Why do Russians put change in a dish?

[Olga Livshin]

I believe that is also sometimes done (but discouraged) in the US. In
many supermarkets, change drops into a small dish. As part of training
for a clothing store, the manager usually tells the employees not to put
down the change on the counter, but to give it to the customer. I was
told by one manager that this is done so as to impart equality to the
transaction, rather than do this vertically (drop the cash on the counter
and make the customer pick it up). Perhaps it has to do with the fact
that in clothing stores, a semblance of an equal, supportive relationship
is established as the employees help customers pick out the clothes. I am
not sure if store managers in Slavic countries know about this/want to
introduce this to their stores.

Olga

==============Original message text===============
On Sun, 19 Sep 2004 8:23:09 am CDT Miriam Margala wrote:

I'm not sure about this being unique - I've seen it in both Czech and
Slovak Reps, in Hungary and elsewhere in my travels through Europe. And
I never thought about it as that strange - they put your change on a
dish and by the time you get it from the dish, another customer is served.

Smith, Hunter wrote:

>This is, I think, a rather trivial but interesting question.
>
>Do any of the Russian anthropologists/sociologists or historians know
why in most Russian stores and kiosks, the payment and, subsequently, the
change is put on a small plate rather than being exchanged directly from
the customer to the merchant's hands (or vice versa in the case of change)?
>
>No one I have asked so far has come up with a satisfactory answer. Am I
wrong in thinking that this is a uniquely Russian or Slavic practice? I
suspect it is and I suspect there is probably some interesting
explanation for it.
>
>Hunter Smith
>
>
>

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