Edmunds Members - Cars and Conversations

jmonroe1

nyccarguy said:

@jmonroe1 said:

————————————————

If more small businesses knew even half of the volume of business being done in cash, they’d look into doing business in cash themselves. Doing business in cash has probably been around as long as taxes were implemented. But as you alluded to, as long as folks don’t get overly greedy the government can only guess and are satisfied to nab just the few who don’t understand the rules of doing business in cash. DOPES.

jmonroe

At my store, I can attest to cash sales dwindling year after year. Yes it costs money to take credit cards, but the money is in the bank the next day. My business is not in a good neighborhood. In order to make a cash deposit, I’ve got to send either my 76 year old Mom or 78 year old Dad to the bank.

————————————————
Get a couple Dobermans. They can’t eat that much and it’s a legitimate security business deduction.

jmonroe

ab348

Of course small businesses like cash better. My barber never fails to demonstrate that. Every time I go in, I pay him the charge plus tip in exact cash so he never needs to break a big bill. That never gets run through the cash register and since I’ve known him forever he knows I’m not going to rat him out. I hand over the banknotes, he puts them in his wallet and I wish him a good day.

corvette

@nyccarguy - time to start keeping two sets of books, then nobody has to make a cash deposit at the bank.

oldfarmer50

nyccarguy said:

@jmonroe1 said:

————————————————

If more small businesses knew even half of the volume of business being done in cash, they’d look into doing business in cash themselves. Doing business in cash has probably been around as long as taxes were implemented. But as you alluded to, as long as folks don’t get overly greedy the government can only guess and are satisfied to nab just the few who don’t understand the rules of doing business in cash. DOPES.

jmonroe

At my store, I can attest to cash sales dwindling year after year. Yes it costs money to take credit cards, but the money is in the bank the next day. My business is not in a good neighborhood. In order to make a cash deposit, I’ve got to send either my 76 year old Mom or 78 year old Dad to the bank.

I hope they go packing!

oldfarmer50

stickguy said:

I read something recently that was an interesting analysis of why local businesses were much better off doing cash sales. Because of the fees sliced off of every credit transaction, as they go around the money in the community keeps getting smaller.

More and more businesses give you a discount for cash. You always got ten cents off gas but now even my mechanic will discount 3.9% for cash. Personally I like that since I prefer to use cash. Maybe I live in a less dangerous area but I don’t worry about traveling with cash except for a concern that the police might steal it with civil forfeiture. If they would allow it I would love to buy cars with a big brown bag full of 100s.

ab348

I have never understood the discount for cash unless there is some tax evasion going on. While credit card sales come with a fee for the merchant, cash brings its own costs such as the risk of counterfeiting, potential theft either from bad guys or staff, the need to count it and secure it until deposited, and if you are a large retailer, the need for armored car service.

nyccarguy

@jmonroe1 said:
————————————————
Get a couple Dobermans. They can’t eat that much and it’s a legitimate security business deduction.

jmonroe

My Dad had Great Danes for his entire life. His most recent one died in April of ‘23. You are 100% correct that they are a legitimate business expense under security.

suydam

Most of the service type small businesses: nail salons, personal trainers, dog walkers — prefer Zelle. No fees, and nothing to have to take to a bank.

Michaell

suydam said:

Most of the service type small businesses: nail salons, personal trainers, dog walkers — prefer Zelle. No fees, and nothing to have to take to a bank.

Every time I've tried to use Zelle, my bank account locks up, and I have to call them to unlock it. And, it's their preferred method of electronic payment!

I'm partial to Venmo, but only with people or businesses I've worked with in person.

explorerx4

New York being New York.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w_La3ZwWGag

pensfan83

ab348 said:

I have never understood the discount for cash unless there is some tax evasion going on. While credit card sales come with a fee for the merchant, cash brings its own costs such as the risk of counterfeiting, potential theft either from bad guys or staff, the need to count it and secure it until deposited, and if you are a large retailer, the need for armored car service.

My take on retailers passing along credit card fees to customers is that these are expenses the business knowingly agreed to when they signed up for merchant services. Furthermore, card processing fees are tax deductible as a business expense so there is zero reason to pass the fee to the consumer, other than to double dip with the income and deduction in tax liability.

sda

In the past year or so, the Audi Service department adds 3% to the invoice if you do not pay cash. I find that off putting especially as they charge top dollar and are not a discount store. I paid $200+ for an oil change on the Q5. OK, they did a quick overview and ran it through the car wash.

corvette

I seem to recall than in the Good Old Days, Visa and MC prohibited credit card surcharges, but merchants flouted that by simply offering a cash discount.

