Why do Italian shops never seem to have enough change in their cash registers? I'm constantly getting asked if I have exact change and, sometimes, when I don't, they grumble. Are their floats too small? Is there a coin shortage in Italy? What gives?
Most shops are really small, often oeprated by the owner alone, with no or nearly no helpers of whatever kind. With such a limited number of workers and with the limited bank opening hours, it's very difficult for the shop to open with a really large amount of change to distribute throughout the day. This has gotten worse, after the Euro introduxtion, by the old habit of using mainly paper money: with the old lire, the largest coin available was 500 lire, more or less equal to 25 euro cents, and the smallest banknote was 1,000 lire, about 50 euro cents. This meant that even the smallest amounts of money could be settled with paper with no or nearly no need to resort to metal. Since the switch lots of people kept the habit of using bills all the time, but the smallest euro bill is the 5 euro one, worth almost 10,000 lire.
It's not just the small shops either, as my local Standa seems to expect me to provide the exact money. OK - slight exaggeration, but there is a cashier there who always grumbles if you don't have suitable money.
Alice - I grew up in Italy 40+ years ago, and even then there were shortages of lire, and often you'd get a sweet instead of a 5 or 10 lira piece!
Posts: 719 | Location (City & State): Valle d'Aosta | Registered: 24 November 2005
At a certain point, in the 1970's, there was a shortage of coins, especially the 100 lire ones. As an attempt to save the ituation, the banks were allowed to emit "assegnini", tiny checks with a value that ranged between 50 and 300 lire.
I remember those days! We always wondered why we couldn't pay with sweets... Then they got creative and offered rain bonnets. It got to be a joke.
The last time I saw the "assegnini" was at the antiques fair in Arezzo--alongside the defunkt 500 lire note--meaning they had acquired a value of sorts at long last.
Posts: 942 | Location (City & State): From Lille to Torino | Registered: 12 January 2008
Most shops are really small, often oeprated by the owner alone, with no or nearly no helpers of whatever kind. With such a limited number of workers and with the limited bank opening hours, it's very difficult for the shop to open with a really large amount of change to distribute throughout the day.
I think it is more than as staff shortage because there are a couple of places that I frequent that are always asking for change and have never taken me up on my offer to run to the bank and get them a few hundred € so they'll have change.
Posts: 2574 | Location (City & State): Connecticut, USA | Registered: 07 October 2005
I don't think it's just small stores either, though true, it is impossible to go to a small store with any note greater than a 5.
Sometimes when I only have a fifty euro note I get filled with dread about how I'm ever going to be able to get it changed unless I buy something for 49euro. It means I can't buy anything like just a pint of milk.
It makes me either smile or become enraged (depending on mood) when a shop doesn't have change and they go to the shop next door carrying my 20 so they can get change. I've even been asked to go myself before and get it changed.
I came across something, somewhere (sorry i don't remember the soure )about different cultures making change differently. When i saw that i finally understood why at first it seemed so odd to me how the cashier is always wanting you to count out the coin change in stores or to get as close as possible. This includes the big supermarkets, although they usually are in a hurry so if i'm slow they'll just give me change rather than wait for me to dig around my change purse. It's become easier for me as i'm now more in the habit, but when i go back to the States i have to consciously drop my the Italian way of trying to find the closest possible amount of coins to pay up.
-Sada Sat -www.yogaborgo.com
Posts: 280 | Location (City & State): Passano (San Giustino), Umbria | Registered: 22 October 2004
My Aunt runs a small shop in Ireland and she always has change. It’s a question of organization. You must open up with at least €50 in small change and not €5!
Interesting topic, I'm always getting irritated with my Italian wife who will hold up a long line to count out the perfect change, in the process having to search through her purse. This has given me an understanding of why she does it. I'll be more patient now.
"...The last time I saw the "assegnini" was at the antiques fair in Arezzo--alongside the defunkt 500 lire note--meaning they had acquired a value of sorts at long last."
Oh good! I've got quite a few of those - in mint condition I might add...
Originally posted by Damien: You must open up with at least €50 in small change and not €5!
