XPost: rec.arts.sf.written, rec.arts.books   
   From: john@jfeldredge.com   
      
   On Fri, 23 Aug 2013 10:09:27 -0700, Gutless Umbrella Carrying Sissy wrote:   
      
   > Doc O'Leary  wrote in   
   > news:droleary-6DB040.10492919082013@news.eternal-september.org:   
   >>   
   >> Since cash is a legacy cost, it's probably best to offer a business the   
   >> smallest bills you can along with exact change.   
   >   
   > That is true only if you have change in hand when the cashier starts   
   > ringing you up, sufficient to reach any amount possible.   
   >   
   > And can count change in a less than geologic time frame (and many people   
   > can't). The thing the store wants more than anything is to move you   
   > through the line as efficiently as possible, so they can reduce the   
   > number of employees they have to pay (payroll is second only to cost of   
   > goods as  business expense, in retail). The cashier can count out change   
   > from the till far faster than you can from your pocket, and generally   
   > faster than you can from your hand.   
      
   When I was a teenager, I worked as a paperboy for a couple of years,   
   selling _Grit_ newspapers.  This was a nationally-published paper, and   
   one of its unusual features was that, rather than subscribing to it, you   
   would pay the paperboy in cash each week.  So, I handled a lot of coins.   
   I bought a harmonica at a music store, and paid for it entirely in   
   coins.  When I had counted out most of the price in coin, the store owner   
   said, "That's enough", so I got an unexpected discount.   
      
   --   
   John F. Eldredge -- john@jfeldredge.com   
   "Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that.  Hate cannot   
   drive out hate; only love can do that." -- Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)