To wonder why cashiers in this country don't know how to hand back notes and coins back?

[Primafacie]

First you hand the coins, THEN the notes. This way I can cup the coins in my hand before taking the notes in a pincer grip, and put everything neatly back in my purse in one swift motion - coins in zipped compartment, notes in open part.

Instead, they place a note in your hand, then pile coins on top. My fingers are trapped under the note. The coins immediately start to slide, so I need fingers from my other hand to grab them, which means I must put my purse down. It's just not efficient! It makes the whole operation longer and involves more coin manipulation, which is yucky.

Why can't we all adopt the way they do it everywhere else in the world? (Disclaimer: I haven't strictly speaking been everywhere in the world, but I've been places, and no one else seems to do it like us).

Am I the only person who gets mildly annoyed by this?

I've worked in 3 different jobs where I have handled money and never has a preferred way been specified.

I tend to do the stack including receipt, unless the receipt is in the bag, because it works for me when I am a customer. You just slightly fold the note, pour the coins off and then you can pit the notes/receipt where you want. Also, if you hand things over one by one then people get huffy.

The only time I give coins separately is if there are a lot of notes.

Quite frankly though you can't please everybody and this seems like the path of me getting least glared/tutted at so I choose it.

YANBU.

Also, why whenever I say I don't need a carrier bag, do I always, always get asked' "Are you sure?"

Erm, yes I'm sure, that's why I said I don't need a carrier bag!

Where are these other countries where they are taught to do it right? Ireland now with so many foreign nationals more and more they just put the money on the counter. I feel silly then, with my hand out, like I'm in the corner shop in Cabot Cove, not Centra in Baggots Street at 8pm. Oh, it's under my hand! right, thank you :-|

YANBU my pet hate too.

What we need is the trays they have in other countries. The cashier can dump all the change in and we can pick it up in our preferred order.

Also YY to cashiers these days being understaffed and pressured by management to both speed up and incorporate more annoying features, such as handing you a voucher and asking if you have a membership card, to every transaction leaving no spare time to count out change twice.

Yes, if handed the change, I prefer notes first coins on top because then I slide the coins into the coin pouch and then with nothing else in my hand I can open my wallet to put in the notes.

Where are you from Naoko?

When I worked in Safeway as a student, we had to count it back into the customer's hand, coins then notes, mainly as a double check to make sure we gave the correct change. (But that was in the olden days pre-scanners!)

I'm from Holland. Change in my experience is usually coins first, then notes offered separately for you to grip pincer like rather than put in the palm of your hand. Which is much easier. Or sometimes put on the counter, which is also easier because then I can pick it up in my own time rather than trying to separate a stack of receipt-note-coins while holding my wallet in one hand, a bag of shopping in another and a shoulderbag slung somewhere getting in the way while trying not to drop any of it.

I wonder if it's to do with change being calculated? (Bear with me...!)
If the cashier is manually calculating change, they'll do coins first. Say bill is £4.97 and you give £20 note. They'll go "£4.97, 1p, 2p is £5, and £5 is £10 and £10 is £20"
If the till is computerised and tells the correct amount of change to give, the cashier will do it the opposite way, so till says £15.03 change cashier says "£10, £5, 2p, 1p" and hands over in that order instead.
That makes sense in my head, apologies if it comes out as drivel!!

You are SO right, and YANBU
It just holds up the queue and takes so much longer when they try to balance the coins on top of the notes.

I hate the money placed on the counter. You have to scrabble about picking it up. Also don't likecthe way your outstretched hand is ignored, feels rude. However I think this is how cashiers are taught to do this in some countries. I Germany it seemed to be standard. Sometimes if I paid by placing money in a shop assistant's hand, it would be slammed back down on the counter. I think the idea behind it is visibilty, simply that the amount of money being exchanged is clearly visible to both sides.

Interesting all the different methods. I prfer notes first and coins on top. Easier to slide the coins into your purse and then your hand is free to put notes in.

YABU to expect cashiers to bother themselves with the tedious details of customer service.

They are, it would appear, FAR too busy instructing customers in the finer points of public mobile telephone etiquette.

I like notes with coins on top so that I can tip the coins into the coin section of my massive mum purse then put the notes in their little section, amongst the receipts, vouchers and other crap I collect in there!

think you may have something there lustybusty!

trying to think how I would do it

Lusty, but if the shopkeeper reads 15.03 on his screen, and takes £10, £5, 3p out of his till, the three pence are the last thing he took, so he should hand them first! No?

depends how he is holding it. Might place the notes in the palm of his hand when he takes the coins and then transferthe pile like that to the customer

prima I've always had change counted into my hand. So if the cashier can see how much change there should be, they'll say "ok, £15.03. There's £15 (place notes in hand) and there's the 3p (dump coins on top) have a nice day!!"
If, however, they don't have it displayed, they'll count up from amount given. But I think it is when they count it into hand, rather than order out of till.

Hmm.

I do the reading off a screen thing but this isnt failsafe, if you type in the wrong amount or accidentally just hit the cash button twice then it won't display the correct amount so you have to work it out. That said, I don't do the "1p, 2p makes £3, then £2 makes £5" because that seems longwinded to me. It's quicker to just subtract the cost from the note. So I would always pick up notes first and then coins, but I give the coins on top.

In local shops here the money sort of gets rolled into your hand. Coins atop notes and roll. Cue coins everywhere. Why not count it back like coins first. That way you can check your change as its given too.

Interesting to see how different people have different preferences.

Though of course some of you are clearly WRONG!

I'm in the US, and they hand back change in that ridiculous way everywhere I've lived here. It drives me crazy. Sometimes they pile the receipt, notes and then coins in my hand and then stare at me as if to say "hurry the fuck up, I'm being timed here so get out of my register!".

I often say (as they are retrieving my change) "May I please have the coins first? Thanks!". Almost never does anyone react badly to that, and I get my change as I wish.

I have spent a good amount of time working a till myself. What I found significantly more shocking than the coins/notes issue was how many of my coworkers were unable to calculate correct change if the register failed to tell them the amount. I am horrible at math, and even I can do it.

From the other side of it, it always made me incadescent with rage when I would tell a customer "that will be $10.50, please" only to have a note tossed on the counter in front of me. Would they like it if I threw the change back? I always wanted to. It's just so rude, and felt like a deliberate slap to have money thrown at me when I have politely reached for the handoff. But then, I can't count how many times I have said good morning, hello, etc. only to have the customer look me in the eye silently and turn away. Because clearly as a grocery worker, I am not good enough to speak to and am virtually invisible. Grr!

I give coins first and then note, the note is the last thing I take out of the till.