jaylectricity: alkhemy: Don't most grocery stores these days have one of those CoinStar machines that take your change and give you a credit note to use at the checkout? The ones round here all have them.

JanusofZeal: If someone can't be bothered to go to a bank to get their change converted to bills or to pay for more things with that change instead of with bills so they have bills left over instead of $32 in change, then say good riddance to the jackass.

Both of you did not read the article.

JanusofZeal: You don't get to $32 in change without a good amount of opportunities to pay $1.27 instead of $2 and getting $0.73 back. It's not like some store gave them $32 in loose change.

The loose change was probably being saved up over time when times weren't so tough. Now that she needs it for groceries, there's a whole other scenario going on.

Thank YOU sir.

She said she didn't have gas to get to the bank which was too far.

It is very disappointing to read this story & QUITE frankly upsetting.

ArkAngel: alkhemy: Don't most grocery stores these days have one of those CoinStar machines that take your change and give you a credit note to use at the checkout? The ones round here all have them.

As mentioned in the article, they take 9-10% of the money deposited. That's why I never use them unless I'm getting a gift card for one of their sponsors (which costs nothing).

Your local bank has the same machine and will charge you nothing for the conversion.

//And the store can refuse to engage in business for anyone for any reason (aside from those stated explicitly in the civil rights act). "Legal tender for all debts" is more about it always being a valid method of payment if it comes to a legal dispute, it doesn't mean that the fact that you're offering cash means that you can automatically force anyone to sell you anything.

It's not as if these people paid a $100 debt with pennies.

$32 in quarters is pretty farking easy to divide, if you're not an idiot. Incidentally, even many stores have change counting machines, and if a person is willing to pay $32 in quarters, they're willing to wait 5 minutes while you drop in the coins in the office.

I've never understood why stores that have those change machines don't all have an option to get it as a gift card to the store it's located in without a fee. Safeway does this at my local Safeway, and it makes sense.
- Guarantees that the customer spends money there
- Relieved cashier doesn't have to count a billion pennies
- Other customers get through faster.

Seriously, the store in the article is crap - it's legal farking tender. If you don't want to collect change more than 5$ then have a change counter available for people to change the money there.

I don't like being stuck behind penny counters any more than other people, but it's legal tender. I deal with it. And considering the MANY options stores have to alleviate the issue so they can collect said legal tender quickly, I have no sympathy for the store here.

dopeydwarf: R.A.Danny: JanusofZeal: If someone can't be bothered to go to a bank to get their change converted to bills or to pay for more things with that change instead of with bills so they have bills left over instead of $32 in change, then say good riddance to the jackass.

If a business isn't willing to take a customer's legal tender, they can do without customers. Of course you're just trolling, sadly I bit.


This. Yes, it's right. It's Constitutionally right.

Meh. This topic has been talked to death in previous threads. Stores do not have to accept coins for payment.

There is no Federal statute mandating that a private business, a person or an organization must accept currency or coins as for payment for goods and/or services.

/your link referred specifically to paper money, sparky.

Divide into dollar-sized stacks, I mean.

refusing to take coinage as payment? how pedestrian.
there is a new grocery store opening up near me that is refusing to take *cash* as payment

http://www.standardmarket.com/

Jean said she brought $32 in quarters to Save-a-Lot in Southeast Portland. After she grabbed her groceries, she waited until the checkout line cleared so she could pay.

This seems a rather unnecessary part of the narrative to document.

When the KATU Problem Solvers called around to other grocery stores in our area and said they were from KATU, all of the store managers said loose change was acceptable as payment. But when they called back as customers, they got a different story:

QFC would only accept $5 or $6 in loose change.
Albertsons said they would only accept $5.
WinCo and Safeway didn't have a cutoff, but said they tell customers to use the change machine.
Only Whole Foods and New Seasons were open to accepting change, no matter what the amount.


What a bunch of lying dicks

I Am The Egg Matt Drudge Smears Upon His Body: There is no Federal statute mandating that a private business, a person or an organization must accept currency or coins as for payment for goods and/or services.

This is true, but wasn't there something about them having to have a stated or posted policy to that effect before the transaction? Or am I remembering wrong? This came up in that best buy $2 bill debacle, and that's what I'm hazily trying to recall.

mint your own coins and explain you are the easter bunny, and as such have executive privileges. merely showing your horde of coin earns you free groceries.

option B: offer to pay for groceries with foil-wrapped chocolate coins from the easter bunny. executive privileges still apply, as does the argument for yummy currency.

Was it loose or in rolls? Quarter rolls are 5 dollars or 10? Wouldn't be that many rolls to take, compare heights and count one or two..

