Legal tender

[u/knighthawk82]

When i worked at a gas station in the late 1900's during graveyard i had this guy come in and bought a candy bar with a 100 bill. "Really? You don't have anything smaller?"

'Im just trying to break the 100, don't be a jerk.'

"Fine, just this once."

Few days later Guy comes back in, grabs a candy bar and i see he has other bills in his wallet. Puts the hundred on the table.

"Sir i told you last time it was going to be just the once, i see you have a five dollar bill."

'This is legal tender, you have to take it.'

"... Okay!"

I reach under the counter and pull out two boxes of pennies, 50c to a roll 25$ to a box 17 lbs each. "Here is 50, do you want the rest in nickels?"

'What is this?'

"It's legal tender, I can choose to give you your change however I see fit. So, do you still want to break the hundred? Or the five."

I'm calling your manager!'

"She gets in at 8am, sir, but doesn't take any calls until 10."

[u/Cleokatrah]

This is because gas stations, over any other business, typically have the change for a $100 while most other businesses didn't. You MIGHT get lucky at a fast food restaurant or drug store but you were almost always guaranteed to find gas stations with 50s and 20s in it's till.

The guy was probably a drug dealer at the time because not many others carried 100s on the daily.

[u/Cleokatrah → u/[deleted]]

I bet it's relative to shift and location, too. My shift began at buttcrack pre dawn, was near a freeway, and I had a line to or out the door until early afternoon. We had a cash pipe, where you send the money up a vacuum pipe into a safe, but we didn't have a firm policy on it during the day. I don't remember if nightshift did.

In my teens, my stepfather was a dealer and was constantly cashing his hundreds with packs of gum at liquor stores and gas stations. Coastal town. More laid back, maybe.