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It surprises me that people don't check the coin return after buying their ice.
i'd wondered about that on and off for years. one day someone clued me in. I was talking about it with an acquaintance a year or two ago. apparently, with ice & water machines, which I've rarely used, there's a bit of a delay when the machine is to give the buyer change. if you use an ice machine and you use a $5 bill to pay for a bag of ice that costs $2.50, you naturally expect $2.50 in change. the change doesn't always dispense immediately. you have to just stand there and wait. a lot of people will only wait a few seconds and when the change doesn't dispense quickly, those people will walk away with their ice. it's ice... it starts melting soon. no one wants to stand there waiting for change while the ice is already beginning to melt. so after the person walks away, the machine dispenses the change. so if anyone wants their change, they have to simply just wait for it. a lot of people don't do that.
i put that theory to the test. I bought a bag of ice one night at one of the ice machines that I check nightly. I used paper dollars instead of coins, which was my usual method for vending machines when I used to use them. I got my ice and indeed I had to stand there and wait what seemed like a bit longer than usual.
I'm sure there are those who simply don't care about getting change, but impatient people bail out too soon.