Taking found change from the automatic checkout

[Rain Man]

When I go to the grocery store, I do the automatic checkout so I don't have to have human interaction. Often, when I reach my checkout stand, there'll be some change in the little change receptacle. Usually it's 10 cents or so, with some combination of pennies and nickels and dimes. Today it was thirty cents - three dimes.

I always surreptitiously scoop it up and pocket it. I doubt that the shopper before me will come back looking for it, and if I don't take it someone else behind me will. The only time I've not taken it was when there was six dollars in it, and in that case I gave it to the employee who monitors the self-checkout. I figure someone may come back in for six dollars, though I suspect mostly likely the employee ended up with it in the end.

So what's your rule when you see loose change in the change bin? Do you take it or leave it or write a note and turn it in?

[TwistedChief]

People have compared my job to picking up pennies in front of a bulldozer, so I make a point of picking up coins found on the street (exceptions are subway platforms and restrooms).

But when it comes to change that’s left on the counter at a store, I’m ambivalent. I end up leaving it hoping that it ends up with someone who needs it just a bit more.

[TLO]

Wal-Mart's auto checkout gave me back $300 on a $65 purchace one time. I turned it i customer service. Lady said there were hundreds mixed in with the $10's.

[Frazod]

I leave it. I'm hopelessly honest. Dammit.

[Rain Man]

Originally Posted by TwistedChief

People have compared my job to picking up pennies in front of a bulldozer, so I make a point of picking up coins found on the street (exceptions are subway platforms and restrooms).

But when it comes to change that’s left on the counter at a store, I’m ambivalent. I end up leaving it hoping that it ends up with someone who needs it just a bit more.

This poses a very interesting ethical question. If the found money is to be used for social equity, then theoretically a person with above median income (or wealth) should leave the change because there's a probability of more than 50 percent that the next person will need it more. Meanwhile, a person with below median income should take it, because the odds are less than 50 percent that the next person will need it more.

But it's more complex than that. If everyone is following the rules, then the person with an income in the 49th percentile will know that a higher-income person arriving next will NOT take it. So therefore, if the 49th percentile person leaves the change untouched, there's a 100 percent chance that the person who does take it will have greater need. So they should leave it.

Then the same becomes true for a person in the 48th percentile, then the 47th, and so on. In a perfect theoretical world, the change then remains in place until eventually the lowest-income person in the area comes to buy something, and then that person can rightfully take it.

But will they know that they're eligible? Probably not. So then they follow the same rules and nobody claims the money. Eventually, the change slot overflows, and customers have to pick their way through ever-growing mounds of change to even reach the self-checkout. I'm not sure what the endgame is.

[DaFace]

I bet I haven't paid cash at a grocery store for over a decade.

[Rain Man]

Originally Posted by displacedinMN

If it is small. Mine.....But I rarely use cash.

Originally Posted by DaFace

I bet I haven't paid cash at a grocery store for over a decade.

I never pay cash either, but the change slot is near the credit card slot and it's mere inches from where I'm scanning. Since it's a self-checkout, the change is obviously abandoned if it's sitting there, so I'll "rescue" it if it's a small amount.

[cabletech94]

rain man, you monster!

[Rain Man]

Originally Posted by cabletech94

rain man, you monster!

When I get enough, I plan to use it to build an orphanage in Malawi. I forgot to mention that.

(Or buy barbecue. The plans aren't finalized yet.)

[Nickhead]

Originally Posted by TLO

Wal-Mart's auto checkout gave me back $300 on a $65 purchace one time. I turned it i customer service. Lady said there were hundreds mixed in with the $10's.

And this is why America needs different sized bills. Here down under the bills are just that and different colours. Too much wiggle room for those type of mistakes

[cooper barrett]

Originally Posted by threebag02

I stopped for donuts one morning because I was going be late to work. Checked out and requested 20 back and walked off and left the 20 hanging

I left $15 behind by just being in a hurry and hate cashing out.

The store found where I left it on video and where the looked around when he found it. They ID'ed the customer by shopper card, and when the customer returned to check out on next visit, the register locked up. Management and loss prevention had a conversation with the customer and I guess he agreed to returning it

It was explained to me was: We prefer that this customer shop at Wal-Mart so we gave him the option of returning the money or being the only customer to banned permanently from the store.

I told them to donate the money to the food pantry they donate to.

[Hog's Gone Fishin]

On a side note. I found a wallet laying in the middle of an intersection last week. It was loaded with money. I don't know how much but it had $50 bills in it. I took it by the address on the drivers license but nobody was home so I dropped it off at the police station. Two days later the daughter of the owner of the wallet called me to thank me and offered a reward. I refused the reward and told her that knowing the owner got his stuff back was reward enough.