Gdiguy: WinCo and Safeway didn't have a cutoff, but said they tell customers to use the change machine.

Another large corporation shaking down the poor. Screw all the corporate bastards.

Oznog
Jean said she brought $32 in quarters to Save-a-Lot in Southeast Portland. After she grabbed her groceries, she waited until the checkout line cleared so she could pay.

This seems a rather unnecessary part of the narrative to document.

She waited until the line was clear so that she wouldn't inconvenience someone behind her.

Shows that a.) she's considerate and b.) the store couldn't say "we didn't accept the change because it would have inconvenienced our other customers who were waiting in line"

Oznog: Jean said she brought $32 in quarters to Save-a-Lot in Southeast Portland. After she grabbed her groceries, she waited until the checkout line cleared so she could pay.

This seems a rather unnecessary part of the narrative to document.

If true, it shows that the woman realized her situation would be an inconvenience to the store and was trying to mitigate the impact to other customers out of respect, rather than just walking up and demanding "Take my money!" in front of the rest of the store.

untaken_name: I Am The Egg Matt Drudge Smears Upon His Body: There is no Federal statute mandating that a private business, a person or an organization must accept currency or coins as for payment for goods and/or services.

This is true, but wasn't there something about them having to have a stated or posted policy to that effect before the transaction? Or am I remembering wrong? This came up in that best buy $2 bill debacle, and that's what I'm hazily trying to recall.

I'm not sure on that.... I didn't see the best buy $2 bill debacle thread. Maybe there's somebody out there less hazy than the two of us that remembers it. :-\

From the US Treasury:

"Legal Tender Status

I thought that United States currency was legal tender for all debts. Some businesses or governmental agencies say that they will only accept checks, money orders or credit cards as payment, and others will only accept currency notes in denominations of $20 or smaller. Isn't this illegal?

The pertinent portion of law that applies to your question is the Coinage Act of 1965, specifically Section 31 U.S.C. 5103, entitled "Legal tender," which states: "United States coins and currency (including Federal reserve notes and circulating notes of Federal reserve banks and national banks) are legal tender for all debts, public charges, taxes, and dues."

This statute means that all United States money as identified above are a valid and legal offer of payment for debts when tendered to a creditor. There is, however, no Federal statute mandating that a private business, a person or an organization must accept currency or coins as for payment for goods and/or services. Private businesses are free to develop their own policies on whether or not to accept cash unless there is a State law which says otherwise. For example, a bus line may prohibit payment of fares in pennies or dollar bills. In addition, movie theaters, convenience stores and gas stations may refuse to accept large denomination currency (usually notes above $20) as a matter of policy."

I Am The Egg Matt Drudge Smears Upon His Body: untaken_name: I Am The Egg Matt Drudge Smears Upon His Body: There is no Federal statute mandating that a private business, a person or an organization must accept currency or coins as for payment for goods and/or services.

This is true, but wasn't there something about them having to have a stated or posted policy to that effect before the transaction? Or am I remembering wrong? This came up in that best buy $2 bill debacle, and that's what I'm hazily trying to recall.

I'm not sure on that.... I didn't see the best buy $2 bill debacle thread. Maybe there's somebody out there less hazy than the two of us that remembers it. :-\

Well, I can't speak for you, but I sure HOPE there's somebody out there less hazy than I am, because otherwise humanity's in some real trouble. Help me, Interwebs, hear my plea and provide me with information that I should have but have forgotten.

You're my only hope!

Seriously? Is counting $32 in change really that preposterous that you people are actually defending the store's position on this?

Maybe you have a hard time counting, but it's really not all that difficult nor time consuming to count out $32 worth of quarters.

I've been here, I can relate to this lady. My guess is (like I still do) she leaves change from daily transactions in a bin somewhere in case it should ever be needed. She was going through some hardship, and she did pretty much exactly what I would have done, she left the dimes, nickels and pennies out, because that's just obnoxious, got what she needed and made it as convenient as possible for all involved given the circumstances.

Banks aren't open 24/7 (or are closed when you're off work, at least around here) so that's not always an option and the 10% fee on those machines can be make or break depending on what you need to buy.

In other news, arrogant douchebag Farkers are *shocked* to learn that there are poor people.

Perfect example of lazy worker syndrome. It's is illegal to deny form of payment for lack usable effort. If the farktard cashier can't count that high with both hands bare footed she should be fired.

/ boycott 7-11 for overcharging for stamps. Also illegal because they also are form of currency and they don't know our country's laws.

