The Lady With MANY Coins

                If you ever worked at a grocery store, or even any kind of retail store, you can probably sympathize with the store I am about to tell. The one thing that any cashier does not want to hear is “can I pay with some coins?” Although it sounds harmful, which sometimes it can be, most of the time it is horrible.

            One day I was ringing up this woman, she had a good amount of food. Her total came to $87.92. When I told her the total she looked at me and asked if it was okay to pay with some change. I figured she was going to give me a few quarters or something instead of dollar bills. Well I was wrong. She pulled out a freezer size plastic bag and preceded to hand me rolls of coins. The nickels were first. Each roll is worth $2 and she had given me 5 rolls. Her total was now down to $77.92. The next thing she pulled out of the bag was rolls of dimes. She gave me 7 of those, and each was worth $10. So now her total is at $17.92, and she still continues to pull out even more change out of the bag. 7 rolls of pennies was next, each a dollar a piece. Her total was now at $10.92. She reached into her purse and handed me 92 cents. With $10 left on her bill she hands me a 20 dollar bill. I looked at her a bit confusingly, and then gave her the $10 dollars I owed her for change and she left.

I was then stuck with 19 rolls of coins. There was no room in my draw, so I tried the best I could to make it fit. I was putting rolls under the bills and everywhere else I could fit them. I went onto the next customer, but when I went to open my draw to insert their money, guess what? My draw was jammed. I called the manager over to my register and showed her what had happened and I explained what I had received from the wonderful woman. She found a screwdriver and finally was able to pop open the draw and take a look at my nice coin collection. She laughed and was able to take a few rolls from me and gave me bills so my draw could then close

Ever since that happened I always ask the customer how much change they are planning on using to pay with. I find the story fun, but definitely a lesson learned.