The curse of the drobny strikes again!

Posted byscatts 21 Comments on The curse of the drobny strikes again!

I’ve made only two transactions so far today, in both cases I got screwed over by the lack of change in the till. Will this ever change?

1/ Green Coffee

Met with someone, wanted to buy them a tea and myself a coffee and raisin cake. Bill was 22 PLN so I handed over a 50. They asked for drobny so I gave 2 PLN. They asked for a 20 PLN note as well, I didn’t have one but the guy I was with did, so he ended up paying 20 and myself 2!

2/ Coffee Heaven

Bought a hot chocolate, blue cheese wrap and a muffin. Bill was a ridiculous 28.70. Gave her the same 50 as before. She asked for drobny, I said I only had 1.50. She ignored that and asked if the change could be 10 grosz less than it should be. Having little choice, I agreed and got back a 10 note, two 5 coins and 1.20. At least the wrap was warm this time and the service has improved a lot since they removed the queen of misery.

Notes to self:

a) Must try saying “no” next time and see what happens.

b) Must spend less time in coffee bars.

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21 Comments

  1. I wonder if they actually do the mathematics before asking for the drobny, or whether asking strangers for small change is ingrained from childhood? Most of the time, it doesn’t help them even if you have drobny on you, and if you do, they look at it as if to say “sh*t, now what?”.

    “No” is a good answer!

  2. Coffee Heaven results for first 6 months to end Oct, EBITDA – Local Markets from continuing operations increased 85%. Revenues from continuing operations increased 82%.

    Just say NO next time….

  6. I am sure this is automatical answer, as if you order coke without ice (stupid example, but I cannot create a better one), and they immediately ask you: with ice or not?

  7. hmmm…I came to the conclusion that they ask for change automatically in order to insure they keep backing up their supply. Makes sense – no point in asking for change once you’ve run out – you can’t continue serving properly. But if you can maintain your change supply by asking everyone then you’re likely to maintain ’till viability’ for more customers.

  8. I very often say “no” to the question of whether I have any drobny or not. What I haven’t tried is saying no to the question of whether I’m okay to get less change than is due. Usually it’s 1 grosz but 10 grosz took me a bit by surprise.

    I also use the tactic of emptying the entire contents of my change pocket onto their plastic money tray. They seem to enjoy this very much and fish around in there removing as much as they possibly can, thereby lightening my pocket load quite considerably.

  9. Scatts,

    muffin, raisin cake, cheese wrap and next you complain on your weight. Probably you are on the coffee bar diet. You don’t eat breakfast at home, but all the calories you think you save you doppelt/double (I don’t remember which one is German/English) with cookies and other fastfoods.

    This is method of some of the waiters “na sępa” “the vulture way”. They see man with money, so they wait you say “I don’t have small money, but if you can round up to f.e. 25 zł”.

  10. Ad is right. They just ask in case you have some change. If you don’t they’re likely to have it.

    You can say ‘no’ anytime, and then they’ll have to go and find it. However, I wouldn’t do it at 10 groszy. I happens very often that I pay 10 groszy less because they didn’t have change, and at other times I leave 10 groszy more. Those are just too small money for anyone to bother.

  14. Interesting story, Colin, and very much what I’ve been preaching to anyone who’ll listen for years now. To have your single biggest expense dependent on both interest AND FX rates is crazy.

    My outgoings for housing are fixed in zloty and getting cheaper by the month!

  15. Scatts – zloty could do better than the foreign economists think this year – I’m buying into some new ideas. I’ll keep you posted but it may not be all bleak.

    Hopefully this government will stop pussying around and arguing with the president PiS about holes in ‘under spending of government offices against budget’

  20. What I’m finding hard to believe is the way the zloty is not making an impression on the GBP. The rate seems steady at about 4.5 despite the GBP being well and truly screwed.

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