Sandman6472

Guessing I can use an external monitor with my Apple laptop on my desk? Just probably need to plug it in to one of the two ports on the side. Have a MacBook Air with 2 USB-C connections on the left and a round circle like hole on the right. Must be a way to connect one to it. Would be nice to have a larger screen to look at sometimes, a reason I do miss my desktop. Being the tech dummy that I am, always go to the kids or the Mrs. for help on this kind of stuff. The Mrs. has 4 monitors plus a laptop spread over two tables of her office desk. To much for me, but a larger monitor would be nice to look at since I usually type with the laptop on the desk or in my lap. And being that I go my Mac back in June of 2019, not quite ready to replace it yet. Figure by 2026 or so.

Sandman6472

I hate getting charged extra for using my credit card so either use cash or my debit card to get around those fees. And aren't those the cost of doing business like they have been for years before the pandemic? Always carry some cash with me as one never knows and would rather be safe. And since we pay the c c off in full each month, it can go either way. Do enjoy the perks of using my c c, in that I get the "cash Back" option every time. Doesn't add up to much each month but, over the year...a nice little extra for tapping a card.

jmonroe1

oldfarmer50 said:

stickguy said:

I read something recently that was an interesting analysis of why local businesses were much better off doing cash sales. Because of the fees sliced off of every credit transaction, as they go around the money in the community keeps getting smaller.

More and more businesses give you a discount for cash. You always got ten cents off gas but now even my mechanic will discount 3.9% for cash. Personally I like that since I prefer to use cash. Maybe I live in a less dangerous area but I don’t worry about traveling with cash except for a concern that the police might steal it with civil forfeiture. If they would allow it I would love to buy cars with a big brown bag full of 100s.

————————————————
Good idea. Let me know where/when you plan to do that.

jmonroe

kyfdx

I think restaurants make a big mistake when they get you thinking about price.

"3% surcharge for credit card"
"$0.50 extra for more than one sauce"

90%+ of customers use credit cards. Everyone needs more than one sauce. Make me think about how your menu price isn't going to accurately reflect the final bill? Makes me less likely to choose to eat there, the next time. Sometimes, sub-conciously.

ab348

Sandman6472 said:

Guessing I can use an external monitor with my Apple laptop on my desk? Just probably need to plug it in to one of the two ports on the side. Have a MacBook Air with 2 USB-C connections on the left and a round circle like hole on the right. Must be a way to connect one to it.

An external monitor would need to connect to one of those USB-C ports. You might need an adapter or a special cable to connect a display but that should be pretty simple.

driver100

When a store or restaurant prefer cash they are making a big mistake.
They may save some money from going to pay taxes.
But they lose on people tend to buy more when they use a credit card. It is easier to buy more while in the store and easier to add a dessert or extra drink if using a credit cars.
If you are avoiding paying taxes, like JMonroe does in his remodeling business, that is different.

btw, the revenue people often find cheaters, they have their ways. The went after a pizza store that gave discounts for cash purchases. The tax office found out the number of boxes they were ordering were much greater than what they were reporting.

jmonroe1

driver100 said:

When a store or restaurant prefer cash they are making a big mistake.
They may save some money from going to pay taxes.
But they lose on people tend to buy more when they use a credit card. It is easier to buy more while in the store and easier to add a dessert or extra drink if using a credit cars.
If you are avoiding paying taxes, like JMonroe does in his remodeling business, that is different.

btw, the revenue people often find cheaters, they have their ways. The went after a pizza store that gave discounts for cash purchases. The tax office found out the number of boxes they were ordering were much greater than what they were reporting.

————————————————
Using that logic, if they used plastic wrap they could have claimed almost no sales.

jmonroe

ab348

jmonroe1 said:

driver100 said:

When a store or restaurant prefer cash they are making a big mistake.
They may save some money from going to pay taxes.
But they lose on people tend to buy more when they use a credit card. It is easier to buy more while in the store and easier to add a dessert or extra drink if using a credit cars.
If you are avoiding paying taxes, like JMonroe does in his remodeling business, that is different.

btw, the revenue people often find cheaters, they have their ways. The went after a pizza store that gave discounts for cash purchases. The tax office found out the number of boxes they were ordering were much greater than what they were reporting.

