Spring isn't just about pretty flowers, warm weather, and outdoor dining. It is also, apparently, when New Yorkers like to kvetch about restaurants stealing their change. Last year there was the guy moaning about a neighborhood bistro stealing four of his pennies and this year we've got another gentleman complaining, to the Department of Consumer Affairs no less, about an East Village joint stealing his four pennies. Why can't these penny pinchers understand that restaurants in this modern era we live in just don't like making change?
"It's really about trying to process the transaction quickly for the guest," 5 Napkin Burger Robert Guarino told the Journal. See, that mini-chain doesn't stock its burger joints with a cashier, so all change has to go through the bartender. So, to try and speed the exit of satisfied customers, they've taken to rounding the bill down to the nearest quarter. They do acknowledge that mistakes get made, sometimes. Meanwhile at the NoHo noodle joint Hung Ry they go so far as to round to the nearest dollar (their excuse? They don't have a computerized cash register!).
And a manager at Jebon, the East Village restaurant that got the Consumer Affairs complaint in the first place, explained that "Nobody likes to carry pennies anymore. We just round down and give them a nickel instead. That's normally what we do because we don't want to deal with pennies. We don't even carry pennies."
So, here's the sad truth about restaurant rounding: As more and more people pay with plastic—where this issue shouldn't even come up—this is not going to stop anytime soon. And sometimes it really will work out in your favor. But either way you really, truly, don't have to take it. When you get your bill, check to see if you are being charged as advertised. If not? Ask your server. Most likely after a gripe or two they will get you your correct change (it has worked for us!). But if they don't? You can always turn to the Department of Consumer Affairs—eventually they'll likely arrange for the restaurant to have your change waiting for you. But is four cents worth the hassle?