That being said , leaving change for someone else to pocket is just dumb.

[threebag]

Originally Posted by Rain Man

Did you get it back? If I was the next shopper I'd turn that in.

I guess my general rule is that I'll keep change, but I might turn in any paper money. I turned in the $6 that I found without hesitation, but I'm not sure what I'd do if it was $1 or $2. Maybe my limit for keeping it is $4.99.

No didn’t get it back. I try to always turn in anything I find to the courtesy booth/customer care. My son is all like dad let’s keep it, so I have to make him feel bad and say “if you lost something wouldn’t you want someone to turn it in?” I can’t tell you how many phones, wallets and gift/bank cards.

[threebag]

About 40 years ago I was going to try on jeans at David’s in Wichita. It was a great place to
shop. The toy section was top notch. But anyways, when I went into the dressing room I found a wallet. It was stacked with cash. I tried my jeans on to see if they fit and when I walked out to show my mom the jeans I gave her the wallet. I went back and changed into my original clothes and then when I was done we went to the service desk. There was an little old farmer and his wife and she was crying. They were old probably mid 60s. When we showed up with the wallet they were so happy. They hugged me and praised me for not taking anything. (Which I was fortunate because growing up we were very well off) she told my mom it was the money they had for the year because they just harvested their crops. I want to say she said there was like $13k there. It was a fat ass stack of cash. Well anyway they bought my pair of jeans and gave me $20 bucks. (They kept insisting and my mom saying no that just knowing they were okay was good enough) I went straight back and bought some shit in the toy section. About 40 years ago that was shopping cash.

[oldman]

I didn't see an appropriate option for me. I only use the self checkout when I'm in the rare hurry. To be honest, I wouldn't count the change unless paper money was involved, so I guess I'd pick it up figuring it was mine. If paper money was involved and it was more than I expected, I'd hunt down a manager or customer service and turn in the excess.

[cooper barrett]

This is going to sound like a fish story but... in the summer of 2003.

I had laid a leather portfolio on the roof of my truck (105 and Medcalf) when I took a phone call (I left it there like a dumb ****) and when I turned left going south, onto Antioch from 103rd st,, it slid off the roof, I heard something but over engine noise and radio, I thought nothing of it. When I reached my Atty's office (College and Antioch) I reached for it and suddenly that noise I heard made total sense. I flew down there as I had about $6K in cash, don't ask, in a zippered pocket. When I got there NADA, ****ing NADA!

I get in the truck. pounding the dash and steering wheel and head for the atty's kicking myself for losing $6K without anything to show for it.

I get to the atty, I tell him what just happened and he suggested a call to the cops was in order and looked at me funny (like WTF are you doing with $6K in cash) and that an ad in a local newspaper would be senseless.

My phone rings and a guy tells me that he was behind me and saw it come off my truck, stopped, and grabbed it up. He called the store as he saw the receipt in the mesh pocket, and they gave him my cell #. I asked the guy if he could bring it to me, or I could meet him and he said he was headed home in a bit and that he had plans with the family and could meet me afterwards. I found out where he was, where he was going and arranged for my GF to meet him on their ways home, The stars aligned on this one as she was on his route home
She called me when she got there, I told her to open the zippered pocket and if there are lots of $100 dollar bills in there, there was, to give him $400 and thank him for doing the right thing and walk away, no taking it back.

I looked at my attorney who had stepped out momentarily and gave him the thumbs up.

I met the GF at what is now Tanners on College Blvd, she was sitting at the bar, a bottle of Johnnie Walker Blue was on the counter, counting the money.

She started in on calling me the stupidest MF, then the luckiest MF, then started sounding like my mother, my accountant. Then we both busted out laughing, bought the bar a round, knocked back a couple more JWB's and as we left, I asked her what she thought about exchanging sex for money. Then the negotiations began.

I now use binder clips and produce bands for cash.

That bing said, I never find cash but I bought brats and hanging out of the coupon printer was a $5 off brats coupon. I snatched it up.

Originally Posted by Hog's Gone Fishin

On a side note. I found a wallet laying in the middle of an intersection last week. It was loaded with money. I don't know how much but it had $50 bills in it. I took it by the address on the drivers license but nobody was home so I dropped it off at the police station. Two days later the daughter of the owner of the wallet called me to thank me and offered a reward. I refused the reward and told her that knowing the owner got his stuff back was reward enough.

That being said , leaving change for someone else to pocket is just dumb.