————————————————
Using that logic, if they used plastic wrap they could have claimed almost no sales.

That’s exactly the kind of thing the tax auditors ferret out though. In the case of a pizza shop they would look not only at boxes used but all the ingredients combined with the sales mix. These are tax auditors, they think everyone is cheating and their minds are twisted.

Years ago they decided to audit expense accounts of the C-suite group where I worked. They actually had some reason to do that because some were abusing the privilege and expensing all sorts of things inappropriately. I wasn’t concerned because being an old govt hand and a rules-following type I never did anything like that. Imagine my surprise when the tax bunch said I had a few hundred dollars of inappropriate expenses. None of them were, but they zeroed in on a few lunches I had with our legislative lawyer near her office downtown. Our meetings typically were longer than scheduled so I would buy her lunch in one of the restos nearby so we could conclude things there. They claimed that I was having lunch with her because she must have been my girlfriend! I liked her fine but she was quite a bit younger than me, had a partner, and to top things off was gay. The beady-eyed tax auditors didn’t want to accept that but I told them to bugger off. Her situation wasn’t a secret but their sheer intrusiveness really aggravated me.

jmonroe1

ab348 said:

jmonroe1 said:

driver100 said:

When a store or restaurant prefer cash they are making a big mistake.
They may save some money from going to pay taxes.
But they lose on people tend to buy more when they use a credit card. It is easier to buy more while in the store and easier to add a dessert or extra drink if using a credit cars.
If you are avoiding paying taxes, like JMonroe does in his remodeling business, that is different.

btw, the revenue people often find cheaters, they have their ways. The went after a pizza store that gave discounts for cash purchases. The tax office found out the number of boxes they were ordering were much greater than what they were reporting.

————————————————
Using that logic, if they used plastic wrap they could have claimed almost no sales.

That’s exactly the kind of thing the tax auditors ferret out though. In the case of a pizza shop they would look not only at boxes used but all the ingredients combined with the sales mix. These are tax auditors, they think everyone is cheating and their minds are twisted.

Years ago they decided to audit expense accounts of the C-suite group where I worked. They actually had some reason to do that because some were abusing the privilege and expensing all sorts of things inappropriately. I wasn’t concerned because being an old govt hand and a rules-following type I never did anything like that. Imagine my surprise when the tax bunch said I had a few hundred dollars of inappropriate expenses. None of them were, but they zeroed in on a few lunches I had with our legislative lawyer near her office downtown. Our meetings typically were longer than scheduled so I would buy her lunch in one of the restos nearby so we could conclude things there. They claimed that I was having lunch with her because she must have been my girlfriend! I liked her fine but she was quite a bit younger than me, had a partner, and to top things off was gay. The beady-eyed tax auditors didn’t want to accept that but I told them to bugger off. Her situation wasn’t a secret but their sheer intrusiveness really aggravated me.

————————————————
If you do a fair amount of your business with cash there would less records of all purchases. Therefore, you could hide a fair amount of money. Now, having said that if you have a business you better show enough sales to satisfy the tax collector. That’s why you can’t be a total dope and hide everything or almost everything. This is just a guess on my part but hiding around 25/30 percent of your sales seems doable.

The tax man doesn’t have to cometh for all sales.

jmonroe

driver100

jmonroe1 said:

driver100 said:

When a store or restaurant prefer cash they are making a big mistake.
They may save some money from going to pay taxes.
But they lose on people tend to buy more when they use a credit card. It is easier to buy more while in the store and easier to add a dessert or extra drink if using a credit cars.
If you are avoiding paying taxes, like JMonroe does in his remodeling business, that is different.

btw, the revenue people often find cheaters, they have their ways. The went after a pizza store that gave discounts for cash purchases. The tax office found out the number of boxes they were ordering were much greater than what they were reporting.

————————————————
Using that logic, if they used plastic wrap they could have claimed almost no sales.

jmonroe

You should be a business advisor for small business. A specialist in how to avoid paying as much taxes as possible!

driver100

Leaving for Florida on Monday. Just got $100 U.S. from the bank, it cost $143 CDN dollars

ab348

driver100 said:

Leaving for Florida on Monday. Just got $100 U.S. from the bank, it cost $143 CDN dollars

Worthless Canadian dollars.

oldfarmer50

jmonroe1 said:

oldfarmer50 said:

stickguy said:

I read something recently that was an interesting analysis of why local businesses were much better off doing cash sales. Because of the fees sliced off of every credit transaction, as they go around the money in the community keeps getting smaller.

