5 ms·

Lots of retail businesses have a sign that reads "If you don't receive a receipt, your purchase is free!" It enlists the customer as an auditor to make sure the

by sowbug 3y ago

Lots of retail businesses have a sign that reads "If you don't receive a receipt, your purchase is free!" It enlists the customer as an auditor to make sure the employee uses the POS system, rather than pocketing the customer's payment. If the cash in the till doesn't match receipts at the end of the day, the proprietor knows something's wrong. (Just in case you're one of today's lucky 10,000.)

morelisp 3y ago
Unless you know the owner is a Mensch, don’t be a narc. Let the underpaid overworked employee pocket whatever. Whole Foods doesn’t fucking care. Temporarily embarrassed millionaires eat my ass.
- pc86 3y ago
  Until you have a problem, and don't have a receipt, and now you're out your money with a defective product and nothing to do except - buy a new one, I guess? And I'm not sure what makes you think the person buying the thing is doing any better financially than the person ringing them up. Working class people shop too. You're letting your Poli Sci 101 take on class and economics cloud the fact that it's most likely another working class person getting taken advantage of.
  - sowbug 3y ago
    The relevant parties aren't the cashier and the buyer. They're the cashier and the business owner. The whole scheme is meant as a deterrent, not as a remedy. If the buyer observes that the cashier isn't ringing up the sale, and the buyer challenges the cashier, the cashier will say "oops!" and proceed to ring it up correctly. That's because the cashier has nothing to gain by continuing the deceit at that point; either he's just letting people walk out without paying (thus risking being fired for no gain), or he's back to doing his job of collecting revenue in exchange for his wage. In any rational play of this game, the buyer ends up the same -- paying what he owed for the sale. This assumes, of course, that everyone is behaving rationally. If you believe grocery stores are evil, as the parent comment suggests, I suppose you also believe you have license to make up your own rules.
- arcanemachiner 3y ago
  A memetic formula for societal decay has never been expressed so succinctly. It's "Fuck you, got mine" all the way down.
  - morelisp 3y ago
    Solidarity between workers. No tears for Bezos losing the price of a broccoli.
- bitwize 3y ago
  If you see someone stealing food, no you didn't.
WeylandYutani 3y ago
Wouldn't it just be easier to stop accepting cash? Dominos is card/internet only.
- pc86 3y ago
  Some people (a vanishingly small minority, admittedly) will only use cash. But some more realistic reasons for accepting cash: - 3% credit card fees aren't nothing when your entire business operates on 4-5% margins - It's much harder to launder money if you're 100% cashless - if you have even a small proportion of legitimate cash buyers you can now funnel more illicit money through that
  - kevincox 3y ago
    FWIW handling cash isn't free either. It can be 2-3% as well (depending on a lot of things like volume, change requirements and typical patterns, insurance can be less if you have no cash on premises, ...) In many cases the cost of credit cards and cash are surprisingly similar. Especially in Europe with capped fees.
  - TylerE 3y ago
    Not that vanishingly small once you start working with the poor. A lot of those folks don't even have checking accounts, never mind a credit (not debit) card. This has been a real issue in a few places that have now banned cashless, because it puts a heavy burden on the un/under banked.
  - reaperducer 3y ago
    Some people (a vanishingly small minority, admittedly) will only use cash. 130 million Americans don't have a credit card: https://www.fool.com/credit-cards/2020/11/19/nearly-30-of-americans-dont-have-a-credit-card-her/ https://www.fool.com/credit-cards/2020/11/19/nearly-30-of-am... Six percent of American households don't have a bank account: https://www.fdic.gov/analysis/household-survey/index.html https://www.fdic.gov/analysis/household-survey/index.html Outside the tech bubble, it's not "vanishingly" small at all.
- sowbug 3y ago
hanniabu 3y ago
But you don't receive a receipt until after you pay, so you'd already given them the money before you realize if you're getting a receipt or not. That means you have to then escalate the issue, cause a scene, take up your time, deal with the whole your word vs theirs, etc.
- sowbug 3y ago
  I'm probably missing your point. The cops don't show up to every crime scene, but the chance they will is enough to deter crime.
JCharante 3y ago
As a teenager I worked at a popular coffee chain. Once I started working the cash register autonomously I got very lightly reprimanded by co-workers for charging a customer (I forgot his name, this was a long time ago). They were like “oh you charged Tim? We don’t charge Tim!”. There were a couple regulars who we didn’t charge. I’m not sure if they were people on hard times or friends with the franchise owner. It’s something I wouldn’t have expected to happen regularly before I worked there and I surmise it happens everywhere.

