I’ve undergone a complete lifestyle change over the last two months. I’m no longer a college student! Wahh? haha. As I’ve mentioned before, one of the biggest changes for me is making more frequent trips to the grocery store.

The grocery store atmosphere is very different from a college town (Gainesville, FL). There are A LOT of old people and little kids running around.

So after work on Friday the 13th (figures, right?) I decided to go grocery shopping. Yipee! But this trip was different… I had my shopping cart loaded with food for next week’s meals and prepared to checkout. Well, I guess a bunch of other people like to go grocery shopping on a late Friday afternoon, because there were four other people ahead of me. Not to bad, I think.

But wait! Two of the four people ahead of me were elderly people. No harm right? Not! I don’t know what it is, but for some darn reason, elderly people like to pay in cash, with coins. Those damn coins! I hate coins!!! See, the first elderly lady wasn’t ready to pay when the cashier completed her order. This annoyed me already. So I sat there, watching her slowly pull her purse up to the counter. She then asked the cashier to repeat the amount, after which she proceeded to open her purse. She slowly (very slowly) pulled out her bills. Then she tells the cashier to”Wait, I think I have change!” WHAT? AHHHHHHHHHHH!!! The lady digs through her purse, for what seems like forever, slowly but surely finding her change. OMG I thought I was going to die.

And you know what? It was just my luck to have the second elderly lady do the same exact thing. She even dug through her pockets to find change.

I hate Coins!

So I propose modifying the check out process. Screw the fast lanes. I think we should have Credit/Debit card only check out lanes. And you know what, I think its genius (haha). Really though, think about it.

For the consumer, you can save so much time by just swiping your card and signing (or entering your pin). And, you won’t ever have to carry cash in your wallet! You won’t need to dig around for the right bills, or find the right coins. Just swipe and go!

For the grocery store, imagine not having to carry cash in the drawers. Well, maybe you have to carry cash for those folks who want cash back with their debit cards. Or better yet, no cash back! Yeah, no cash back! So imagine not having to check a cashier’s drawer to make sure its balanced. And not having to deal with breaking down those big bills into smaller ones. Heck, by having the lines go faster, you can reduce the number of cashiers you have! You can SAVE MONEY!

I think this can work, don’t you?

Come, join me in protesting coins. I hate coins! Just swipe and GO. =)

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7 Responses

  1. ambellamy

    July 14th, 2007 at 1:35 pm

    1

    gotta disagree with you pal… there will always be paper money because there will always be 2% of the population fighting for it… and while i seldom carry cash, and frankly i almost always swipe, i like the fact that we do have it.

    some people can’t use credit/debit properly and for them, cash is better and i respect that…

    why do you think they didn’t stop manufacturing the penny when it was costing more to make it then it was worth… people didn’t want everything to round up to 5Cents…

  2. Dennis

    July 14th, 2007 at 4:52 pm

    2

    its okay, I was just joking around anyway =)

  3. GoldNSilver

    July 16th, 2007 at 9:05 am

    3

    This is a funny post.

    I hated it when people used to write personal checks to pay!! I only wanted to pay for my candy bar or gum, and I always get stuck behind someone slowly taking out the checkbook, and asked the cashier, “oh how much it is again?” and slowly write out the check. then the cashier has to ask for a driver’s license to write down the number…. VERY PAINFUL to watch and wait!

    Thank god for debit cards!

    This will sound really bad, but Dennis, this is why I do not get in line when there are elderly people in it. 11 out of 10 times, they empty out their pocket/purse to find their coins! I do not want to subject myself to the agony of waiting for them to fish out their coins.

  4. chris.pund

    July 16th, 2007 at 9:50 am

    4

    I actually like using cash more than my card. It prevents against possibilities of fraud and identity theft, but thats not to say that I carry a ton of cash on me. I probably use cash 50% of the time and debit the other 50%. I hate using credit cards however, the concept is nice to be able to pay later, but when the bill comes and you actually have to pay it off, it becomes a hassle. Thats why there is very small minimum amounts for payments and really high interest rates, oh well.

    The thing that bothers me as well is people writing checks. They could very easily get a check/debit card from their bank for their account so that they don’t have to write a check and then have a record of everything at the end of the month when the statement comes.

    Cash is king though. Many places also only accept cash because it saves the business money. Processing and merchant fees are outragous and for most smaller businesses, its not worth it to charge something under $5-$10 because of the fees. (I love the cash only gas station by my house: always less of a line/wait, easyily accessible, and always cheaper than any other station that takes credit cards.)

  5. Small Business Loan-er

    March 26th, 2008 at 11:00 am

    5

    Here in California we do have self check outs showing up in grocery stores, home improvement centers, etc. Some day it will all be like gas stations where self serve dominates but it’s a little more complex than pumping gas when you are weighing your Gala. Fuji, Jonagold, or whatever were these apples.

    I am torn between the technology which easily leads to overspending and debt and cash which leads to ….hold on a second, I think I have 3 pennies or maybe my great granddaughter took them….. :D

  6. John from Credit Card Debt Reduction Services

    June 28th, 2008 at 5:29 pm

    6

    Hey there! I feel you about the getting done with college part! Good times, but now we gotta become adults! Hehe

    Personally I prefer to use cash to pay, but I think your idea is great! If a few cashiers worked like that it would increase productivity a lot! Handling cash is always a time consuming task for any business, you have to handle it on the transaction, count it on closing time, put it in a safe and it goes on…
    But then again, a company has to pay about 2 to 3% on the transaction to the credit card processing company… 2 or 3% is still a lot of money on your sales volume!!

    Nice post!

  7. Angela

    July 8th, 2008 at 8:06 pm

    7

    As you get older, hopefully, you will get a little perspective and you won’t be annoyed by these things. Agreed, debit is the fastest way to go in a grocery store. But there are a lot of other people out there in a lot of other situations: bankrupt, overdrawn, max-ed out credit, immigrant status, credit unions with bad privileges. For most people in my neighborhood, a grocery cart full of food and a college degree are things to be pretty happy about.

    And, man, you’ll be old someday, too. I hope there’s someone patient enough to take care of you.


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