So trivial, yet it really ticks you off.

[2jakes]

I think I remember hearing that. It suited him.

I saw him compete in California.
He was very brash and hated to lose more than anything else.
But this made him win.

 

[LizzieMaine]

We call $20s "Tourist Food Stamps," because no matter what the total, or how many smaller bills they have on their person, the tourists always pay with twenties.

We stock our tills with $150 at opening, in tens, fives, ones, and quarters. All it takes is a few $100-flashing types early in the line to cause big problems for the rest of the night. Especially on a Sunday, when the banks are closed and it's impossible to replenish our change supply. (All our local grocery and drug stores have made it clear to me that they have problems enough of their own without sellling me what little change they have on hand.) What reallly irritates me is when our change is completely cleaned out and I have to post a "Small Bills Needed" sign in the window, only to have some dillweed throw a fifty or hundred thru the window with a dismissive "Sorry, that's all I've got." Enjoy getting rolled quarters for change, dillweed.

 

[2jakes]

We call $20s "Tourist Food Stamps," because no matter what the total, or how many smaller bills they have on their person, the tourists always pay with twenties.

We stock our tills with $150 at opening, in tens, fives, ones, and quarters. All it takes is a few $100-flashing types early in the line to cause big problems for the rest of the night. Especially on a Sunday, when the banks are closed and it's impossible to replenish our change supply. (All our local grocery and drug stores have made it clear to me that they have problems enough of their own without sellling me what little change they have on hand.) What reallly irritates me is when our change is completely cleaned out and I have to post a "Small Bills Needed" sign in the window, only to have some dillweed throw a fifty or hundred thru the window with a dismissive "Sorry, that's all I've got." Enjoy getting rolled quarters for change, dillweed.

Why not smile at the dillweed and profusely apologize and have him stand to the side
until enough customers have paid so that you can break his $20 ?

 

[LizzieMaine]

Doesn't work. He'll say "But I was here first!"

 

[2jakes]

Doesn't work. He'll say "But I was here first!"

Oh Lizzie, I feel for you.
I worked in retail stores after I got out of the military.
Somedays, I felt like it was easier to be in the jungle then face the
healots at the sales-counter....especially around Christmas time.

What ever feelings of “good cheer & pleasant tidings” went out the
store window starting with the Halloween season.

 

[Frunobulax]

As somebody who has made change for a living, I feel guilty paying with anything that makes the till cough up too many ones. I'm always trying to dig for correct change.


Sent directly from my mind to yours.

 

[Zombie_61]

I'll apologize for paying with a $20 bill if the tab for my early morning coffee and doughnut(s) comes to less than $4. On the other hand, if it's close to closing time I'll apologize for paying with exact change because whoever closes the register at the end of the business day will now have more to count.

 

[Fading Fast]

Oh Lizzie, I feel for you.
I worked in retail stores after I got out of the military.
Somedays, I felt like it was easier to be in the jungle then face the
healots at the sales-counter....especially around Christmas time.

What ever feelings of “good cheer & pleasant tidings” went out the
store window starting with the Halloween season.

Having spent four years of college working retail as a side job to pay for college, I decided that was absolutely positively not going to be in my future. Maybe this is too selfish or self-centered, but I realized it was a low-paying job where you were harassed by the public and I wanted more compensation and less torture.

The funny thing is, it's out there in many other fields - so I got the heck out right after college. It fit for college as it gave me incredibly flexible hours and - with OT - not bad compensation for part-time work. And, yes, it dispirits you for Christmas when you see the grubby street brawl than many make Christmas shopping into. Once, college Xmas break started, I worked full time (plus OT) all through Xmas - college was easier.

As to Lizzie, I have no doubt that theater has no idea the gem they have in her and, as happens, the biggest loser is the theater (employer) as they don't avail themselves of the full range of her skills and business insight.

I'll apologize for paying with a $20 bill if the tab for my early morning coffee and doughnut(s) comes to less than $4. On the other hand, if it's close to closing time I'll apologize for paying with exact change because whoever closes the register at the end of the business day will now have more to count.

