Cashier Doesn't Give Change - What To Do?

More businesses and local city governments are going cashless, only accepting cards. A coin dealer on a YouTube channel recently tried going to a movie paying with Sacagawea dollars. The ticket person had never seem them refused them, the manager looked at them, didn't want them either.

Progressive Field (Cleveland Guardians) will also be 100% cashless starting this year.

"Effective at the start of the 2024 season, Progressive Field will be a cashless venue. All purchases inside the ballpark must be made with a credit or debit card, Apple Pay, Google Pay or Guards Mobile Wallet."

On the cashless topic, quite bluntly, the available workers are too innumerate to make correct change with cash. Cashless also eliminates problems with workers stealing cash, and problems with customers trying to steal cash while workers are distracted.

Several years ago, the men in our family went to a minor league baseball game. My cousin and I went to the turkey leg shack. At the end of the 7th inning, there is a 20% discount on all hot food, because the stadium wants to get rid of it at the end of the night. Turkey legs were $5. The friendly high schooler at the shack took our orders—two turkey legs—then asked us to wait. We waited, and waited, and waited. I figured maybe the turkey legs weren't done reheating. When he returned half an inning later, he had a calculator. He plugged in $5 and 20%, seemed shocked that it was exactly $4, plucked our turkey legs from the steamer, and we left.

I also recently had a high school student work for me at a charity event. At that time, the only item my stand was selling cost $2.50, cash only. She worked the cash box, and dutifully plugged almost every transaction into her phone. 17 years old, fairly expensive private high school, looking at better-than-state-school colleges, and wholly unable to transact numbers in multiples of $2.50 in her head.

That's just the world we live in today. In another few decades, having the proficiency to do math in your head will seem like a superpower. Or possibly it will seem like the ability to use an abacus, it's hard to say.

There will always be smart people to do that stuff. But in the age of ubiquitous computing devices, basic math skills will dissolve for the muggles. Video on demand is doing the same thing for vocabulary and reading comprehension. I think the problem we will face is how those folks will be employed in a world of self-service kiosks and robotic factories.

Count me in. Same reaction from my son many moons ago when I pulled it out on old box.

I only use cash for tipping at restaurants. Have not used cash to buy anything for at last five years that I can remember.

My mom was telling me the other day to send a donation as a check. She was shocked when I told her that I've probably written two checks in the last decade. I think I am still on the same book of checks from when I joined my credit union over 20 years ago.

- though not so much for the tracking (hard to think about it sensibly... either I ignore it or get so doom-and-gloomy I tend to just bounce back into ignoring for mental health) as the cuts (also not visible most of the time, but sometimes the same item literally costs more when paid for with a card) and, particularly, the inability to look for interesting coins in change.

I also don't like it when my change gets shorted. Unfortunately a lot of the time the government does it for me - can't get six cents in change when there's no cents minted any more.