- buy a pack of gum with a counterfeit $100, get 98 real dollars back
- even with legit currency, it can throw off the drawer. Business might have a policy for cashiers to never have more than, say, $200 in the drawer. Force half of that to be your $100, and now the cashier has crippled change-making ability. Business have this policy to make them less tempting to rob and limit the damage if they are.
I have walked out of a few places when they said they either do not accept $100 bills or cash at all. This is how we pressure businesses and fight back in the war on cash. But if you are just buying a pack of gum, you should be considerate of transaction costs for them.
Grocery stores still accept $100s. It is the places where the average purchase is much smaller (or robberies are more common), like coffee shops or convenience stores. Gas stations might accept the bill but only if the change needed is under $20. And then they drop the bill in the safe, rather than put it in the till.
It was not uncommon for someone to show up with their paycheck to do their weekly shopping, handing it over to the cashier and taking the rest in change. The amount of cash that worked through a busy grocery store must have been pretty amazing.
- buy a pack of gum with a counterfeit $100, get 98 real dollars back
- even with legit currency, it can throw off the drawer. Business might have a policy for cashiers to never have more than, say, $200 in the drawer. Force half of that to be your $100, and now the cashier has crippled change-making ability. Business have this policy to make them less tempting to rob and limit the damage if they are.