That is kind and respectful (and as somebody who has closed many a registers - I tip my hat to you), but to be fair, many ATMs only spit out $20s, so that seems, IMHO, something almost every cash business should plan for. But my God, none of this is hard if people are reasonable like you. Wait for a few others to ring up so they have the change, politely ask if somebody behind you in line can help - these are only problems if people are being difficult.

 

[MisterCairo]

Real big shots rarely ride in limos. That's waaay too conspicuous

I recall reading somewhere a while back that 80% of millionaires wear a watch that cost $200 or less. One would think Rolex and Omegas everywhere, but most just aren't that flashy.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Most of the genuine old-money people I've known don't wear watches at all because there really isn't any place they need to be on time. The men are usually wearing an old tweed sport coat they bought in 1960 in Harvard Square, an open-collar striped dress shirt with frayed cuffs, a shapeless pair of twill pants, Mr. Rogers-style canvas boat sneakers, and really unconvincing dentures. Their wives are wearing a Talbots twin-set as seen in an old issue of "Yankee" magazine, a denim skirt, and espadrilles, and have skin tanned the color of an old baseball glove.

 

[Angus Forbes]

Need change? No soup for you!!!

 

[tonyb]

I recall reading somewhere a while back that 80% of millionaires wear a watch that cost $200 or less. One would think Rolex and Omegas everywhere, but most just aren't that flashy.

My stepdad was always one to display the trappings of the fleeting periods of "success" he had in his life. Boats. Cars. Even a Beechcraft, briefly. He talked a good game, but he rarely performed past halftime, hence the multiple bankruptcies.

His misapprehension was that he conflated the trappings for the success, as though the boat or the car or the plane was the point. He made terribly irresponsible use of credit, "buying" expensive things the instant he had enough for a down payment.

I'm confident he would look down his nose at today's kings and queens for a day, in the rented limos and the gaudy jewelry and all. But he was their brother at heart.

 

[Zombie_61]

...That is kind and respectful (and as somebody who has closed many a registers - I tip my hat to you), but to be fair, many ATMs only spit out $20s, so that seems, IMHO, something almost every cash business should plan for...

Thank you. I too have worked that side of the counter, and have had to deal with unreasonable customers and close registers at the end of the day, so I know what it's like. I do my best to show respect to everyone I encounter (at least until they prove they're not worth the effort) because we're all just people trying to make our way through life, and it truly takes so little effort to simply be nice to someone...or at least not make their day worse.

As for "plan for", near my last place of employment there was a family-owned-and-operated diner that catered to the "breakfast and lunch" crowd because they were located in a commercial neighborhood. If you tried to pay for your breakfast with a $20 bill early in the day, "Mom" would complain openly and loudly about it depleting whatever change they had on hand. They had been in business long enough to know this would happen on a daily basis and I often wondered why they didn't plan for it, but...well, they were nice people, but not particularly bright.

I recall reading somewhere a while back that 80% of millionaires wear a watch that cost $200 or less. One would think Rolex and Omegas everywhere, but most just aren't that flashy.

In my experience most people who are wealthy, or semi-wealthy, have money because they don't want to spend it. There are the egotistical types who like to flaunt whatever wealth they might have (especially if it's all bluster and little substance), but most won't spend hundreds or thousands of dollars on a luxury watch when a $50 Timex will do the job just as well.

 

[2jakes]

I have a "mickey mouse" watch by Timex.

It lasted for years before the tail fell off.
I haven't taken it for repairs

Sometimes I feel like Mickey's arm
is making an obscene gesture at me
for my procrastination!

 

[Fading Fast]

I worked for years in a "Private Bank" and wealthy people (truly supper rich - you needed $50 mill just to get in the door of our program at that time) are like everyone else in that they are all over the map.

Many lived modest (but comfortable) lives and had no flashy things like expensive watches. Others "upped" the game a bit with a nice watch / car / second home - but still modest for their wealth. But some also lived pretty luxurious lives - expensive cars, homes, watches, vacations, etc., but well within their means. And some (and this is the group that killed me) lived beyond their means borrowing to buy even more cars, homes, vacations, boats, etc. While there were stereotypes (frugal first generation, spendthrift second) - it really was an "all over the map" group.

