I didn't realise, until I was refused use of a voucher in the "wrong" region, that the Co-Op was regionalised, and that one region's Co-Op didn't really care about the other Co-Ops.
Northern, Central and Southern are all apparently different organisations, but they don't really seem to like to advertise the fact.
Close to me there are co-ops from 3 different co-op groups. The co-op vouchers and discounts do only work in a shop from the appropriate group, but they are connected. With the ones I've tried, the overall annual dividend for "members" can be accumulated using the cards from the other groups.
I only got my first co-op loyalty card to try and work out how they worked. It turned out that most of the shop assistants weren't aware of the different "regions", and have no idea and that if you present a card from a different region why the discount doesn't come up despite the machines obviously recognising the card. It took a few months before one shop assistant actually new why the card wasn't fully working and told me that each group had its own loyalty card.
I haven't noticed the Tesco self-checkouts timing out the receipt option. IIRC they will "time out" to a "do you need more time?" screen. Asda presents a count-down from something reasonable (10 seconds?). I think Morrisons does the same. But the Co-Op just flashed it up and timed out so fast I didn't have time to react (as a newcomer).
One of my local co-ops (a national with blue loyalty card) gives you a count down of 3, but it appears to be less than 3 seconds. If I want a receipt I run my fingers repeatedly where the request receipt icon will eventually show until it does show and my request is acknowledged.
But yes, I agree: particularly younger checkout operators get quite confused when I hand over more cash than they expect, to round up the change. Some get confused by cash at all. And some even just assume I don't want a receipt!
Two of the three co-op shops I visit had notices displayed stating that they do not issue receipts unless requested. These started to be displayed shortly after the "no mandatory receipt" policy came into force a couple of years ago for that region and have only recently been removed.
I always put the small change in first to reduce the amount of small change I end up with. So in your case I would get a fiver back as a note.
What
does annoy me is when a self-service till rejects the self-same small coins it gave me the previous time I used that till!
About six months ago I had a few coppers that I thought I would never got rid of without making an effort. At a Tesco I put them in first, then opted to pay the rest by card. What the machine did was to request 50 pence more than the remaining payment, and gave me no option that I could see for anything else. I paid what it requested (on autopilot while looking for any options) and it spurted out 50 pence of shrapnel at me. How I laughed!
Next time I looked for the cheapest item in my basket and paid for that separately in cash.
The same Tesco also hides its battery return bin. The spent battery bin is in an out of the way position and frequently hidden beyond a wall of creates full of empty boxes. Any one I know is free to give me their spent batteries and I'll take them to that Tesco next time I'm going.
I wouldn't bet on getting a note as change. I've had them dish out a heap of small change (i.e. silver and coppers, not £1 & £2 coins) when a fiver would do.
Hopefully no more then 20 pence of either one pence, or two pence. Any more of either is not legal tender.
www.bankofengland.co.uk
www.royalmint.com
Climbing up a font were they?