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The venerable $20 bill – probably the most popular bill these days thanks to ATMs.  But how do they impact small businesses?   My local dry cleaner and gelato place offer two good examples of the problems $20s cause.

Both of these companies do a lot of cash business, often with only 1 employee in the store at a time.  So if they have to give change for a twenty or larger denomination bill on a regular basis, they can be in a spot change-wise in pretty short order. 

I recall one morning walking into my drycleaner when another customer was giving the staff person an extremely hard time because she wouldn’t accept a $50 bill for what was a small order.   She explained that she simply couldn’t make change for such a large bill.  He finally coughed up something more appropriate, and left with some not so nice parting words.  I subsequently made her day by giving her exact change!  She said to me that if she was to accept such a large bill from the gentleman, she’d be out of change in no time with no one to mind the store while she went to the bank to replenish her float.

Then other day I visited a local gelato place that we like to celebrate the warm weather with our first taste of the season.  All I had was a $20.  Our order was just under $10 so I felt badly and mention the same to the woman who served me.  She thanked me for saying so and asked me to spread the sentiment.  Being Easter weekend, she felt it would be a challenge to make it through till the following Tuesday without feeling the pinch.

There are usually many opportunities to use big bills, at grocery stores and other large corporate stores that have plenty of float from which to draw on.  Not even considering the counterfeiting issue, using small bills when patronizing small businesses makes their lives a little easier, and isn’t that part of supporting our community?  I think so.

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