by sowbug 3y ago

morelisp 3y ago

Unless you know the owner is a Mensch, don’t be a narc. Let the underpaid overworked employee pocket whatever. Whole Foods doesn’t fucking care. Temporarily embarrassed millionaires eat my ass.

pc86 3y ago
Until you have a problem, and don't have a receipt, and now you're out your money with a defective product and nothing to do except - buy a new one, I guess? And I'm not sure what makes you think the person buying the thing is doing any better financially than the person ringing them up. Working class people shop too. You're letting your Poli Sci 101 take on class and economics cloud the fact that it's most likely another working class person getting taken advantage of.
- sowbug 3y ago
  The relevant parties aren't the cashier and the buyer. They're the cashier and the business owner. The whole scheme is meant as a deterrent, not as a remedy. If the buyer observes that the cashier isn't ringing up the sale, and the buyer challenges the cashier, the cashier will say "oops!" and proceed to ring it up correctly. That's because the cashier has nothing to gain by continuing the deceit at that point; either he's just letting people walk out without paying (thus risking being fired for no gain), or he's back to doing his job of collecting revenue in exchange for his wage. In any rational play of this game, the buyer ends up the same -- paying what he owed for the sale. This assumes, of course, that everyone is behaving rationally. If you believe grocery stores are evil, as the parent comment suggests, I suppose you also believe you have license to make up your own rules.
arcanemachiner 3y ago
A memetic formula for societal decay has never been expressed so succinctly. It's "Fuck you, got mine" all the way down.
- morelisp 3y ago
  Solidarity between workers. No tears for Bezos losing the price of a broccoli.
bitwize 3y ago
If you see someone stealing food, no you didn't.

WeylandYutani 3y ago

Wouldn't it just be easier to stop accepting cash? Dominos is card/internet only.

pc86 3y ago
Some people (a vanishingly small minority, admittedly) will only use cash. But some more realistic reasons for accepting cash: - 3% credit card fees aren't nothing when your entire business operates on 4-5% margins - It's much harder to launder money if you're 100% cashless - if you have even a small proportion of legitimate cash buyers you can now funnel more illicit money through that
- kevincox 3y ago
  FWIW handling cash isn't free either. It can be 2-3% as well (depending on a lot of things like volume, change requirements and typical patterns, insurance can be less if you have no cash on premises, ...) In many cases the cost of credit cards and cash are surprisingly similar. Especially in Europe with capped fees.
- TylerE 3y ago
  Not that vanishingly small once you start working with the poor. A lot of those folks don't even have checking accounts, never mind a credit (not debit) card. This has been a real issue in a few places that have now banned cashless, because it puts a heavy burden on the un/under banked.
- reaperducer 3y ago
  Some people (a vanishingly small minority, admittedly) will only use cash. 130 million Americans don't have a credit card: https://www.fool.com/credit-cards/2020/11/19/nearly-30-of-americans-dont-have-a-credit-card-her/ https://www.fool.com/credit-cards/2020/11/19/nearly-30-of-am... Six percent of American households don't have a bank account: https://www.fdic.gov/analysis/household-survey/index.html https://www.fdic.gov/analysis/household-survey/index.html Outside the tech bubble, it's not "vanishingly" small at all.
sowbug 3y ago

hanniabu 3y ago

But you don't receive a receipt until after you pay, so you'd already given them the money before you realize if you're getting a receipt or not. That means you have to then escalate the issue, cause a scene, take up your time, deal with the whole your word vs theirs, etc.

sowbug 3y ago
I'm probably missing your point. The cops don't show up to every crime scene, but the chance they will is enough to deter crime.

JCharante 3y ago

As a teenager I worked at a popular coffee chain. Once I started working the cash register autonomously I got very lightly reprimanded by co-workers for charging a customer (I forgot his name, this was a long time ago). They were like “oh you charged Tim? We don’t charge Tim!”. There were a couple regulars who we didn’t charge. I’m not sure if they were people on hard times or friends with the franchise owner. It’s something I wouldn’t have expected to happen regularly before I worked there and I surmise it happens everywhere.