More and more businesses give you a discount for cash. You always got ten cents off gas but now even my mechanic will discount 3.9% for cash. Personally I like that since I prefer to use cash. Maybe I live in a less dangerous area but I don’t worry about traveling with cash except for a concern that the police might steal it with civil forfeiture. If they would allow it I would love to buy cars with a big brown bag full of 100s.

————————————————
Good idea. Let me know where/when you plan to do that.

jmonroe

Will you be trying to take it away from me personally or will you be bringing your posse with you?😂

venture

oldfarmer50 said:

stickguy said:

I read something recently that was an interesting analysis of why local businesses were much better off doing cash sales. Because of the fees sliced off of every credit transaction, as they go around the money in the community keeps getting smaller.

More and more businesses give you a discount for cash. You always got ten cents off gas but now even my mechanic will discount 3.9% for cash. Personally I like that since I prefer to use cash. Maybe I live in a less dangerous area but I don’t worry about traveling with cash except for a concern that the police might steal it with civil forfeiture. If they would allow it I would love to buy cars with a big brown bag full of 100s.

I found out that my Subaru dealer will only take up to $5,000 in cash. I don't know why.

They also didn't like taking a credit card, but they did. I got cash back for the $5,000 they let me put on my credit card.

I think I wrote a check for the rest, but don't remember.

It almost made them cry.

tjc78

So …. This kinda relates to the extra restaurant fee etc.

Last week a large group of us went to dinner at a place down the shore that does an awesome haunted dining.

There were 16 of us. (7 kids). I brought cash … but many others didn’t. Well I got stuck with the bill and wasn’t attempting to collect while we were still at the table. That 3% surcharge hurt on an $1100 bill! I amortized it when everyone asked their share after!

Michaell

tjc78 said:

So …. This kinda relates to the extra restaurant fee etc.

Last week a large group of us went to dinner at a place down the shore that does an awesome haunted dining.

There were 16 of us. (7 kids). I brought cash … but many others didn’t. Well I got stuck with the bill and wasn’t attempting to collect while we were still at the table. That 3% surcharge hurt on an $1100 bill! I amortized it when everyone asked their share after!

$33?

stickguy

us Jersey people are very frugal.

tjc78

It wasn’t life altering or anything but IMO I think they should just adjust their prices a bit instead of the 3%. You get the check it’s one price then when they run the card it jumps 3%. Kinda tacky especially in a nice place.

snakeweasel

ab348 said:

Of course small businesses like cash better. My barber never fails to demonstrate that. Every time I go in, I pay him the charge plus tip in exact cash so he never needs to break a big bill. That never gets run through the cash register and since I’ve known him forever he knows I’m not going to rat him out. I hand over the banknotes, he puts them in his wallet and I wish him a good day.

I do taxes professionally and I can tell you of all the wait staff taxes I do that they seem not to get that much in tips. Hint, hint.

snakeweasel

Sandman6472 said:

Guessing I can use an external monitor with my Apple laptop on my desk? Just probably need to plug it in to one of the two ports on the side. Have a MacBook Air with 2 USB-C connections on the left and a round circle like hole on the right. Must be a way to connect one to it. Would be nice to have a larger screen to look at sometimes, a reason I do miss my desktop. Being the tech dummy that I am, always go to the kids or the Mrs. for help on this kind of stuff. The Mrs. has 4 monitors plus a laptop spread over two tables of her office desk. To much for me, but a larger monitor would be nice to look at since I usually type with the laptop on the desk or in my lap. And being that I go my Mac back in June of 2019, not quite ready to replace it yet. Figure by 2026 or so.

There are adapters so you can plug in the monitor to your laptop via the USB-C connection. It is rather easy to connect them.

corvette

snakeweasel said:

I do taxes professionally and I can tell you of all the wait staff taxes I do that they seem not to get that much in tips. Hint, hint.

There was a beloved bar in the hip part of town that recently closed. On my first and only visit there, the bartender told me he was paid 100% in cash. I'm betting you wouldn't have done his taxes, because he didn't file them.

snakeweasel

driver100 said:

When a store or restaurant prefer cash they are making a big mistake.
They may save some money from going to pay taxes.
But they lose on people tend to buy more when they use a credit card. It is easier to buy more while in the store and easier to add a dessert or extra drink if using a credit cars.
If you are avoiding paying taxes, like JMonroe does in his remodeling business, that is different.

btw, the revenue people often find cheaters, they have their ways. The went after a pizza store that gave discounts for cash purchases. The tax office found out the number of boxes they were ordering were much greater than what they were reporting.

