Interesting Itemization

I paid for an item at the self checkout at Home Depot tonight. After getting home, I glanced at the receipt before discarding it. And I noticed something odd: there were four tender lines listed, like this:

Sales Tax 0.34
Total 4.55
Cash 1.55
Cash 1.00
Cash 1.00
Cash 1.00

Seems that each dollar coin I deposited forced the computer to add a new cash line. This is particularly strange to me because the receipt is printed at the end of the transaction, not during the transaction.

Sarcasm and Eggs

I thought I had all the ingredients I needed for cookies, but having just returned from a vacation, realized that I didn't have a staple food -- eggs -- in the fridge. Fortunately there's a small grocery store just down the road, and they were open for another 30 minutes. I usually pay with my credit card for groceries, but I knew this would be a small transaction. Grabbing my keys and a few Good Ones, I headed out the door.

The eggs were more expensive than at the supermarket, but at $1.99, it was a perfect purchase amount for paying in coin. Plunking down two shiny golden discs garnered a moment of hesitation from the cashier. Then she offed an, "Oh, smooth." I couldn't quite tell if it was sarcasm, thinking I was "getting rid" of the dollar coins, or maybe it was a genuine response to the collected manner, suave stagger, and coin confidence that I exude.

But she didn't give me my penny in change, so I'll assume it was the former.


Tender: $2,
Response: Sarcasm?
ACI: 0.4

The GAO Knows What's Up

This is nothing new, but yet again, the GAO has put out another report on replacing Bad Ones with Good Ones. And, as expected, they state that their findings point toward cost savings for the government.

It's only 41 pages, but if you don't want to read through it, here are some of the key parts:

1. The estimated savings have been decreasing over time; this is due to the increasing lifespan of Bad Ones. This makes sense.... as the population relies more on plastic and electronic transfer, cash money is used less frequently.
2. In one of their alternate scenarios, the GAO factored in increased demand for $2 bills, estimating that 25% of dollar demand would convert to demand for Jeffies.
3. The Mint's own experiments in various cities showed that public acceptance of Good Ones did increase modestly after their pilot programs completed.
4. Retailers interviewed for the report stated that they would incur higher costs, but couldn't quantify them.
   
5. Other countries have made the switch, followed by a short period of public displeasure, then everyone got on with their life.
   

Will the current push for cutting government spending bring this report to the attention of Congress? Time to start a letter-writing campaign?

Post Office

Ok, I could have used a fiver and two Good Ones, but I happened to have enough with me to pay in all coin. Response from post officers each time I use Good Ones has never been very irksome, so I opted to push it a bit this time.

After handing over my handful of clean, shiny, easy-to-count coins, the post officer let out a sigh: "God, I hope you're almost out of these things!"


I assume she was talking about the quarters.


Tender: $7.75, 7 Good Ones, 3 quarters
Response: Disdainful acceptance
ACI: 0.6