// and they ran out of the blue slurrpee yesterday.

ferro_man: refusing to take coinage as payment? how pedestrian.
there is a new grocery store opening up near me that is refusing to take *cash* as payment

http://www.standardmarket.com/

There's a store here that does that. It is Bright Ideas & the deal in holiday & all other wonderful assortment of lighting. You probably can't get anything in that store for for $100 so, it is a 'don't rob us' with them. Plus don't have to make a trip to the store.

I don't know what standard Market does, yes I'll go to there website.

ElevenBravo: It's is illegal to deny form of payment for lack usable effort.

what is this i don't even

Amireally first to call shenanigans?

Wow! Keep the comments coming. It sure makes it easier to identify which side of the political spectrum you reside.

don''t most grocery stores have banks in them? and everywhere around here, if you use the coinstar machine you can get the full amount if you use credit at the store

JanusofZeal: I didn't say use coinstar. I said use a bank.

This is a long gone bank service, my current bank only accepts large numbers of coins in rolls, my friends have complained about the same thing or they get tagged with a 3-5% 'processing' fee.

In Tokyo most place won't take large ammounts of change because protestors would all go to stores in a line and pay in 1 yen coins to cause chaos. This woman wasn't trying to be a biatch, Those coin stars are a rip off, probably taking a day's worth of food out of her budget if she used the coin star.

I'm not surprised they wouldn't accept that amount of coins. It's a waste of their time for the store to count, process and transport to their bank just because some woman couldn't be bothered to exchange the money at a bank.

Not sure what the US law is on the matter but in the UK, "legal tender" does not require a store to engage in a transaction if it doesn't want to and even if there were a pre-existing contract both parties must agree on the form of payment. So you couldn't dump £1000 of 1p coins on someone expecting notes or a cheque and assume they must accept it. Legal tender's definition only comes into play when a debtor is forced to pay money to a court and in that case there are limits on the number of coins of 50p or less you can pay with, e.g. you can't pay more than 20p in 1p coins, no more than £10 in 50p coins. So legal tender means squat in every day life but I expect most stores would be reasonable assuming the customer is.

thisispete: From the US Treasury:

"Legal Tender Status

I thought that United States currency was legal tender for all debts.... Isn't this illegal?

The pertinent portion of law that applies to your question is the Coinage Act of 1965, specifically Section 31 U.S.C. 5103, entitled "Legal tender," which states: "United States coins and currency (including Federal reserve notes and circulating notes of Federal reserve banks and national banks) are legal tender for all debts, public charges, taxes, and dues."

This statute means that all United States money as identified above are a valid and legal offer of payment for debts when tendered to a creditor. There is, however, no Federal statute mandating that a private business, a person or an organization must accept currency or coins as for payment for goods and/or services.

This is the part that seems to elude people: a debt vs. a service or goods.

With the former, you already received a good or service, and you are now indebted to the other party. In this case, if you want to settle your debt with ass pennies, they are stuck with it.

If, however, you have not yet received the goods or services, the other party can simply say "fark you" and not do business with you.

So if you want to pay with ass pennies, get them to give you the stuff first.

My take on it anyway (IANAL).


That said, the people at the store were still being douchey.

Haven't a good number of people always been resistant to change?

ArcadianRefugee: With the former, you already received a good or service, and you are now indebted to the other party. In this case, if you want to settle your debt with ass pennies, they are stuck with it.

Hey, this is what I was trying to recall above. Thank you!

/I love you, Interwebs.

ElevenBravo: Perfect example of lazy worker syndrome. It's is illegal to deny form of payment for lack usable effort. If the farktard cashier can't count that high with both hands bare footed she should be fired.

That's not how it works.

If I sold you a house on a payment plan, and you offer a payment in cash, I can't foreclose on you because you paid in cash (unless it's explicitly in the contract, I suppose)... the cash offer is a valid way to pay existing debt, barring contractual stipulations to the contrary.

If you're looking at a house and haven't bought it from me yet, offering me cash for it does not legally obligate me to sell it to you. In fact, if I don't want to sell it to you because I find a suitcase full of cash creepy as hell, that's as valid a reason as any, because I don't need to state a reason at all to deny an individual business.

A transaction at the checkout falls into category 2, not category 1. No debt or sale has yet been incurred.

Jim_Callahan: A transaction at the checkout falls into category 2, not category 1. No debt or sale has yet been incurred.

You seem smart, so I'll ask you: Do you know what would happen if you ordered the groceries via a home-delivery service offered by the store? Could you pay in pennies when they get there, or would it still be a category 2 transaction?

Ahhh Fred Meyers, if you want to piss off a lot of people in Phoenix. Just mention that name.

/If you build a multimillion dollar store for us we'll move in. (After the building is complete) Sorry we changed our minds we're pulling out of Phoenix.
//Building got torn down and a Wal-Mart took its place.
///43rd ave and Bethany Home.