Making change - large notes - USA vs UK (vs The Rest Of The World!)

[TheCheerfulTreeRat]

Why is it apparently such a pain to be presented with large notes in the USA? It's not particularly polite to use a large note for a small purchase, but tales in CS seem to show it as being a big problem - certainly more than it seems to be here in the UK.
AFAIK there seems to be the same notes in circulation - 1,5,10,20,50 - we don't have 100s in the UK but 20s and 50s appear to be problematic in the USA.
Is the relative quantities of the different denominations different?
Is there a problem (counterfeiting?) with larger denominations? I've seen the odd tale where people aren't happy about large note, even with large purchases (i.e. 2x$50 presented for a $97.52 bill)
Are till floats kept at a lower level?

(I did do a search for "change" in the subjects - if this has been discussed before please feel free to point me at the thread...)

[s_stabeler]

I can think of a few reasons.
1) it can be inconvenient for a cashier who needs to get change to get it, since it can require calling a manager,
2) some places require you to do a cash drop of any large notes you receive.
3) you get the occasional place that illegally makes cashiers cover any discrepancy in the till- a counterfeit $10 is mildly irritating under those conditions, but higher than that and it means essentially losing a significant fraction of your wages- and, since you officially earn them, pay taxes on the wages you don't get the benefit of.

[TheCheerfulTreeRat]

I can think of a few reasons.

True, but all those reasons would seem to apply to the the UK, just as much as to the USA - but it seems to be a much bigger deal in the USA!

[s_stabeler]

Not really- while the UK's far from a utopia, employers tend to treat their employees somewhat better than employers in the US do (at entry level it's obvious, but if you compared two people at the same stage of their careers in the UK and the US, the UK employee would probably get better benefits, at the entry-level work fewer hours, and if you convert sterling to decimal, get paid somewhat more. (UK minimum wage is around $10, and it rises with inflation, while the US's doesn't.)

[Greenday]

I think the biggest gripe about large denominations is when they happen at the beginning of a shift when your drawer doesn't have much in it and it'd wipe out all your small bills so you can't give anyone else change.

Pharmacy I used to work at, if someone tried to give me a $100 bill for a newspaper, I couldn't accept it as I didn't even have enough money in the register to make change.

[protege]

I think the biggest gripe about large denominations is when they happen at the beginning of a shift when your drawer doesn't have much in it and it'd wipe out all your small bills so you can't give anyone else change.

That's exactly it. When I ran the camp store, I hated Sundays. Why? Because you'd get all the spoiled little kiddies with the fresh $20 bills from their parents. They'd come in, buy a dollar or two of candy, and then clean out my drawer. One or two $20s wasn't bad but when you had every kid doing that, constant trips upstairs to the camp office and raiding the vending machines (except for that damn nickel-giving Lance machine) for change is going to clean you out quickly. Some weeks, I'd get enough $20s, that it was like counting ones

[jackfaire]

I can think of a few reasons.
1) it can be inconvenient for a cashier who needs to get change to get it, since it can require calling a manager,
2) some places require you to do a cash drop of any large notes you receive.

*Points up* These. Absolutely these. To discourage theft in the cafe I work at my drawer never contains anything larger than a 10. Honestly rarely is anything larger than a 10 actually needed.

I have a drop box into which all 20s and 50s are dropped as soon as they are received. I do not have a key for the drop box. Fortunately most of the time someone is paying with a 50 it's for a meal so large that I can cover the change out of my drawer without a problem. For 100 dollar bills I have to go get a manager so that they can swap it out with money in the safe.

These measures are designed to discourage hold ups. Robbery is actually a pretty hard crime to convict if done right. You can come and go without leaving much evidence and if you have a drawer full of 100s, 50s, and 20s it's a damn good day for a robber. Drop boxes and using the safe for 100s isn't kept secret it's widely and heavily advertised. People know that's how it works many places with registers put up signs explaining how little money will be in the till to point out that the risks of getting caught versus what you could walk away with.

Add to that the fact that in the US it's still ridiculously easy to get a gun even if you're a convicted felon already and you can see why accepting and working with larger bills that make your store a tempting target for thieves would be less accepted here in the US.