in warm, moist singles? Maybe the kids mother works at Satin Dolls.

[Aussie2B]

In regards to the comment, I'd say let the kid have his big moment and the mother have her pride. Sure, it's annoying as a cashier, but I think it's a pretty cute, sweet story. If the mom had to say "Sorry, Jimmy, but I have to take your money from you and exchange it at the bank because nobody wants your warm, moist singles", it would've ruined it.

Maybe I'm just a little sympathetic because a fond memory of mine is buying the very first system I ever personally owned myself with my own money that I saved up after a long time. I was about 11, and I was buying a SNES. I don't recall exactly what I paid with, but I'm sure there were a fair number of singles in there and probably even some change to top it off. Granted, the amount was about of third of what that kid was spending.

[FantasiaWHT]

I let my three-year old save up money by putting change in his piggy bank. He was saving up for a Backyardigans CD. Eventually we counted and had some $18 in quarters, dimes and nickels. He was absolutely devastated when I tried to give him a $20 bill for all that. He couldn't understand that I was giving him more money, and he really loved the sound all those coins made jingling around. If I had to do it again, I'd probably let him pay with the coins - that's what cashiers get paid to do.

Yeah, it's annoying and time-consuming, but retail stores bleed coins and singles anyway - they should be grateful for somebody paying with those lower denominations.

[Kevincal]

That blog and comments were a good read, and laugh...lol

[Untamed]

Yeah, it's annoying and time-consuming, but retail stores bleed coins and singles anyway - they should be grateful for somebody paying with those lower denominations.

Maybe earlier in the day, but if it's halfway through my shift or more I refuse large, 20$ amounts, in change. I don't know if you've worked retail before, but balancing that shit sucks.

[Frankie_Says_Relax]

Well, hey guys...I might have come off a bit bitter in that response, and, well, when I was counting out those singles I probably was.

But I didn't ACTUALLY yell at the kid or his mom or anything. The kid got his Playstation and games ... and probably enjoyed them more than he would have if he didn't pay his own way.

Hell, I probably even gritted my teeth loosely in the form of a smile and flashed it at both of them because I knew it would make a great story some day.

[grolt]

Hey, I bought my first PSX with the singles I saved all summer selling ice cream as a kid, but you can rest assured before I biked over to Wal-Mart, I stopped over at the bank to exchange it for some twenties. There's pride, and there's common sense!

[Kitsune Sniper]

Yeah, it's annoying and time-consuming, but retail stores bleed coins and singles anyway - they should be grateful for somebody paying with those lower denominations.

Think it's bad for us?

You should hear and see the death wishes the people BEHIND the person paying in small coins throw at said person.

Here's a hint: GO TO A BANK AND CASH THOSE PENNIES. You'll have less problems with people hexing you or wishing you were dead. :P

[Untamed]

Think it's bad for us?

You should hear and see the death wishes the people BEHIND the person paying in small coins throw at said person.

Here's a hint: GO TO A BANK AND CASH THOSE PENNIES. You'll have less problems with people hexing you or wishing you were dead. :P

AMEN. See my post above.

[k8track]

I let my three-year old save up money by putting change in his piggy bank. He was saving up for a Backyardigans CD. Eventually we counted and had some $18 in quarters, dimes and nickels. He was absolutely devastated when I tried to give him a $20 bill for all that. He couldn't understand that I was giving him more money, and he really loved the sound all those coins made jingling around.

This poem immediately sprang to mind:


Smart

My dad gave me one dollar bill
'Cause I'm his smartest son,
And I swapped it for two shiny quarters
'Cause two is more than one!

And then I took the quarters
And traded them to Lou
For three dimes--I guess he don't know
that three is more than two!

Just them, along came old blind Bates
And just 'cause he can't see
He gave me four nickels for my three dimes,
And four is more than three!

And I took the nickels to Hiram Coombs
Down at the seed-feed store,
and the fool gave me five pennies for them,
And five is more than four!

And then I went and showed my dad,
and he got red in the cheeks
And closed his eyes and shook his head--
Too proud of me to speak!

Shel Silverstein

[FantasiaWHT]

This poem immediately sprang to mind:


Smart

My dad gave me one dollar bill
'Cause I'm his smartest son,
And I swapped it for two shiny quarters
'Cause two is more than one!

And then I took the quarters
And traded them to Lou
For three dimes--I guess he don't know
that three is more than two!

Just them, along came old blind Bates
And just 'cause he can't see
He gave me four nickels for my three dimes,
And four is more than three!

And I took the nickels to Hiram Coombs
Down at the seed-feed store,
and the fool gave me five pennies for them,
And five is more than four!

And then I went and showed my dad,
and he got red in the cheeks
And closed his eyes and shook his head--
Too proud of me to speak!

Shel Silverstein

Heh, that's one of my favorite Silverstein poems

And yes, I have worked retail - managed an EB Games for year in between teaching jobs, as well as worked as a grunt at EB and Best Buy. I'll stick with my response - yes, it's annoying, but the customer has every right to pay however they want, and I'd prefer spending a little extra time counting than having to send somebody to the bank in the middle of the day when we run out of quarters/singles/etc.

[Jorpho]

Hah, my whole class had to recite that one several times in fifth grade!

[Pantechnicon]

I let my three-year old save up money by putting change in his piggy bank....Eventually we counted and had some $18 in quarters, dimes and nickels. He was absolutely devastated when I tried to give him a $20 bill for all that. He couldn't understand that I was giving him more money...

It's a cognitive limitation on the part of children that they are unable grasp mental concepts such as equivalence or reversal of operations (e.g. - 3+4=7, but 4+3=?) until around the age of five or six. Thus, a heavy container that's full of coins will always have more "value" in their minds than a thin, lightweight strip of green paper.

I took my daughter out shopping for shoes this weekend (Plug: see my blog, link in sig, for the whole depressing tale) and she used her own saved money for the shoes she wanted. She keeps all her money jam-packed in a little jar on her desk. The bills she brought with her to the mall looked better suited to building a bird's nest than to perform a consumer transaction

[Apollo]

AMEN. See my post above.

Tell me about it. I was at work (Toys R Us) on Black Friday and the Saturay after, and I was just happy that I wasn't working on register that day. Apparently, someone paid for a $150~ group of games and paid in mostly ten dollar bills...

[Mayhem]

Have to agree, the Friday and Saturday seemed less busy shopping wise where I was with Kris... overall reports seem to suggest the same nationwide.

[boatofcar]

When I worked at Apple I had someone pay for an iBook with $10s and $20s...talk about the work it was to count and recount...

[Mattiekrome]

$350 in warm, moist singles? Maybe the kids mother works at Satin Dolls.

Bwahahahah

Back in college I worked at dollar tree. There was some type of summer program the college had, where groups of others from foriegn countries would come and study over the summer months. This summer in particular was a group from Jamaica. The last day they were in town before heading back to Jamaica, they came to the dollar tree and loaded up on $1 loot. Unfortunately I was cashier, and collectively they (all 6 of them) had a bread bag half full of small change to pay for said $1 items. I miss those days, most stress free job ever