Damien, I have worked in snmall shops in Italy. Opening up with 50 euro in coins took up to about 11 am, in the best case. About everyone who walks in pays with 20 or 50 euro bills all the times, no matter how small the purchase is. I have had to hand out the change for 50 euro after a purcahse of 2-3 euro more often than receiving the exact cash, or a 5 euro bill. Italians are just not used to use small change when paying. You get faced all the times with people whol, despite having their walled packed, bursting with small change, still insist on handing you the biggest bill they have in the wallet!
My Aunt puts €50 in the cash register and then for the type of situations that you described, she draws on a reserve she keeps in a safe. If this doesn't work, she sends someone to the bank. And if you work on your own, you make sure you keep enough coins in the safe to cover as much as you can the situation. This is where organization comes in.
In our local Conad shop, the horrible girl who works there tut tuts when you give her a note. As she's huffing and puffing looking for my change she's on her mobile having a conversation then she throws the change at me like a frisbee. She never does this with OH, infact with any men coming into the shop she is all smiles etc even when they hand over a big note, but with women she's very rude. I only ever go in when OH wants their cafoni? bread otherwise I go up to the other shop where the staff are lovely even when you hand them 50 euros for a pint of milk!
Well, it's like Damien's been saying, it'd seem that you just need to get organized properly. If you know that, on average, you need € 50 worth of change a day, then go ahead and get that amount from the bank at the start of the day. If you typically need € 500, then just get that amount, and so on. Plus, if you know that Italians would rather use bills, then start the day with an amount of change commensurate with that reality. I just can't see what in blazes the problem is.
Originally posted by alpino71: If you know that, on average, you need € 50 worth of change a day, then go ahead and get that amount from the bank at the start of the day.
Shops usually open one or two hours before banks open, and close several hours after banks have closed. Have you ever considered this? ^___^ Also, if yo had a shop which you manned alone, would you leave as much money as 500 euro in the cash each time you got up from the desk to assist a client? How long before the cash would be cleaned out? I guess one month for the first time, and later on every other day.
I get my morning coffee from the same bar every day and the man who runs the place always, always has change (and always gives you a "scontrino"!). I once showed up with a € 50 bill and offered to pre-pay my lunch since I knew I'd be back later. He said not to worry about it and gave me change for my 70 cent coffee.
That said, I also went to the bank today to get small bills because I'll be running the happy hour on Friday for the American International Club of Rome (www.aicrome.org, if you're interested) and didn't want to have this problem. My bank had no € 5 bills and limited € 10 bills!
When my parents came to visit, they needed to buy an umbrella. I brought them to Upim at around 11 a.m. The umbrella cost 4 euro and change. My father tried giving them a 10 euro note and they had to call a manager to come and open the safe to get change for him...
EVERY store, big or small, seems to be consistently short of every denomination coin. Just yesterday at the local Dimeglio supermarket the cashier was dealing with the usual coin issue and said that the bank hadn't even had them earlier in the day. Is that even possible?
Gotta throw my 2 cents in here :P I have noticed this on so many occasions, in large and small shops and I can NEVER understand it. How hard is it to start your day with a sufficient float? In Ireland this rarely happens, unless you go to the shop in the back ars* of nowhere, and then its understandable. And it wouldnt bother me so much, but the shop assistants get at angry at ME, like its my fault they dont have change. I dont buy the owner run story either, while many businesses are owner run, you can tell which ones are. And these are usually the people who are nice to you either which way, because they know its their business on the line. Its young unsatisfied workers that get really grumpy! In all of the times Ive worked the register back home, getting change was never an issue. you always made sure had it. no question. Why can they go to the bank and get change here?
Expats in Italy Forum 
So true.
)about different cultures making change differently. When i saw that i finally understood why at first it seemed so odd to me how the cashier is always wanting you to count out the coin change in stores or to get as close as possible. This includes the big supermarkets, although they usually are in a hurry so if i'm slow they'll just give me change rather than wait for me to dig around my change purse. It's become easier for me as i'm now more in the habit, but when i go back to the States i have to consciously drop my the Italian way of trying to find the closest possible amount of coins to pay up.
I've got quite a few of those - in mint condition I might add...
How do you sign up to 'eBay'? 
