we are living in durango, colorado, on the side of a mountain. literally on the side of a mountain (the house even came with a snow plow. why is there a snow plow? "i don't know(?)." we soon found out.). trips to town are a huge deal and involve groceries for the week...videos for the week...and a special trip to mcdonald's for the play place. the video store we go to is family owned (no blockbuster existed) and the owner follows me around (offering advice), leaving her cash drawer open. the kids are free to roam wherever. this day is no different. i pick out several movies the kids will love and off we go. at the grocery, dustin wants to get a toy out of the gum ball machines. dustin, i don't have any quarters. "i have a quarter". you're 3, where did YOU get a quarter? "from that drawer full of money at the video store". wait? WHAAAT?!!?!!FLASH FORWARD december 6, 2012
i work retail in a major department store. people come in daily and make payments on their store credit card. most people don't have a statement on them, or even know what their balance is. the transaction goes down like this: customer swipes their card...computer tells me their minimum due and the due date...customer gives me an amount to pay and i enter it in the computer...customer swipes debit card...computer prints out receipt. done. simple. some people actually have a statement with them. they hand me their statement and a check and i have to key everything in by hand. what? this is ridiculous! get with the times, man!! this transaction ends with me handing them back their voided check and them asking me why i'm not keeping it. ummmm...because we already have your money and a scanned image of your check. duh doy! but today! today the weirdest thing happened! "i would like to pay my bill". swipe your card in the machine for me, sir. "oh, here's my statement". (ugh...i have to key it in by hand!!) thank you, sir. how much will you be paying?. "$42.00". how will you be paying for this today? "cash" wait? what? nobody does that?!! nobody. ever. does that!! he hands me two 20's and two 1's and i hand him his receipt. i've opened the cash drawer before. we have to open the registers every morning and count the money to verify how we are starting the day. and we have to do it every night to determine how much we made. occasionally, we have to make a deposit when we close, but...most often...we are just collecting coupons and gift cards for recycling.
more often than not, people are paying with plastic. i'll admit, i fall into this category. i never...hardly ever...have cash on me. sometimes it can be really frustrating: i want a diet dr pepper...the machine takes $1.35...i dig around and all i have is a gum wrapper and a safety pin. UGH! but, then again, there are plus sides to sticking with plastic. like? well...it's easy: the cashier tells me what i owe, i swipe my card and go. i can pay via the internet: last night, i ordered pizza online and paid online...when i walked into larosa's i signed a slip and walked out...easy peasy. and it's clean. if you pay with coins or paper money, that money is being passed between you and the cashier...if one of you has a cold or virus, you could, potentially, be passing it to the other thru the exchange of the money. however, if you pay with plastic, no contact is made...tah dah! no germs passed...the benefits for businesses? safety: with most customers paying with plastic, the amount of cash for deposit is limited making it less inviting to would be thieves. seriously? who wants to go to jail over $50? again, cleanliness, for the EXACT same reasons. and, most importantly, no need for your cash drawer to be open, tempting a 3 year old to steal a quarter.
happy spending!!
*thanks dad!!*
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