I was really ignorant to that world when I started at the Private Bank (I was hired to start up a high-net-worth money market, fixed income and structured product trading and strategy department) as I had no idea that wealthy people borrowed money. I quickly noticed that we were lending huge sums of money and learned that, yes, a subset of wealthily people borrow incredible amounts of money to live even beyond what their substantial income or assets alone would allow.

To be fair, modest amount of borrowing to leave assets invested can make sense for this group, but I'm talking people with $200 mill leveraging themselves up so that they owed $200 mill and if their investments had modest setback, they could quickly be in financial trouble. This is one of the ways that very wealthy people go bankrupt. It's all crazy.

 

[tonyb]

^^^^^
I fear that too many people fail to recognize the injuries they do others through bankruptcy. Someone is getting stiffed, and that often puts the stiffee in a very difficult spot, through no fault of his or her own. Goods or services were provided under the wholly reasonable assumption that remuneration would be forthcoming. When that scratch doesn't come, it hurts. And for some businesses, especially smaller ones, the loss can present an existential threat.

Or maybe serial bankruptcy filers do indeed recognize that innocent others are being injured, but they don't care. Or they don't care enough not to continue in their ways. I can think of a word or two to describe such characters.

 

[Fading Fast]

⇧ I agree completely with you which is why I never, ever commit to buy anything that I haven't already saved up the money for. I would feel horrible if I couldn't pay somebody for something I committed to. I'm not judging how others budget (not my business), but for me, I am only comfortable spending if I have the money "in hand," so it's save first, spend second.

Bankruptcy law - like most laws - are a difficult balance of competing interests. We don't want to return to debtor prisons for people who made reasonable decisions but fell on hard times (lost job / illness / etc.), but it shouldn't be an easy / no-fault do-over either as someone (usually several someones) is, as you said, left holding the bag.

 

[tonyb]

^^^^^
Yeah, it's a whole lot easier to find compassion rather than contempt for people financially ruined by medical expenses. I count that among the reasons we really gotta find a way to get everybody adequately insured. As things are now, we ALL pay, in the form of higher premiums, for the bills that some can't pay.

 

[Fading Fast]

^^^^^
Yeah, it's a whole lot easier to find compassion rather than contempt for people financially ruined by medical expenses. I count that among the reasons we really gotta find a way to get everybody adequately insured. As things are now, we ALL pay, in the form of higher premiums, for the bills that some can't pay.

I agree - medical expenses are in the top five reasons why people go bankrupt (might even be in the top three, I've read it, but don't remember it exactly). Last year, I get hit with a pretty big unexpected medical expense - one day in the hospital cost (all in and even after I negotiated it down) about $5000. Not hard to see how medical bills lead to bankruptcy.

To your point, some version of "we ALL pay, in the form of higher premiums, for the bills that some can't pay" is the only conceptual process that accomplishes coverage for all / most. What mechanical process is used is the issue; for example, single pay is just this idea being functionally pushed through our tax structure (i.e., taxes become the mechanical process).

I am NOT TRYING TO ARGUE ABOUT HEALTHCARE (that is clearly political), but if we are all to be covered (it can be done through a free market with a gov't subsidies to the needy or 100% single pay with no ability to contract outside the system or with many different combinations in between - which is what we have now) many will pay more for many to pay less or nothing.

As my dad would say, somebody always has to pick up the bill. So if we want to cover everyone, some pay more so others pay less or nothing (even if that fact is hidden from view in our tax structure), there is no other way to do it.

 

[Zombie_61]

A large part of the problem with healthcare here in the U.S. is the ridiculous mark-up on prices and costs. In 1977 my dad had surgery to replace one of his eardrums, and at some point after the surgery he was able to obtain an itemized list for medications and such used during his stay in the hospital. I don't remember all of the costs--too overwhelming--but I do recall they charged his insurance company $200 for two aspirin and $100 for a tongue depressor. Two hundred dollars for two aspirin. In 1977. I'd hate to see what they're overcharging these days.