Pennies

I went into a Convenience Store today and I had two small issues. The first, is that the clerk was speaking to me as if we had been friends for years. I can handle small talk from customer service oriented workers but someone who cracks jokes and is trying too hard to be funny kind of bothers me. The second issue is when he was giving me my change which was $5.61, he asked if I wanted the penny. Well, damn right I want the penny. It's my money and I want it. He said that some people "get offended" when they receive pennies in change. Now if I received .61 cents in pennies I might be a little perturbed but in the normal course of receiving change that contains pennies I personally don't mind. I think people are offended that he is asking them if they want the pennies in the first place and maybe if they are caught off guard by the question, refuse the pennies. Imagine how many people come into the store during a normal work shift and if the majority of them give up part of their hard earned money. This guy could be making a few bucks to put in his pocket just for asking a stupid question. It could even be more if he has a lot of people who are offended by receiving say nickels or dimes. Go figure.