Most cheats are caught by disgruntled employees, ex-spouses and the like reporting them.

jmonroe1

snakeweasel said:

ab348 said:

Of course small businesses like cash better. My barber never fails to demonstrate that. Every time I go in, I pay him the charge plus tip in exact cash so he never needs to break a big bill. That never gets run through the cash register and since I’ve known him forever he knows I’m not going to rat him out. I hand over the banknotes, he puts them in his wallet and I wish him a good day.

I do taxes professionally and I can tell you of all the wait staff taxes I do that they seem not to get that much in tips. Hint, hint.

————————————————
Whodathunk that was possible.

jmonroe

jmonroe1

corvette said:

snakeweasel said:

I do taxes professionally and I can tell you of all the wait staff taxes I do that they seem not to get that much in tips. Hint, hint.

There was a beloved bar in the hip part of town that recently closed. On my first and only visit there, the bartender told me he was paid 100% in cash. I'm betting you wouldn't have done his taxes, because he didn't file them.

————————————————-
As I understand it you don’t have to pay taxes if you don’t have an income.

jmonroe

oldfarmer50

venture said:

oldfarmer50 said:

stickguy said:

I read something recently that was an interesting analysis of why local businesses were much better off doing cash sales. Because of the fees sliced off of every credit transaction, as they go around the money in the community keeps getting smaller.

More and more businesses give you a discount for cash. You always got ten cents off gas but now even my mechanic will discount 3.9% for cash. Personally I like that since I prefer to use cash. Maybe I live in a less dangerous area but I don’t worry about traveling with cash except for a concern that the police might steal it with civil forfeiture. If they would allow it I would love to buy cars with a big brown bag full of 100s.

I found out that my Subaru dealer will only take up to $5,000 in cash. I don't know why.

They also didn't like taking a credit card, but they did. I got cash back for the $5,000 they let me put on my credit card.

I think I wrote a check for the rest, but don't remember.

It almost made them cry.

The last time I heard of a dealer taking cash was when my aunt bought a Ford Falcon in the early 60s. I heard she counted out $2000 in $100 bills.

I have never seen a dealer willing to take a personal check. Last time I bought it was by bank check only. When my BIL bought a new Nissan in Florida they would only accept an electronic transfer from his bank. Florida must be a snake pit of fraudulent cashier’s checks.

oldfarmer50

tjc78 said:

So …. This kinda relates to the extra restaurant fee etc.

Last week a large group of us went to dinner at a place down the shore that does an awesome haunted dining.

There were 16 of us. (7 kids). I brought cash … but many others didn’t. Well I got stuck with the bill and wasn’t attempting to collect while we were still at the table. That 3% surcharge hurt on an $1100 bill! I amortized it when everyone asked their share after!

What was the surcharge for? I once got hit with both a tourist fee and a “kitchen” fee at a diner in VT. Why not just charge a slightly higher price and not blindside your customers?

oldfarmer50

jmonroe1 said:

corvette said:

snakeweasel said:

I do taxes professionally and I can tell you of all the wait staff taxes I do that they seem not to get that much in tips. Hint, hint.

There was a beloved bar in the hip part of town that recently closed. On my first and only visit there, the bartender told me he was paid 100% in cash. I'm betting you wouldn't have done his taxes, because he didn't file them.

————————————————-
As I understand it you don’t have to pay taxes if you don’t have an income.

jmonroe

The first year I started farming my net income was close to zero ($12k) and with property taxes, sales taxes, self-employment taxes, fees, licensing etc. I paid about 50% of my income in taxes. Not quite zero income but pretty close.

kyfdx

tjc78 said:

It wasn’t life altering or anything but IMO I think they should just adjust their prices a bit instead of the 3%. You get the check it’s one price then when they run the card it jumps 3%. Kinda tacky especially in a nice place.

Exactly.. it's tacky. You spent over $1000, and the memory is of a $33 credit card charge. They should just raise their entree prices by a dollar.

venture

oldfarmer50 said:

venture said:

oldfarmer50 said:

stickguy said:

I read something recently that was an interesting analysis of why local businesses were much better off doing cash sales. Because of the fees sliced off of every credit transaction, as they go around the money in the community keeps getting smaller.

