A minor rant - Stupid shopkeepers

Commissario
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I had an extra day booked off after the Edinburgh meet to relax and chill out a bit.

So I woke up this morning, checked the cupboards and found they were pretty bare. I'd obviously not left Mrs. Feek any money while I was away otherwise she'd have frittered it away in an offhand way on silly things like food for herself and the kids. Therefore I had to go to the shops.

Because I'd done so much walking over the weekend, I decided to carry on the trend and walk to the local shop to pick up some essentials such as fizzy beverages, cheese and bread. It's about a ten minute walk.

Got there, sorted out the stuff and when I went to pay the doris said "we don't accept scotch notes." Duh. I asked why and she called the manager over who was nearby. At least he knew they are scottish, and not scotch. But his reasoning was quite strange. He insisted that they're not legal in England and that (get this) "I've run a shop for ten years, don't you try and tell me my job, I know that the banks won't accept them".

*sigh*

I had to walk back home and drive to the co-op instead.

If he'd given me a sensible reason that they didn't take them, such as it needing extra time to do the banking, etc etc then I'd not have been annoyed but to be such a blatant fool just gave my arse the ache.

Ahh well, I have better quality goods at a cheaper price than he could provide anyway. His loss.

End of rantage, thank you for reading.

K.
 
Shops can do what they like.

Officially I think the scottish notes aren't even actually legal tender in Scotland - I'm sure I read a while back that only coins are real genuine legal tender in Scotland. But that doesn't bother any of them up there and they accept the notes without complaint.

K.
 
Yes, I knew I'd seen it.

Scottish bank notes are not legal tender in Scotland. English bank notes of denomination less than 5UKP were legal tender in Scotland under Currency and Bank Notes Act 1954. Now, with the removal of BoE 1UKP notes, only coins constitute legal tender in Scotland. English bank notes are only legal tender in England, Wales, The Channel Islands and the Isle of Man. In Scotland, 1 pound coins are legal tender to any amount, 20ps and 50ps are legal tender up to 10 pounds; 10p and 5ps to 5 pounds and 2p and 1p coins are legal tender to 20p (separately or in combination). 2 pounds coins and (if you can get hold of one) 5 pound coins are also legal tender to unlimited amounts, as are gold coins of the realm at face value (in Scotland at least).

Northern Irish notes are not legal tender anywhere, a situation similar to Scottish notes. Whether Scottish notes are legal tender or not does not change alter their inherent value but it dictates their legal function. Credit cards, cheques and debit cards are not legal tender either but it doesn't stop them being used as payment. Only a minuscule percentage of Scottish and British trading is carried out using legal tender. Just because something is not legal tender certainly doesn't imply it's illegal to use.

The lack of a true legal tender in Scotland does not cause a problem for Scots Law which is flexible enough to get round this apparent legal nonsense, as was demonstrated some time ago when one local authority tried to refuse a cash payment (in Scottish notes) on the grounds it wasn't "legal tender", but lost their case when the sheriff effectively said that they were obliged to accept anything which was commonly accepted as "money", and that should their insistence on "legal tender" have been supported, it would have resulted in the bill being paid entirely in coins, which would have been a nonsense; stopping short of saying that the council would have been "cutting off their nose to spite their face", but seeming to hint at it.

K.
 
dirtydog said:
Maybe Mr Feek wasn't very polite in the first place.
I was perfectly polite, the girl said that they can't accept them, I just asked "why not?" and she called the manager over where he looked at them and went straight into his schpiel of "we can't accept scottish money". I started saying "Why not, they're perfectly legal" and I got interrupted with the reply I posted back up there in post number one.

I didn't even bother to argue, there was no point, I just said that they'll need to put the stuff back on the shelf and walked out, walked home and went to a sensible shop.

K.
 
Muban said:
What isn't fine is a shopkeeper (who really should know better) coming out with a load of complete rubbish and trying to pass it off as fact.
*bingo*

K.
 
unclelonghair said:
I don't know where all this about Scottish notes being legal tender in England has come from - they aren't.
I never claimed they were, in fact I posted the fact that they're not even legal tender in Scotland!

The point has been picked up on in post 49 and confirmed by me in post 50.

K.
 
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