Viewers are defending a TikTok user and Chili’s customer who wanted change for $7 and was upset to learn her server didn’t have coins. The video sparked a debate about the issue of shortchanging and being pressured to round up at various businesses.
Posted on Sept. 15 by TikTok user @sweetpea.osrs, the video has accumulated more than 72,000 views in just one day. In the video, the TikToker films herself discussing a contentious interaction with the workers at Chili’s who allegedly seemed annoyed that she wanted her change back.
@sweetpea.osrs $.52 adds up and I'm not about to help corporations make any extra money off of me.
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“So this has happened to me more than once. But yesterday it happened to me when I went to Chili’s. I only ordered chips and salsa, the total was $6.48. I give the girl the $7. She puts it in the drawer. And then she says, ‘Oh, we don’t carry change. So I don’t have your 52 cents. Is that okay?’ And I said, ‘Well, can I just pay $6 then?’” she says in the video.
She continues: “She looks at me, I look at her, and she says, ‘I’ll be right back’. So she goes to the back, she gets another woman.”
The other woman said that the manager was busy cooking and begrudgingly offered to give the 52 cents from her own purse.
Speaking about the other woman, @sweetpea.osrs added, “And I can tell that she’s annoyed because I won’t leave without my 52 cents. So she digs around in her personal purse. She doesn’t have 52 cents, she has to give me 75 cents. So I take that 75 cents, and I leave.”
The TikToker expressed her frustration with the situation, saying that she felt like they were trying to shame her for wanting her change back and that the blame should be put on the corporation and not the customers.
“Y’all are a corporation. I don’t feel any more ashamed about wanting my 52 cents than y’all feel about keeping my 52 cents. And now you acting all flustered and annoyed because I want my change while I’m standing at a cash register. Like, baby doll, the corporation is scamming us both. So y’all being annoyed with me is not solving the problem,” she remarked.
The U.S. is still going through a coin shortage that began as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic. Although the situation has improved, there is still an issue with circulation that is impacting many businesses. According to the Federal Reserve, there is no federal statute mandating that a private business accept coins or currency as payment, and businesses are allowed to develop their own cash handling policies unless otherwise prohibited by state law.
In the comments section, however, a majority of users took @sweetpea.osrs’s side and criticized the restaurant.
“It’s the principle! good for you,” one commenter wrote.
“That change adds up when they doing it to everyone,” another said.
“That’s exactly why I won’t round up at the grocery store for charity. I’m not about to give you my money so you can get a tax write off,” a third added.
But not everyone would agree with @sweetpea.osrs. In 2021, one Texas business owner went viral after telling customers to be mindful of the shortage and stop acting like “a**holes about it.”
The Daily Dot reached out to @sweetpea.osrs via TikTok comment and to Chili’s parent organization Brinker International via its press email.