More and more businesses give you a discount for cash. You always got ten cents off gas but now even my mechanic will discount 3.9% for cash. Personally I like that since I prefer to use cash. Maybe I live in a less dangerous area but I don’t worry about traveling with cash except for a concern that the police might steal it with civil forfeiture. If they would allow it I would love to buy cars with a big brown bag full of 100s.

I found out that my Subaru dealer will only take up to $5,000 in cash. I don't know why.

They also didn't like taking a credit card, but they did. I got cash back for the $5,000 they let me put on my credit card.

I think I wrote a check for the rest, but don't remember.

It almost made them cry.

The last time I heard of a dealer taking cash was when my aunt bought a Ford Falcon in the early 60s. I heard she counted out $2000 in $100 bills.

I have never seen a dealer willing to take a personal check. Last time I bought it was by bank check only. When my BIL bought a new Nissan in Florida they would only accept an electronic transfer from his bank. Florida must be a snake pit of fraudulent cashier’s checks.

If I remember, the "rest" wasn't very much - just the difference between the 10k I gave them and my trade-in, and the new car. It wasn't nearly enough to put them out of business.

tjc78

@oldfarmer50 said:
What was the surcharge for? I once got hit with both a tourist fee and a “kitchen” fee at a diner in VT. Why not just charge a slightly higher price and not blindside your customers?

Credit card processing

kyfdx

Also, I don't mind tipping. I'm pretty generous.

But, this summer, at a fairly high-end restaurant for my birthday, there was a line on the receipt for tipping the kitchen staff. And, somewhere on the menu, their rationalization for that.

sda

I have always written a personal check when buying a car. I wrote a fairly large check to minimize the loan on the Arteon. Funny thing, the sales manager came back to me and said he was having trouble getting the loan approved. huh? The issue was I was going to finance around $9k. The minimum VWCredit would finance was $10k. So $10k it was.

laurasdada

I may have mentioned in a post some time back, that my (mine, because that's where I keep my money...) casino had installed multiple Tesla L2 charges, yay for NACS enabled EVs! But, joy to the world, this most recent visit revealed that each station is a dual setup; the NACS plug is nested in a CCS (J1772) adaptor, so free power to all the people!
Surprisingly, upon arrival and before figuring out the above, the one (working) CCS charger I was aware of was available, so no issue in juicing up.
The electric force seems to be getting stronger.

kyfdx

laurasdada said:

I may have mentioned in a post some time back, that my (mine, because that's where I keep my money...) casino had installed multiple Tesla L2 charges, yay for NACS enabled EVs! But, joy to the world, this most recent visit revealed that each station is a dual setup; the NACS plug is nested in a CCS (J1772) adaptor, so free power to all the people!
Surprisingly, upon arrival and before figuring out the above, the one (working) CCS charger I was aware of was available, so no issue in juicing up.
The electric force seems to be getting stronger.

This is on your PHEV, right?

So, in a pinch, you can just fill it up at the gas station?

tjc78

@kyfdx said:
Also, I don't mind tipping. I'm pretty generous.

But, this summer, at a fairly high-end restaurant for my birthday, there was a line on the receipt for tipping the kitchen staff. And, somewhere on the menu, their rationalization for that.

Everyone says I overtip - but if the service was good and made the night why not?

Nothing sets off a group of people in a forum more than tipping questions about a cruise or all inclusive. Wow. Popcorn material for sure

corvette

Went to a nice-ish Italian place in Chicago and ordered an Old Fashioned. They asked if I wanted ice, and I agreed. On the bill, there was a $3 charge for the ice. Yes, it was a fancy sphere or square (can’t remember), but if I knew it was $3 extra for some frozen water, I would have skipped it. I was going to order a second one, but the server’s timing was off—thank goodness!

kyfdx

corvette said:

Went to a nice-ish Italian place in Chicago and ordered an Old Fashioned. They asked if I wanted ice, and I agreed. On the bill, there was a $3 charge for the ice. Yes, it was a fancy sphere or square (can’t remember), but if I knew it was $3 extra for some frozen water, I would have skipped it. I was going to order a second one, but the server’s timing was off—thank goodness!

I don't drink bourbon, but that said, I love those fancy cubes!

(yes, $3 would tick me off, too)