Then you get to carry this filthy smelly money around until you need to spend it. At that point, you invariably get more bills, and a bunch of change that jangles around in your pocket, until it eventually pokes a hole in your pocket, or gets stuck in the dryer at some point in the future. The rest of the day you get to walk around sounding like a court jester with bells on his shoes.
Personally, I just toss my change into a jar when I get home that night, and don't think about it until I have enough to take to the CoinStar machine for conversion into an Amazon gift card (yet more hassle and time).
Ultimately I find the whole operation irritating, which is why God invented the Debit Card. Now I get to buy whatever I want either by typing my PIN, or signing a screen (we have yet to catch up with the chip and PIN systems of other countries, but I'm sure we will eventually).
The reason I am talking about all this is because tonight I decided to buy a small bottle of wine from the liquor store next door to the Thai restaurant who was cooking my food. I walked around for a while, selected a cheap bottle of plonk for $8.99, and waited for the woman to ring me up. I had to wait a while, because there was apparently a 'special' on certain wine that day, and they decided it was worth holding me up for a few minutes to discount my purchase.
Sure enough the wine was randomly and for no reason I could understand discounted to $6.99. Even better. I hand over my card, only to be informed that they don't take credit cards. I explained that I was offering to pay with a debit card, only to be told that ALL plastic was forbidden in their store (a sign might have been useful here). Helpfully, the old man behind the counter told me there was an ATM across the street, where I could procure the necessary evil cash, and bring it back to him in his store.
Fuck, while were are at it, why not just have me drive to the supplier, pick up the wine there, and save him the hassle of actually getting the wine delivered to his store, and placed on the shelf. Perhaps he'd also like his fucking car washed too.
I explained that this was 2010, and I'd simply take my business to a store that was aware that it was no longer the 1950s.
I just cannot for the life of me understand what the fuck is wrong with businesses like this. This kind of shit used to be common in England, but they've moved on, and America it seemed was always willing to take your money in any form.
But now, perhaps due to greedy banks, some small businesses are rebelling against fees on credit cards and debit cards, and forcing people to use cash. That's all well and good, but what happened to good old fashioned customer choice? I'd already agreed to pay $8.99 for the wine when I picked it up and walked it to the cash register. I'd have even paid a dollar more to use my debit card, which would have more than covered the bank fees. Instead they wanted to discount the wine to $6.99 and make me walk across the street on a hot and humid Texas evening, pull money out of the ATM, pay $1.50 for the privilege of using the ATM, then travel back to the hotel with jangling coins in my pocket, that I would then have to transfer to my suitcase and remember to put in the jar when I got home.
It's just bullshit. You wanna take issue with the banks about the fees, fine. But in the meantime, how about you just realize what century this is, and give me a choice. I'll pay the damn fees if I have to, just so I don't have to mess with the cash.
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