She Was Banking On You Approaching This Subject Tenderly

I had a customer get mad at me for refusing to accept three paper twenty dollars bills for a large sale. Our money has been plastic since I was in primary school, and I was pretty certain no store had to accept paper money.

Me: “I suggest you take this money to a bank to get it exchanged. I’m not going to accept bills that haven’t been in circulation for nearly two decades.”

Customer: “Call the bank to confirm they’ll accept the money so you can take it in and save me the trouble.”

Me: “It’s eight in the morning; none of the banks are open yet.”

She huffed and fussed for ages before finally pulling out actual legal tender to pay. The notes were probably real, but if you couldn’t be bothered to exchange them in the twenty years since they went out of circulation, that’s not my problem.